How to become a legal secretary

A legal secretary is someone that works in a law office assisting the firm's lawyers. In many ways they are the administrators of the firm that run the office to improve the efficiency of the service provided by the lawyers to their clients.

Legal secretaries play an important role in allocating the resources in a law office.

It should be pointed out that a legal secretary does not require any detailed knowledge of the law other than some common and widely used legal vocabulary used in law office. Their role is primarily an administrative one.

Role of a legal secretary

• To keep a diary of events for those she/he is working for

• To book appointments for clients to meet the lawyer

• To write up business administrative letters for the law office

• To arrange meeting between a lawyer with potential witnesses in some cases

• Keep track of the issues that are required to be dealt with by keeping a timetable of events

• Is required to liase with various lawyers

• Ordering essential supply for the office such as equipment and stationary

• Some other work would be doing adhoq duties.

Requirements to be legal secretary

Educational requirements

Although a degree is not an absolute requirement to become a legal secretary, many law firms now seek such qualification.

Many legal secretaries traditionally hold a degree either in a business related subject such as business administration and then obtain a qualification from an accredited course for a legal secretary.

Legal course

If one does not have a degree in a legal administrative course, they should seek to gain a certification from an accredited legal course that will enable them to become an accredited legal secretary. The course might be provided at colleges, universities or other course providers such as specialised legal schools. It is very important, however, the course is fully accredited so it enables a person to qualify fully certified..

What can you expect from a legal training course

• You will learn legal vocabulary, this is very important in a law firm

• You will gain administrative skills to be able to run an office efficiently

• You will get training to work computer packages

Anyone taking such a course will have to ensure the course is fully accredited because law firms require their secretaries to have received accredited education because of the stiff competition.

Other requirements

• A legal secretary will need to be extremely confident because she will interact with her boss on a regular basis. She will arrange meetings for the lawyer(s) working at the office and their clients.

• High level of communication is extremely important for reasons stated above.

Job availability

Jobs for legal secretaries are plentiful. More and more law firms now employ legal secretaries because it tends to improve the efficiency of a law firm as it is run better and impedes the lawyers themselves less than it would otherwise be the case.

Promotional opportunities

Its true that this job is often limited in so far as the ability to progress within a firm because a legal secretaries' skills are very well defined and, therefore, they tend to remain in the profession for a long time. However, there is no restriction in them trying to progress from a smaller firm to a larger firm with better pay and other remunerations.

Finding a job

There are several options available for legal secretary to find jobs:

Many national and local newspapers have job listings section that publishes jobs from a wide range of industries. Some of them carry a legal section where you should be able to locate listings of jobs for legal secretaries or assistants.

Recruitment Agency

You can also visit your local recruitment office to find listing of jobs in the legal sector.

Internet

Of course, today, its extremely convenient to search for jobs by scouring internet job portals. There are many good ones that allow search using specific criteria such as location, salary, etc. There are also websites that deal with jobs for particular cities or towns.

Salary

According to Salary.com, the earnings range from just over $18,000 to just under $46,000, but most earn somewhere in between. Generally, those new to the job can expect to earn towards the lower orange, while those with a lot more experience tend to be in the higher end of that range. It is also likely that larger law firms are more likely to pay their staff higher salary than a much smaller firm.