How do you become a legal secretary?
Miss Violet
If you’re looking to shake up your career, becoming a legal secretary could offer the challenge and pay rise that you’re after.
Good legal secretaries are in demand. They can earn high salaries doing varied and interesting work dealing with a wide range of legal and business issues.
Essentially, legal secretaries provide administrative support to lawyers, legal executives and paralegals. They need to have knowledge of law, as well as excellent secretarial and communication skills, an attention to detail and good time management. Being discrete and professional is also a must.
The job involves typing and compiling legal documents, dealing with enquiries, organising correspondence, diary management and attending court.
There are two main ways to get your foot in the door. If you already have sound secretarial skills, temping can offer on the job training. As your legal knowledge increases, you’ll find there are more jobs you can go for and your earning power will grow.
Alternatively, you can study a recognised course to get the legal knowledge and skills that you’ll need. The Institute of Legal Secretaries, Institute of Legal Executives and local colleges offer evening or distance learning courses.
When it comes to finding work, solicitors’ offices or barristers’ chambers are the obvious choices but legal secretaries are also needed in law courts, local authorities, estate agents, and finance and insurance companies to name a few.
If you’re interested in a particular area of law, some firms specialise in criminal law, conveyancing or corporate law. Others deal with a wider range of areas including civil litigation, matrimonial and civil partnership law, probate and administration. Some larger firms take on float secretaries who work across a number of different departments, allowing you to gain a broader legal knowledge that can prove indispensable to your employer.
Career prospects are good. Legal secretaries can go on to become PAs or office managers, and in some cases paralegals or legal executives.
Healthy snacks for the office
Miss Scarlet
If you find yourself reaching for sweet treats and lattés to get you through the working day, follow our suggestions on how to keep your energy levels up by snacking healthily.
Fruit
If you’ve got a sweet tooth, eating fruit is a good way to wean yourself off the muffins. Eating different coloured fruits indicates that you’re getting a variety of vitamins and minerals. Handy fruits for the office include apples, pears, bananas and clementines. Blueberries, grapes and organic strawberries are perfect for those who like to nibble their way through the day. Don’t eat fruit straight after a meal to avoid the dreaded bloat.
Dried fruit
Gone are the days when dried fruit meant a few measly raisins. Goji berries are currently flavour of the month. Bursting with protein, they provide 21 trace minerals as well as beta-carotene, B vitamins and vitamin E. Other recommended dried fruits are apricots, mango, pineapple, apple and dates. In all cases, read the label to avoid buying any that have been preserved with sulfites.Savoury snacks
Munching on nuts and seeds is far healthier than wolfing down a bag of crisps. Pumpkin and sunflower seeds are full of zinc, almonds are packed with protein and vitamin E, while a few brazil nuts will give you your daily dose of selenium.
Rice cakes and oatcakes are a great alternative to biscuits, and if you thinly spread some almond or cashew nut butter onto them you’ll add even more nutrients to the mix. Nut butters are available in health food shops and larger supermarkets.
Vegetable sticks are great if you can prepare them in advance. Try carrots, mange tout, peppers, cucumber or celery.
Drinks
Avoid fizzy drinks and concentrated fruit juice. Instead, try a fresh juice to give you a pick-up anytime of day. If you don’t have a juice bar near work, invest in some herbal teas.
Nettle is great for detoxing, fennel and peppermint are good for the digestion, rooibos is full of anti-oxidants while chamomile has a calming effect. Fruit teas can help curb the need for something sweet.
Chocolate
Let’s face it, we’re all human and sometimes only a sugar hit will do. But instead of reaching for a twix, have a couple of pieces of organic dark chocolate. It’ll give you an energy boost as well as a dose of anti-oxidants.
Secretarial Salaries - How to ask for a pay rise
Miss Violet
When it comes to asking for a pay rise, even the most confident people can suffer a crisis in confidence. Here are some top tips to help you get the pay rise you deserve.
- Decide how much to ask for - consider the state of the economy. If you’re playing it safe, go for a figure that’s in line with inflation levels, currently around 5%.
- Prove your worth - show how the work you’ve done in the last year has had a positive impact on the performance and efficiency of your team.
- Research what other jobs are out there - do they pay more or less than you’re currently paid? Show examples of jobs that are similar to yours but pay more.
- Consider your options - are you in a position to walk into a different job that pays more? If you are, make sure your boss knows this as it’ll give you more leverage.
- Justify why you deserve a bigger pay rise - especially if you are asking for a rise outside your normal annual review. If your job has grown, remind your boss that you’ve taken on additional responsibilities and this should be reflected in the pay deal you agree.
- Look at the company’s profits - if it’s been a bumper year, with senior managers receiving hefty bonuses, argue that you deserve a share of the profits too.
- Check out shareholder activity - are they getting healthy handouts? If they are, then you can also argue that you should.
And finally, if your boss plays for time, suggest they might want to settle quickly. If inflation continues to rise, as economists predict, you’ll be in a position to put a new figure on the table in the coming weeks.