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Secretarial & Legal Courses For Adults

Legal secretaries come into the profession in a variety of different ways - some with more specialised skills than others. So let's take a look at the job itself, and explore the various options that could lead into it. The core duty of a legal secretary is typing letters and other legal documents such as Wills, Contracts and Leases etc. In addition, those who work for small companies may well cover general administrative tasks as well.

Finally, there are tasks that will require some legal understanding, for example when taking calls from clients. If you've already had secretarial training or experience, you may want to take a specialist course to improve your skill-set for the industry. Different law firms will have their own specialities, and focus on one area of the law, such as criminal law or civil law.

So each of their work is different - Civil lawyers can deal with many legal matters concerning such things as divorce, property and the family. As a rule though, the bigger the practice the more specialised the work is likely to be. Small local firms may only have one legal secretary who will handle everything.

So to re-cap - most of the work will be done sitting at your desk in the office. There's often the chance for legal secretaries to work part-time, and in fact some companies encourage job-sharing. Most legal secretaries earn over 15,000pa after their first year in the industry, and many go on to receive excellent remuneration packages after several years.

Training for Legal Secretaries

Which skills are most important to a future employer? Outstanding keyboard & computer skills would be high on the list of requirements, alongside a good command of the English language. Painstaking attention to detail will be needed alongside an appreciation of legal terminology and concepts.

Passes in English and Maths at GCSE level should be offered as a minimum. The need for a confident approach to grammar, punctuation and spelling goes without saying.

Many companies now utilise Microsoft Office Products, and therefore a good practical understanding of Microsoft Word along with PowerPoint and Excel are definitely welcomed. Study for an ECDL for basic computer user skills, or MOS or MCAS for more advanced Microsoft Office professional skills.

As you'll find a number of trainers featured here, you might like to Bookmark this reference page - a handy shortcut for this is to simply type in 'Ctrl D'. That way you'll find it easily if you want to come back and explore any of them.

There are quite a number of well established secretarial colleges promoting their services on the internet - see what information they have that's useful. With many Legal Secretaries coming into the industry from other secretarial roles, it's fair to say that the competition has increased. Make sure that you convey a bright and attentive professional attitude, display team spirit and good spelling and grammar. Your CV must obviously be presented flawlessly - that document will tell an employer a lot about the standard of your work!

What's the Next Stage?

In order to fully educate their legal secretaries on the specific nature of their work, some firms train them alongside the job. This could mean being mentored from within the company, or (more usually) it could mean studying for external exams.

Lots of interesting things are taught on legal secretarial courses. In the first place you need to have an understanding about the key factors concerning legal documentation. Knowledge of how to use the internet for legal matters will be covered, plus the basics of the English legal system. Finally you'll come onto the specialist areas. Your choice will reflect your company's expertise, so it could be anything from Family Law to Company Law, or Conveyancing to Criminal Law.

Training prices range from a few hundred pounds to around a thousand pounds, but of course that depends on how much you need to learn. For computer user skills training allow one hundred pounds plus for your ECDL, or several hundred pounds plus for the more advanced Office skills training. There are a lot of colleges to choose from - look carefully at the features their courses provide to find the best one for you.

Developing Into a Legal Executive

You might in time also consider the role of Legal Executive. There are great career opportunities for Legal Executives. Under the Legal Services Act 2007, Legal Executives are 'authorised persons' undertaking 'reserved legal activities' (not in the High Court) alongside barristers and solicitors. It is very common today though to see Legal Executives working in all courts outside of the High Court. Clearly the level of training they've had will reflect the work they do. Just like solicitors, legal execs can focus on civil litigation, criminal law etc.

In closing, if you study to gain the skills for work as a legal secretary, you could build a very promising and interesting career. Shouldn't you start immediately to uncover the possibilities waiting for you?