One of the many advantages of being a Legal Secretary is that it’s not a dead-end job. Not only can you receive a higher salary when you gain experience, but you can also work your way up the legal ladder. Paralegals, Legal Executives and Solicitors have all been known to start their careers as Legal Secretaries. By being able to gain valuable experience on the job and having the option of taking some additional training, Legal Secretaries have incredible career prospects.

ILSPA believes that our Students have the potential to achieve ambitious career goals with enough confidence and determination. This belief has been supported through the many high-achieving Students who have graduated with us.

Are you a new Student? Or, in the middle of studying a course but finding it difficult to stay motivated? Perhaps you are returning to studying after a long break and are not sure where to begin? Whatever stage you are at in your course, it is never too late to start building good study habits. Improving your habits will make your study time efficient, productive and far less stressful.

Here are ILSPA’s top tips for creating good study habits:

Establish your learning type

If you have been a legal secretary for some time, and you are wondering where to take your career next, setting up your own paralegal practice may be a journey worth making. As with most journeys, planning helps things go smoothly, and before you start delivering paralegal services direct to businesses and consumers, there are several issues to consider. These include (vitally) whether you have sufficient qualifications and/or experience, the demand for your new business, and awareness of the dos and don’ts.

Competency

If you’re an introvert, you’re not going to enjoy large crowds on a regular basis. If you’re an extrovert, turning down every invitation to socialise is going to leave you feeling frustrated and bored.

What if I told you that your preferences for managing time and space are just as ingrained in your personality as whether or not you’re up for going to a dinner party?

The Time & Space Style Inventory (TSSI™) was developed by Cena Block, founder of Sane Spaces. Previously, we delved into how to work with (rather than against) your time style preference. Now, we’re going to talk about how your particular personality type manages space.

If you are thinking about advancing your legal career, you have choices. It’s a good idea to review the different roles and which route you might take.

There are two traditional legal professionals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: solicitors and barristers. Both are statutorily regulated professions, meaning both have membership bodies and regulatory bodies and the only people who can refer to themselves as ‘solicitors’ or ‘barristers’ are those who have been through the prescribed training process for either profession. Indeed, it is illegal to refer to oneself as a solicitor or barrister without formally being on the solicitors’ or barristers’ register.

Those of you who are studying criminal law or working in a criminal law department may not have come across the concept of ‘Autrefois Acquit’ before. In fact, it is very rare, but I mention it here because it has reared its head in the past year. I also mention it because when I was a law student, in the long distant past, legal maxims in a language other than English (mainly in Latin or French) were certainly not uncommon. Indeed, when I very first started to learn law - Roman Law was a compulsory subject for a law degree and the paper was written in Latin. I had come across Latin as a schoolboy, but I wasn’t very good at it. You will, therefore, understand my great relief when the law degree requirement for a pass in Roman Law was abolished very soon after I started my legal studies.

In the increasingly complex world of the private client lawyer there are many challenges, both old and new. This month we will consider four of these potentially challenging areas and review what recent developments have occurred. 

Capacity

The longstanding test to establish if someone has mental capacity to make a Will is set down in “Banks v Goodfellow 1870”. However, since the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 came into force there have been several (unsuccessful) cases challenging whether the MCA should replace the “Banks” case as the test for mental capacity. For the moment the “Banks” test remains the one the Courts will use and, in simple terms, establishes that a person must:

At the end of last year, SecsintheCity published a motivational piece entitled “5 Key Attributes of a Great PA”. This article showed what qualities PAs have and gave readers an idea of what skills and characteristics they need to excel in the role. Based on the success of this piece, in collaboration with The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs, their sister site, TotallyLegal wanted to expand on this topic further and talk about the key attributes of a Legal PA.

Although resigning from a position can be a daunting prospect for most people, it’s actually very common, especially at the start of the year.

In fact, data from website ‘Statista’ found that ‘in the first quarter of 2022 approximately 354,000 job-to-job resignations took place in the United Kingdom, which was one of the highest number of resignations taking place in a single quarter during this provided time period.’

But even if the prospect is a welcome one, it’s important to follow the best practice when handing in your notice to ensure leave your position with appropriate courtesy and respect. Part of doing this correctly is by handing in a formal resignation letter that includes all the necessary information regarding your departure from the company.

Whether you know it or not, you have a preference in regards to managing your time. It’s no different than liking pineapple on your pizza or preferring period dramas to sitcoms. It’s just part of who you are.

Those who struggle with time management often either don’t understand their time style preferences or actively try to work against it because they think the way they’re doing it is wrong.