Education :
While there are no academic requirements for this field, taking a 2-year associate's degree program or a 1-to-2 semester certificate program in legal secretary skills will help you prepare for the complexities of legal practice. Most legal secretary programs cover law office practices, keyboarding, computers, word processing, legal terminology and law.
Certification:
Legal Secretary certification is voluntary, but highly recommended because many employers require it. Legal secretaries or law office managers who have completed an approved paralegal training course or have one year's experience can take an exam to become an Accredited Legal Secretary (ALS).
The National Association of Legal Secretaries (NALS) also offers an advanced certification for legal support professionals called Professional Legal Secretary (PLS). Legal Secretaries International confers the Certified Legal Secretary Specialist (CLSS) title in specialized areas such as civil trial, real estate, probate, and business law to those who have five years of law-related experience and pass an examination.
Salary:
Salaries for legal secretaries, like paralegal and legal assistant salaries, vary. Your salary may depend on education, training, experience, the type and size of employer, and where you work. In general, legal secretaries who work for large law firms or in big cities earn the most. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, legal secretaries earned $39,860 in 2008, but the top 10 percent earned more than $62,000.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Legal Secretaries Diploma
The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs' Diploma course will provide you with valuable legal knowledge and the practical experience you need to work as a Legal Secretary. It is comprehensive, enjoyable and very popular.
Our Diploma is a recognised qualification within the legal industry and many law firms enrol their staff on our course. It is suitable for people who have no previous experience as well as people who are familiar with law.
In order to stand out above the rest and achieve your goal it is necessary for you to have the skills and abilities that employers are looking for. The Legal Secretaries Diploma course will help you to become a qualified and professional Legal Secretary whilst paving the way for a successful career.
Students are required to have secretarial/administrative skills with a good typing speed, computer literacy, a knowledge of word processing programs and a good standard of English.
Our Diploma is a recognised qualification within the legal industry and many law firms enrol their staff on our course. It is suitable for people who have no previous experience as well as people who are familiar with law.
In order to stand out above the rest and achieve your goal it is necessary for you to have the skills and abilities that employers are looking for. The Legal Secretaries Diploma course will help you to become a qualified and professional Legal Secretary whilst paving the way for a successful career.
Students are required to have secretarial/administrative skills with a good typing speed, computer literacy, a knowledge of word processing programs and a good standard of English.
Legal Secretary Jobs
Legal secretaries provide secretarial and administrative support to lawyers and legal executives. If you work in this field you'll be in charge of keeping vital records up to date and for typing up letters and important legal documents.
You'll have additional duties such as answering the phones, filing, organising diaries and making appointments, preparing court forms and sometimes even going to court or the Police cells with solicitors.
You've got a wide range of firms to choose from. Some specialise in corporate or criminal law, while others cover general legal matters including property, divorce and family law.
Beyond solicitors' offices plenty of other organisations need legal secretaries. You could work in barristers' chambers, law courts or even for the police and armed forces, finance houses, insurance companies and estate agents.
Skills and interests
There's a clue in the job title about some of the skills you'll need. Secretarial skills are a must. It's even better if you can audio or shorthand type as you'll need to be able to produce documents quickly and accurately to help your firm keep up to date with all its clients.
In addition you'll need to be:
* Computer literate and a good typist
* Discreet
* Good at spelling and grammar
* Able to meet deadlines
* polite and helpful
* Accurate and show good attention to detail
It helps if you are interested in the law as there will be a lot of jargon to get your head around.
You'll have additional duties such as answering the phones, filing, organising diaries and making appointments, preparing court forms and sometimes even going to court or the Police cells with solicitors.
You've got a wide range of firms to choose from. Some specialise in corporate or criminal law, while others cover general legal matters including property, divorce and family law.
Beyond solicitors' offices plenty of other organisations need legal secretaries. You could work in barristers' chambers, law courts or even for the police and armed forces, finance houses, insurance companies and estate agents.
Skills and interests
There's a clue in the job title about some of the skills you'll need. Secretarial skills are a must. It's even better if you can audio or shorthand type as you'll need to be able to produce documents quickly and accurately to help your firm keep up to date with all its clients.
In addition you'll need to be:
* Computer literate and a good typist
* Discreet
* Good at spelling and grammar
* Able to meet deadlines
* polite and helpful
* Accurate and show good attention to detail
It helps if you are interested in the law as there will be a lot of jargon to get your head around.
Legal Secretaries
While any good legal secretary knows that it is they who truly make things happen in a firm, many attorneys do not understand how valuable a highly-skilled secretary can be for their practice. Every great legal secretary has a counterpart - a colleague who treats his or her position as though it were nothing more than a means of earning a salary. They answer the phone in a monotone, file papers haphazardly, and halfheartedly transcribe scribbles from the attorneys they are assigned to help. But the true stars? They go the extra distance.
They know the clients by name, they ensure that they understand the documents involved in a transaction or a trial, they take their place as a full-fledged team member of any project to which they are assigned. Our job in recruiting and placing legal secretaries is to find those stars - legal secretaries who thrive on being an integral part of a winning legal team - and to place them with attorneys that can use (and appreciate) their help. Our clients tell us every day how happy they are that we made the effort to discover their particular skills and match those skills to the right opportunity.
They know the clients by name, they ensure that they understand the documents involved in a transaction or a trial, they take their place as a full-fledged team member of any project to which they are assigned. Our job in recruiting and placing legal secretaries is to find those stars - legal secretaries who thrive on being an integral part of a winning legal team - and to place them with attorneys that can use (and appreciate) their help. Our clients tell us every day how happy they are that we made the effort to discover their particular skills and match those skills to the right opportunity.
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