Legal secretaries do all sorts of jobs such as filing and routine tasks, managing emails and post, keeping records up to date and reminding paralegals and lawyers of what needs to be done and when.
Last Updated: November 1, 2024
Whilst paralegals provide back-up to the lawyers, who provides it to the paralegals? The answer is the legal secretaries, who do all sorts of jobs such as filing and routine tasks, managing emails and post, keeping records up to date and reminding paralegals and lawyers of what needs to be done and by when. Part of this role is ensuring that external visitors to the office, for example clients or other professional advisers, are well looked after.
A legal secretary carries a lot of responsibility for the smooth running of the office, so you need to be able to manage your workload effectively, hit deadlines every time and have a laser-eyed focus on detail. The rest of the team will look to you for proactive help and support, and will rely on your enthusiasm and professionalism.
An IP legal secretary could work in any organisation or department that deals with IP: perhaps a small or large law firm, a government department, or the legal division of a larger company.
Apart from 5 GCSEs (or equivalent), and some general secretarial skills, you may not need formal qualifications to become a legal secretary, but you will need to show you can handle a busy and professional working environment where attention to detail is critical. You should be constantly on the lookout for ways to be useful and adaptable to the changing demands of each day.
Training is mostly done on the job. In due course you may be able to become a paralegal yourself; official qualifications are not always necessary to make the jump from legal secretary to paralegal, although if you want to become a specialist IP paralegal then qualifications (again obtained on the job) will probably be required longer-term.
You learn the work from the ground up, giving you a truly solid understanding of the profession. Your work is vital if the rest of the team is to function efficiently, and it’s rewarding to know that.
A successful legal secretary has to juggle lots of stuff and fit in with the many different ways that individual clients or lawyers like things done.
Look out for vacancies in the local press, at secretarial colleges and on online jobs boards. You could also try approaching individual law firms or specialist IP firms to ask about vacancies and/or work experience.