The Job Profile of Legal Secretaries

Legal secretaries, like solicitors, tend to specialize in particular areas of the law. You will probably find that you will gain experience in one field, say, convincing and then be even more valuable in the eyes of a prospective employer, who will know that you can be left not only to type what is dictated accurately and in the correct format, but you will also recognize the right forms to use and fill them in with a minimum of explanations. You will know when to take copies, when to provide enclosures and what to tell clients who ring up to find out how their cases are progressing. Some firms allow experienced secretaries in convincing departments to attend completions, or experienced secretaries in litigation departments to attend court to take notes of the proceedings.

Many people considering legal secretarial work think that they will be personal assistants to their bosses, but in the past there were relatively few openings of this kind. One of the reasons for this was that solicitors tend to use trainee solicitors to do some of their administrative chores, since their training consists of learning office practice as well as law. In addition, the almost universal use of audio machines means that secretaries spend little time taking dictation from their bosses and are therefore less likely to become involved in the cases, beyond typing the correspondence and documents. Very often legal secretaries find that they are kept busy typing and developing other technical skills, such as operating computer systems, rather than becoming directly involved in the cases and having very much contact with clients.

However, there are legal personal assistant jobs around and if that is what you have in mind, one course is to follow up the advertisements that specifically ask for PAs. It is also worth bearing in mind that a number of secretaries do become skilled lawyers, whether as paralegals, legal executives or (ultimately, and in practice in a very small minority of cases) solicitors. The Institute of Paralegal Training publishes a useful leaflet called 'Becoming A Legal Secretary.'

Temporary Work

Some legal secretaries prefer to do temporary work. Temps are employed by agencies who hire out their services to firms who become short-staffed or over-worked for a while. The firms pay the agencies on an hourly rate and the agencies pay the secretaries. Usually, temporary work pays better than a permanent job, but the real benefit is that you get as much flexibility as you can afford. You are paid for the hours you work, and if you want a day off you just inform the agency in advance. Of course, when there is less work about you run the risk of not being able to work as long as you might wish to, but many people prefer to run that risk in order to be able to organize their days to suit themselves, or to fit in with family commitments. It can also be exciting to go to different offices - you get changes of scene and meet many more people. You also get wide-ranging experience in office procedures (which differ from firm to firm) and real self-confidence from knowing you are good enough at your job to be able to just walk in and pick up the threads.

Case Study:

Ann is a secretary in a large city centre solicitors' office, where she has worked for more than 15 years.

To earn a living as a legal secretary is not as stultifying as it might first appear, although typing one's way through the intricacies of a local search is only marginally more interesting than typing out bills of lading or shipping manifests. There are rich seams of human interest to be tapped in all facets of legal work, from the outwardly dull house-purchasing aspects, via the jousting of the Family Division in divorce work to the quieter world of wills and probate. These are just three areas of law that can be covered in the capacity of a legal secretary.

There are other newer areas such as industrial relations where the tribunals and ACAS hold sway; high-powered mergers in company law involving huge amounts of cash, to problems involving EU law or the environment. There are aspects of criminal law, for example, cases involving child neglect, incest or even murder. It is all there, every aspect of humanity, its failings and its striving.

Your job as a secretary is, in effect, to grease the wheels, to keep the moving parts moving. You will type letters, operate word processors, liaise with computers, make appointments and make tea - sometimes lots of it. As you become proficient in dealing with matters and handling clients there are always opportunities to advance in the clerical side of the office, perhaps accounts or possibly into paralegal work. The 'in at the deep end' experience gained from being a legal secretary has been an extremely useful launch pad for many other careers in the legal profession.

Each firm of solicitors is different - each branch of each firm is different. The pecking order and status quo of each office are different.

But the job of legal secretary is basically the same; it changes only as regards the relevant technology, from pencils to word processors, from hot sealing wax to stick-on labels.

Once she (or, occasionally, he) is hooked on legal work, there is no escape for the secretary. There is some prestige, there is much of interest and there are opportunities for advancement- major considerations when contemplating any career. Working in commerce or industry can sometimes be boring, although sometimes better paid but, from personal experience, documenting the life of a 'widget' from its factory birthplace to its showroom launch-pad is a potentially mind-numbing occupation. There is little human element and less interest. Of course, there are negative factors to legal work.

There can be acres of form filling, and clients who are boorish and condescending but, if you are interested in the human condition, you will find plenty in the legal world that is stimulating and challenging; not at all the dusty existence which outsiders may imagine. In today's competitive high-tech legal world, the accuracy and speed of service that clients require leave little time for cobwebs to appear.'