The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs is delighted to announce that Joelson will be offering mentoring to three lucky Students.

Founded in 1956 (as Joelson Wilson), Joelson is a top-ranked, multidisciplinary law firm providing first-class, partner-led services to their clients. Their services cover many sectors, including property, litigation, and corporate and commercial law. Joelson’s offices are based in Central London, although they act for clients internationally throughout Europe and all over the world. They have well-established relationships with firms throughout Europe, China and the US.

Learning a new language as an adult is always a daunting challenge.

You might have spent years learning a new language and, finally, you have the opportunity to use these new skills in your career. Making sure that you have a high level of English aptitude is important for communicating with clients and producing important documentation.

Take a look at some of our strategies that you can implement in your daily life to improve your English skills.

Speaking English fluently

Language learners are often intimidated by communicating with native speakers in their language.

In a job interview, the question about salary expectations is a loaded one. Talking about money is awkward at the best of times, but in an interview situation, it can be particularly tricky.

In a nutshell, while honesty is important, it’s better to avoid giving a specific figure. Give one that’s too high and you’ll quote yourself out of the role, too low and you’ll shoot yourself in the foot.

To navigate the question successfully and minimise embarrassment all around, there are a few steps you can take in advance of the interview.

Understand the question

First, you need to know the multitude of reasons interviewers ask this question. The obvious one is “to know the amount they’ll need to pay you”, but it’s not as straightforward as that.

We are all hopeful that the lockdown restrictions will be a thing of the past soon and we will be able to return to our normal way of living. This includes going on holiday and flying to our favourite destinations. However, many of us have heard about climate change and how the aviation industry plays a major part in contributing to damaging CO2 emissions. This puts us in a bit of a dilemma, as whilst we would love to jet off to sunnier climates, we also don’t want to harm the planet.

Vicky Cons was working as a full-time Team Manager at Tesco when she decided to take the plunge and begin her studies to become a Legal Secretary. Little did she know that soon after starting her studies the world would go into lockdown. Clearly not one to be deterred, Vicky continued to work full time as a key worker throughout the pandemic. She completed ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma with a distinction and secured her first Legal Secretary role while still waiting for her results.

Here is a selection of vacancies from our Legal Secretary Jobs Board this month:

Legal Secretary – Brightstone Law LLP

Location: Elstree

Salary: £24,000 (Depending on experience)

A position has become available for a Legal Secretary to support fee earners across the firm, and in particular to the Wills and Probate department, to cover maternity leave for 6 months from the beginning of March 2021. The firm is based in Elstree, Hertfordshire.

View the full job description here:           

https://www.institutelegalsecretaries.com/jobs/candidate/job/174409/

Legal Secretary – Latham & Co

Location: Loughborough

Salary: £17,000-£19,000

Podcasts are one of the most rapidly growing media forms of the 21st century. In 2020, an estimated 15.6 million listeners tuned in, with more than £33 million being spent on podcast advertising as businesses sought to capitalise on this boom.

For those with very little spare time on their hands – such as legal professionals – podcasts are an excellent way to digest information while going about everyday life. You can listen to a podcast while walking, running, commuting or cooking, and take in new and fascinating information in the process.

There is a plethora of excellent legal podcasts available in the UK, so it can be hard to know where to start. We’ve compiled a list of our top six legal podcasts to get you started.

UK Law Weekly

Our industry partner, Simply Law Jobs, has announced that the legal job site is undergoing the biggest transformation in its 18-year history.

Based on in-depth research into the industry, as well as extensive feedback and insights provided by Simply Law Jobs’ clients and jobseekers, the site will be relaunched with a brand-new look, new and exciting features, and old favourites that have been updated or revamped.

The job site has been optimised so jobseekers and recruiters can connect in the quickest and easiest way possible. This includes better search filters, enhanced candidate profiles, prompts to provide better job advert descriptions, and an improved candidate management system to manage job applications more efficiently. 

Prodigy Learning has recently announced that it has added even more Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) courses to its website. As ILSPA Members receive an exclusive 50% discount on these courses, we want to take a moment to explain what is available, how these courses work and why now is a great time to improve your Microsoft Office skills.  

Admins are often expected to do their jobs perfectly, and with good cause – a single mistake can be costly to your company, your boss and your career. Yet The Innovative Admin knows that failure is a necessary and integral part of the innovation process. You don’t create and implement new ideas without things going wrong along the way.

The problem is we often confuse mistakes with failures when they are not exactly the same thing.

Mistakes are inaccuracies or errors that should have been caught. Typos in a document or misquoting information are mistakes. Mistakes can also be errors in judgement, poor decision-making, or misunderstanding a request or assignment. Missing a deadline or sending information to the wrong person also fall into the mistake category.