My Background as a Legal Secretary

I became a Legal Secretary 12 years ago, after taking a Legal Secretarial Course. My first job was in a criminal litigation firm, but they had to downsize due to a lack of funding. I then switched out of criminal, because I felt that I needed more salary and job security. I had enjoyed working in criminal, as this is an interesting area of law. However, I saw more jobs and better salaries in other areas. My second job was in a small law firm that focused on family law. I enjoyed the role, but there was limited scope for my development.

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Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net and Author 10incheslab

 

Finally, I got into my current role in a large firm. I work for two senior fee earners, who are specialists in Private Client (Wills and Probate). I do enjoy the job at present and I thought I would write  a case study of day in the office.
A Working Day for
a Legal Secretary
I got up at 7:15am and got the train to work at 8:15am. I don’t have much of a commute, so I was in by 8:45am. On my way to work, I went through my emails in my diary. There were no urgent issues that had arisen overnight. Therefore, I started to look at the diaries of my fee earners and ensure that everything runs smoothly.
My fee earners had 4 meetings during the day with clients. All of the meetings will be hosted in their offices, so I did not have to worry about finding a venue. However, I needed to arrange for tea and coffee to be served at the meetings.
The next step was to access the client files and deliver them to the fee earners, so that they can research and  the relevant clients. All of this was completed by 9:45am, not bad at all.
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                                    Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net and Author stockimages
I have been asked to prepare some documents that are needed to be sent to clients by this afternoon. My boss has dictated them and I will have to do some typing. The quantity of typing in my role is not that great, but I need to ensure that I produce documents accurately on the provided templates.
This took me up until 10:45am. I sent this to my boss for approval. At 11:30, the first client arrived. They are existing clients, I meet and greet them and seat them in my boss’s office. I have to wait for a second
client to arrive for a 12:30 appointment, before I can get lunch. Thankfully, they are early and I am able to go out for a bite to lunch before 12:30.
In the afternoon, I had to deal with some queries from some clients, who have pending issues with the fee earners. I am the intermediary between clients and the solicitors, so I often spend many days dealing with client queries. I take a file note of the discussion and add it to their file and also forward the message. The rest of the day was not too eventful, as I greeted two clients who had meetings booked. I also sent out some detailed response to client queries, per dictated instructions.
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