Any modern office job now requires that you have excellent IT skills and the ability to perform tasks on a mix of software. However, the requirements for a Legal Secretary are more specific and geared towards the key functions of the career. The absolute most fundamental that can be transferred across the legal industry is Word.
 
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You will need Word in order to correctly set out legal documents, which can be quite tricky to get correct. These concepts are not difficult. However, you must be very particular. As many law firms create legal document using Word templates, you will need to be an excellent Word user. You will need to understand how to create a high quality and correct document.
 

IT Skills for a Legal Secretary

You will also need to understand the legal forms that are often downloaded from legal forms software. You will need to complete CILEx training in order to gain the necessary exposure to the most commonly used legal forms and documents.
 
Lawyers have busy diaries that also ensure that they are earning fees from clients. Therefore, a Legal Secretary needs to be able to use diarising software effectively. This will mean that you will need excellent skills in Outlook, as this is the most common software for organising
schedules.
 
This software is also a key to email management which is another important skill for a Legal Secretary. Therefore, skills in outlook cannot be ignored.

 

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Your fee earners are likely to have powerpoint presentations and they will need you to help them edit it. Do not assume they know how to use it and many times they will rely on your abilities to make the presentation look professional. Therefore, you will need to have excellent skills in powerpoint in order to work as a Legal Secretary.
 
Database management is a key job skill, this does not mean Access is common, but the concept from Access training will help you to adapt to any other similar brand system. Finally, Excel is not really  significant, but you can use it to keep your information on billing and client accounts, if this is part of your job. In this case, you are likely to need to have Excel skills and skills in the legal billing software that is used by your employer, which is likely to be shown to you on arrival at a new company or firm.
 
Find out more about Legal Secretary training at www.pa-course.co.uk