What the secretary do in the legal consultation office

1. I _____ glad you are in London. a) am b) is c) are 2. _____ you got a code of law a) has b) are c) have 3.What _____ the secretary do in the legal consultation office a) do b) is c) does 4.We meet customers _____ the morning. a) on b) in c) at 5.Who _____ the lawyer of your company a) is b) are c) does 6.How _____ solicitors have you got a) much b) many c) a lot 7.The manager _____ an offer from YMZ now. a) read b) is reading c) reads 8.I drink _____ coffee in the morning. a) few b) little c) many 9.Where is _____ pen a) he b) him c) his 10.What company do you do much business _____ a) from b) with c) at 11.They are making an appointment _____ Friday. a) on b) for c) at 12.I go to the office at 8 and _____ there at 9. a) come b) go c) arrive 13.Mr. Brown _____ the problem lately. a) has discussed b) discussed c) is discussing 14.The machines are _____ high quality. a) from b)with c) of 15.The office manager _____ through the catalogues the day before yesterday. a) looks b) looked c) is looking 16. _____ you write a letter to Dunn and C a) can b) may c) must 17.They _____ to the cross-examination of witnesses yesterday. a) go b) went c) goes 18. _____ your legal adviser speak English a) is b) does c) do 19.My friend _____ every day. a) learn b) learned c) learns 20. We _____ never been to London. a) had b) were c) have 21.The students of our group _____ their lectures on Common Law next week. a) attend b) attended c) will attend 22.Mary knows French_____ a) didnt she b) doesnt she c) does she 23.We go to the Academy _____ underground. a) on b) by c) with 24.The customers _____ at the solicitors office. a) is b) are c) an 25._____ are Civil law judges. a) this b) that c) these

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What does a legal secretary do?

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What is a Legal Secretary?

A legal secretary plays a crucial role in the everyday workings of a law office. Legal secretaries require extensive knowledge of legal proceedings and documentation. It is not uncommon for the most experienced and high performing legal secretaries to go on to be promoted to paralegal positions within a law firm.

In this article:

What does a Legal Secretary do?

The role of a legal secretary is to support the lawyers and paralegals in a law office or organization. Most legal secretaries converse directly with attorneys, clerical personnel, courtroom staff members, clients, expert witnesses and commercial vendors.

As legal secretaries tend to possess a specialized skill set across various computer programs, the tasks which they are responsible for can range from more traditional secretarial jobs such as answering phones and taking messages, to creating detailed spreadsheets, presentations, or preparing law documents. Legal secretaries have to be extremely organized, sharp, personable, and self-disciplined, ready for an array of assignments and able to meet tight deadlines on a daily basis.

Legal secretaries must also interact with all kinds of people on a regular basis. The kinds of communication involved in a day’s work involve face-to-face, phone, and e-mail communication, and even video conferencing with clients, lawyers, paralegals, opposing counsel, city officials and more.

Legal secretaries are also responsible for a great deal of writing. They often prepare first drafts of correspondence or memos, and often proofread legal documents including briefs and pleadings. They also deal with project management, keep paper and electronic files in order, keep track of deadlines, setting up appointments, and maintaining a detailed calendar.

Are you suited to be a legal secretary?

Legal secretaries have distinct personalities. They tend to be conventional individuals, which means they’re conscientious and conservative. They are logical, efficient, orderly, and organized. Some of them are also enterprising, meaning they’re adventurous, ambitious, assertive, extroverted, energetic, enthusiastic, confident, and optimistic.

Does this sound like you? Take our free career test to find out if legal secretary is one of your top career matches.

What is the workplace of a Legal Secretary like?

Most legal secretaries work in law offices. However, they can also be found in government agencies, corporate legal departments of companies, and public interest firms. Legal secretaries can expect a fast-paced, high-stress work environment with firm deadlines. It is common for legal secretaries to work late to make sure all paperwork is prepared and ready to go for a big case.

Legal Secretaries are also known as:
Legal Administrative Assistant Judicial Administrative Assistant Legal Administrative Secretary Litigation Assistant Legal Assistant

What Is a Legal Secretary?

Find out what legal secretaries do and what skills and qualifications you need to become one

Legal secretaries form an integral part of any legal team. Find out more about the role on this page.

What Is a Legal Secretary?

Legal secretaries are an essential part of the legal profession and assist with legal departments’ smooth running. Providing support to Lawyers, they perform valuable administrative duties. They are required to have knowledge of the law, legal terms, procedures and documentation.

The work they do varies significantly as there are many different areas of the law and practice, including family, probate, conveyancing, litigation and criminal law.

As well as working within law firms, legal secretaries can work within other legal environments.

What Do Legal Secretaries Do?

Legal secretaries perform several essential tasks. These involve producing legal documents, completing legal forms, typing professional correspondence from dictation, liaising with clients and responding to enquiries. They can take time-consuming tasks off lawyers’ hands, from basic jobs such as filing or photocopying to more complex tasks such as arranging meetings or performing legal research.

Their work and responsibilities can vary on a day-to-day basis depending on the legal department they work in and the cases being handled. Attending court can be an exciting part of working within a litigation department, for example. By working as a legal secretary, you will get to know a wide range of legal procedures and build up experience in several different areas.

As legal secretaries are often the “front window” of the firm, they must be well informed and confident in order to deal with whatever arises. Lawyers rely on their secretaries to ensure that clients are well looked after. Secretaries have a great responsibility to record and relay accurate information, so they need to communicate well and have a good knowledge of each client’s needs.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

To work in this position, you must have:

If you want to, you can study a Legal Secretaries Diploma course. A course like this will teach you valuable legal and practical skills and provide you with a recognised qualification.

