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Getting Into Secretarial Work With Word Processing Courses

If you're looking to get into Legal Secretarial work, you'll need to be orderly and disciplined, with a good aptitude for common sense! We'll discuss here what the job involves, and cover possible training paths into the industry.

Most days, the bulk of a legal secretary's work will be typing up official papers such as contracts or wills, and letters from lawyers to their clients. Depending on the size of the business, there may also be supplementary admin jobs to take care of as well. Finally, there are tasks that will require some legal understanding, for example when taking calls from clients.

General secretarial training may well get you into Legal Secretarial work, but a specialised skill-set will add to your employment opportunities. Lawyers most often have their own specialities, such as criminal law for example. Which means there's a great variety of work - and then some offices are concerned with family law, and others might be concerned with company law. 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.

The majority of a legal secretary's work will be done on the computer in the office. Normal weekday office hours are standard, with the usual statutory entitlements. Some legal secretaries in larger offices work on a flexi-time arrangement. 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

So, what does a legal secretary need on her/his CV? Predominantly you'll need to have extremely good English language skills and be able to demonstrate a typing speed of over sixty five words per minute. High emphasis will of course be placed on accuracy, so a patient and diligent approach will be expected.

You should have English and Maths GCSE's at least, although there are no actual formally agreed certifications for legal secretaries. Clearly if you're unsure about how to spell or compose a letter you will struggle in this sort of job.

A working knowledge of Microsoft Word will be expected, and knowledge of other Microsoft applications a definite advantage.

A good place to start would be with the ECDL, which teaches all user skills to an elementary level. Microsoft MOS or MCAS will take you to Proficient and Expert in all the relevant applications.

You'll notice a selection of colleges on this page. If you hold down the ctrl button on your keyboard and type 'D', you can bookmark this site. That way you'll find it easily if you want to come back and explore any of them.

Some of the training colleges offer very helpful advice for people looking to get started in secretarial work. You must be able to present yourself well at interview to give yourself the best chance. 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 Is My Route To Get In?

Because of the precise nature of some legal companies, it's not uncommon for legal secretaries to receive on the job training in certain areas. This could mean being mentored from within the company, or (more usually) it could mean studying for external exams.

A variety of disciplines will be dealt with on a bespoke training course for Legal Secretaries. You could begin by looking at the different types of legal documents and how they are prepared. Then there's the court system and structure and how laws are made. However the bulk of your studies will probably focus on the subject matter relevant to your law firm's expertise, which might be Land Law, Family Law, Criminal Law or one or more of many other legal areas.

Prices for training vary - as will the standard of training - but you should expect to pay between five hundred and one thousand pounds. That figure is exclusive of any computer software skills training you might need - add in another 100 pounds or so for an ECDL, or considerably more for MOS/MCAS. Most training courses are predominantly home-based and can be done on a PC or laptop.

What Goes into Becoming a Legal Executive?

A natural progression for the experienced and career-focused Legal Secretary could be Legal Executive training. There are great career opportunities for Legal Executives. Legal Executives are able to carry out most of the same tasks as solicitors, (with the exception of High Court work) but work under the supervision of a solicitor. That said, due to the County Courts (Rights of Audience) Direction being extended, many senior Legal Executives now work on behalf of clients in the Magistrates Courts and County Courts. This depends though upon the field of expertise in which they're trained. As with other lawyers, legal execs can cover a wide range of disciplines.

To sum up, training and gaining certifications for work as a legal secretary will give you the confidence to pursue a highly valued career path. Why not take a closer look now at some of the possible options open to you.