How did I become a Legal Secretary in London?

I am often asked by people that I meet how did I get my job as a Legal Secretary. It is often seen as an elusive job, not easy to land your first job. There is an element that this is true, but at my current firm we
have many newly qualified Legal Secretaries. However, I have volunteered to guest blog and give some insight into working in the legal industry.

 

I have A Levels and GCSEs but I have never been to University. After school, I had a brief spell in Events before getting into office work. This set my career from then on. When I turned 24, I decided that
I would like to try to develop my skills and career. So I looked around for some training courses, I was considering going to get a Teaching diploma and then opted for a PA Course. This worked really well for me as it got me into higher level jobs as a PA. The earning potential was great but after 3 years, I
found out that one of my friends from school was working as a Legal Secretary.

 

Although I still liked my job, I decided to find out some more about this job. I looked online and found that there were courses and recognised qualifications that could get me into the job. However, this was
something I did not jump into, so I continued to research.

 

 

 

I spoke to some Legal Secretarial recruitment companies and my friends and it seemed clear that I should take the CILEx (the ILEx) qualification, which is a legal support staff standard for professional qualification. This was a good choice as it covered a lot of the necessary practical skills that I
needed to know in order to be a fully skilled Legal Secretary.

 

 

I took a few exams and passed both the Level 2 and Level 3 exams shortly before I turned 30. Then I looked for a new start and new job. I found an excellent role for a newly qualified Legal Secretary; the starting salary was not too bad due to my relevant experience in my PA role.

 

Find out about CILEx Legal Secretary Courses at www.pa-course.co.uk