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Learning Legal Secretarial Skills

To become a Legal Secretary you will need to acquire a number of key skills, although there isn't one specific certification to get you there. Firstly we'll cover day to day aspects of the job, and then we'll take a look at the type of training that might be relevant.

The core duty of a legal secretary is typing letters and other legal documents such as Wills, Contracts and Leases etc. Some legal secretaries deal with a whole host of office administration as well - from email monitoring to petty cash.

The work becomes more specialist when, for example, you have to attend the magistrate's court or a police cell with one of the company's solicitors.

Many legal secretaries start off as general secretaries, but increasingly those who've specialised are being considered more suitable. Legal professionals will either work on criminal cases or civil cases, or a division of one of those. So each of their work is different - Civil lawyers can deal with many legal matters concerning such things as divorce, property and the family. That said, although those who work in large companies tend to deal in more specialised areas, a legal secretary in a small practice may handle many areas of the law.

The job itself is mainly office-based, and the majority of work will be done on the computer (although that can vary from firm to firm.) You can expect regular working hours - usually nine to five on a Monday to Friday, although some big companies offer flexi-time. A well-trained legal secretary entering the industry might expect to start on around fifteen thousand a year, with increments to over twenty five thousand with experience.

Legal Secretarial Certification & Training Requirements

What skills do you need for legal secretarial work? First and foremost you'll need to prove that you have excellent keyboard skills and a very good understanding of certain computer user skills. In addition, you should have a genuine interest in legal matters, be well organised and scrupulously accurate.

Some employers will ask for academic qualifications, but there isn't a set standard across the board. Obviously without good spelling and composition you're unlikely to succeed in this work.

Just about all law firms will use Microsoft Office, so be sure you have strong user skills for Word, Excel and Outlook at the very least.

An ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) is a good starting point - but the more advanced Microsoft MOS/MCAS Office Expert certifications would certainly impress more.

You'll find links and adverts from several training providers here, so it would be worthwhile bookmarking this page ('CTRL-D' will do the trick). Then when you have time to check them out you can come straight back in seconds.

There are a considerable number of training courses covering general secretarial and office administration skills, and they can all offer you something. As the work is so interesting it's a popular choice for many candidates coming from other secretarial fields. Be sure to be positive, attentive and responsive - employers like to get a feel for how someone would fit into their working environment. Having said that, always be honest. People appreciate honesty, and claiming to be something you're not usually ends up causing you more problems.

Where Do I Go From Here?

Many legal firms train their Legal Secretaries 'on-the-job', in order to precisely meet their exact requirements. The bigger law firms may have their own training schemes, but it's more common for individuals to study alongside their job with an outside training provider.

Various Legal Secretarial training programmes are available, and they can be quite in-depth. You might start by learning about legal forms and documents and confidentiality procedures.

Knowledge of how to use the internet for legal matters will be covered, plus the basics of the English legal system. But the specialist area you're employed in will be where most attention is focused - and so you will most likely choose from family law, company law, criminal law, civil litigation, wills and probate or conveyancing.

In 2010 you can expect to invest from five hundred pounds upwards for professional legal secretarial training and certifications. (That would usually not include professional computer training, although some reference may be made to it.) Many specialist secretarial colleges have been successfully training students for several decades. Their programmes have been proven over time.

Training as a Legal Executive

You might in time also consider the role of Legal Executive. These are exciting times for Legal Executives. Outside of the High Court, fully qualified and experienced Legal Executives can undertake many of the legal activities that solicitors do. 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. Legal Executives can specialise in the same range of activities that other lawyers can.

Hopefully this has helped you to understand Legal Secretarial work and the training that you might need to do. Make a decision today to find out more about how this might work for you.