Legal Secretarial work and how to get this career

I qualified as Legal Secretary 10 years ago, I took what is now the CILEx Legal Secretary Certificate at Level 3. When I qualified I was able to find a job quite quickly in a normal high street Solicitor. The pay was average for a Legal Secretary with limited experience, but the career prospects were great if I could build on my qualifications with relevant work experience. Working at a small law firm, I dealt with lots of different types of tasks and areas of law. However, it was limiting and I know that I could get a lot of pay or more interesting work if I moved to a larger firm.

 

 

My options at this point were to potentially find a speciality; I was interested in Probate (working with wills) and also Family Law. However, I found that the roles at the time did not interest me and I did not like the law firms that had roles.

 

 

 

Therefore, I decided to target high wages, prestige and benefits packages. The best way to do this was to target Company, Corporate and Banking Law firms. This meant going to the middle of the city and working in a big impressive building. I started applying and was surprised at how much the big firms liked my qualification; they commonly gave me an interview on the back of CILEx experience. CILEx Legal Secretarial qualifications are very relevant and practical, so they ensure that a qualified Legal Secretary understand how to produce legal document, handle legal procedures etc. If you are working in Legal Secretarial work and do not possess this knowledge, you will not be nearly as effective in delivering work. However, it goes further than that because an error can actually damage the reputation of the firm. This is why law firms are so keen that their legal secretaries have the technical capabilities and relevant qualifications before they start to work.

 

 

 

I managed to get a role in a large Australian law firms that has offices in Europe and North America. This has been a great choice as it offers great pay, prestige and benefits, but is also quite a relaxed atmosphere to work in. I have now been working for many years in this firm and I am very happy, I have had 2 promotions in the last few years and I actually manage some junior staff. I hope that my experience helps people focus their career objectives when they decide to become a legal secretary.