Career Progression

There’s plenty of opportunity for career advancement for legal secretaries. The more experience you gain, the higher the salary you can achieve.

Through experience or study, you can even progress on to becoming a paralegal or legal executive. You can contact the National Association of Licensed Paralegals or the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives for further information.

Where Do Legal Secretaries Work?

It’s not just law firms and barristers’ chambers that rely on the skills and services of good legal secretaries. They have great scope to choose a working environment that best suits them.

Some of the places where you will find a legal secretary are:

They can also be self-employed and run their own Legal VA businesses.

This information was provided by The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs. ILSPA is a professional body dedicated to your career every step of the way. Whether you would like to become a legal secretary or you would like to advance your career, it exists to support you during your journey.

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What is a Legal Secretary?

As secretaries are sometimes referred to as administrative assistants, some people make the mistake of thinking that legal assistants are legal secretaries. In actuality, “legal assistant” is another term for “paralegal” according to the American Bar Association, the national professional paralegal associations and even the laws in some states.

In its Guidelines for the Utilization of Paralegal Services, the American Bar Association (ABA) notes that the words “paralegal” and “legal assistant” are often used interchangeably. The ABA offers the following definition:

A legal assistant or paralegal is a person, qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.

Many states refer to the ABA’s definition of legal assistants/paralegals when crafting laws to govern professional conduct or training and education requirements for paralegals. The national professional organizations, such as the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA), the National Federation of Paralegal Associations (NFPA) and the National Association of Legal Secretaries (NALS) affirm the ABA’s definition as well. Whether employees are called a “legal assistant” or a “paralegal” seems to depend on which part of the country the employees live.

Legal Secretaries: Are They Paralegals or Legal Assistants?

A key difference in the role of legal assistants/paralegals and legal secretaries is that legal assistants/paralegals perform substantive legal work. Substantive legal work requires a depth of legal understanding and knowledge of procedural law. It is work that attorneys would have to perform themselves in the absence of their paralegals. According to the NFPA, substantive legal work requires the following: recognition, evaluation, organization, analysis, and communication of relevant facts and legal concepts.

Such work requires education and training. In some states educational and training standards are formalized with certification requirements that must be met before are person is considered qualified to perform substantive legal work as a legal assistant or paralegal. Paralegals may further their advancement by choosing to specialize within their field, earn national certification and complete advanced degrees.

While legal secretaries are also essential to running law offices, their work is not of substantive legal nature. They are the administrative force behind the practice: managing files, maintaining calendars, scheduling appointments, preparing documents, making travel arrangements, maintaining data bases and taking notes during meetings, among other duties. Legal secretaries are not legally required to meet education or training standards and many have not attended college. Because their jobs do not require the same depth of legal knowledge, legal secretaries earn less than paralegals. However, continuing education and specialization opportunities do exist within the field.

No matter the official definition, some individuals do use the term “legal assistant” to describe their legal secretaries. This makes it important for paralegal job candidates to be sure to clarify the duties and expectations of a position before accepting it.

Legal Secretary Job Description

A legal secretary is an administrative assistant trained exclusively in the field of law. Through a comprehensive and specialized training program, legal secretaries are proficient at handling all administrative duties within a law office or legal department setting.

Although the terms legal secretary and paralegal are often interchanged with one another, these two terms describe distinctly different professions. A legal secretary serves in more of an clerical capacity, typing, transcribing and filing, while a paralegal typically assumes more legal responsibility, often writing legal drafts and creating legal correspondence on behalf of the attorney.

However, many legal secretaries go on to become paralegals after obtaining an associate’s degree in paralegal studies and gaining professional certification.

Legal Secretary Job Functions

Employed in a number of settings, including law firms and legal departments within private corporations, insurance companies and real estate firms, legal secretaries may perform a number of daily tasks, including:

In smaller law firms, it is also not unusual for legal secretaries to also answer phones and greet clients.

Legal secretaries must have excellent phone and computer skills and must be able to effectively perform a number of routine tasks at a moments notice:

The Role of the Legal Secretary Within Law Offices and Practice Settings

Similar to lawyers and other law professionals, legal secretaries often specialize in certain areas of law, such as family law, contract law, or will and estates. If a legal secretary specializes in trial law and works for a trial lawyer, accompanying the lawyer to court to take notes for the trial is also commonplace.

Legal secretaries serve as trusted members of a law firm, as they must ensure precision in their work; respect strict confidentiality requirements; organize, classify, and categorize mountains of paperwork associated with complex cases; and navigate the often-complex legal and billing software.

Successful legal secretaries possess many of the same qualities as paralegals and even attorneys do, such as:

Further, legal secretaries must possess excellent judgment and make important decisions within the scope of their duties on a daily basis.

What Does a Corporate Secretary Do?

A Corporate Secretary could be considered the glue that holds an entire corporation together. He/she is responsible for assuring the company stays in compliance with both regulatory and statutory requirements while also executing all of the decisions, resolutions and changes put forth by the corporation’s Board of Directors.

What Is a Corporate Secretary?

In general, states require that corporations designate a Corporate Secretary, and that he/she is present at all Board of Director meetings. The Corporate Secretary is an officer of the corporation.

The precise obligations that a company’s Corporate Secretary fulfills may be different among corporations; however, every corporation typically outlines the Corporate Secretary’s role in its corporate bylaws.

What Are a Corporate Secretary’s Responsibilities?

Many people mistakenly believe a Corporate Secretary’s primary role is to take and record meeting minutes. While doing so is, indeed, one of the Corporate Secretary’s responsibilities, this task is nowhere near the entirety of this pivotal corporate role.

Typically, a Corporate Secretary’s job description would include:

Traits of a Good Corporate Secretary

The best candidate to hold the position of a Corporate Secretary would be:

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