When you feel it’s coming to the end of your time at a company, a resignation letter may be the resource you need to finalise your contract. It can be a nerve-wracking process. After all, you don’t want to offend anybody, and you have to get some important information across.

It’s not a legal obligation to write a resignation letter, however it is a polite, informative and decisive way to let your manager know that you have decided to move on. With that in mind, it’s important to get the written content right. So, how can you?

Target it

As mentioned, it’s likely it’s your manager you are going to write it to. No matter what your relationship is like with them, the letter still needs to be professionally addressed in a clear and concise manner. The last thing you want is it landing on the wrong desk.

Do you know when the best time of year to job hunt is? With summer holidays having drawn to a close and schools back in session, the momentum in business begins to build back up as executives ready themselves for the final push before the years’ end. If you’re searching for the next step in your career, there’s a good chance you’re wondering when the best time of year to job hunt is. Perhaps you’ve been told to hold fire by colleagues concerned that employers are solely focused on tying up loose ends – in fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Legal Assistants are essential and valuable people in the legal industry. They provide support to Lawyers and work alongside them by performing important administrative and clerical duties. They are required to have a strong knowledge of legal terms, procedures and documentation.

Legal Assistants may work with a single Lawyer, a specific practice or a group of Lawyers depending on the firm, or the size of an individual case.

Legal Assistant Duties

The preparation of legal documents which can include;

Last month we looked at the best ways for visual learners to study and process information. We learnt that people who are visual learners often respond to things such as colours, pictures, diagrams and other visual information. This month we are going to be taking a closer look at the second type of learner, the audible learner.

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

Trainee Legal Secretary - Hindles Ltd

Location: Edinburgh

Salary: Competitive

Hindles wishes to recruit a trainee Legal Secretary to work alongside their team of paralegals to provide support to their patent and trade mark attorneys. The role entails assisting the attorneys in the preparation of correspondence, forms and other documents for patent and trade mark applications, as well as other tasks.  All this work needs to be done with accuracy and considerable care and attention.

View the full job description here:   

https://www.institutelegalsecretaries.com/jobs/candidate/job/164345/

We are often asked whether you can study ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma course with no Legal Secretary experience. The answer we always give is that the course is suitable for all levels of experience from beginners to experienced professionals. Tracey Jenkins, an ILSPA Student, decided to enrol on the course when she left her position in administration. Tracey had an interest in law but had no experience in a law firm. She passed the course with a distinction, achieving an incredible grade of 99%. We spoke to Tracey to find out about her background and how she found her studies.

Have you always been interested in law, and do you come from a legal background?

The Law Society’s Conveyancing Protocol (usually just referred to as the “protocol”) first came into effect on 1 April 2011. It was replaced on 19 August 2019 with an amended version.

The original protocol was created by the Law Society to improve how conveyancing transactions were dealt with. The protocol provided a framework for firms to follow and a detailed list of ‘dos and don’ts’. Although the protocol has been described by some as ‘conveyancing by numbers’ it has brought a uniform structure to conveyancing transactions. Essentially the protocol made most firms ‘sing from the same hymn sheet’. The procedures the protocol set out are intended to ensure that clients are treated fairly and are protected, and that the entire process is dealt with more efficiently.

The protocol splits transactions into six stages:

TotallyLegal - the UK’s leading job board for legal professionals - has launched its annual salary survey and wants to hear the details of your daily working lives.

The results of the survey will detail the average salaries of Legal PAs and Secretaries across the UK, revealing whether you are adequately rewarded for your efforts or could be earning more elsewhere.

Last year, Legal PAs in our audience reported average salaries of £32,619, while Legal Secretaries took home £34,615.

More broadly, the results of last year’s survey - compiled into a comprehensive Audience Insight Report - revealed that, despite being a high profile issue, the gender pay gap continued to widen within the legal profession.

There has been a real shift over the past couple of years when it comes to preparing for an interview. Relying on your skillset and experience to speak for themselves just isn’t enough for Hiring Managers anymore, particularly when it comes to senior-level PA and EA interviews.

Not only is the market at this level incredibly competitive, but the senior stakeholders these roles support have very high expectations. Therefore, you will need to be extremely prepared for your interview and able to articulate and highlight what sets you apart from the other candidates that will be going through the same interview process.

To find out what gives certain candidates ‘the edge’ in an interview, I recently spoke to some of the top PA and Secretarial Services Managers in my network who are responsible for hiring senior-level PAs and EAs.

The law in England and Wales dealing with wills dates back to Victorian times. The current rules are based on the Wills Act 1837, while the tests to see if someone has the capacity to make a will were set out in a case from 1870.

The Law Commission has been consulting on several proposals to reform the law on wills. It is expected to report soon on proposals to modernise the law, which include:

• Changes to the test for capacity to make a will, which take into account modern medicine’s understanding of conditions like dementia;
• Statutory guidance for doctors when assessing if someone has the capacity to make a will; and
• New rules protecting someone making a will from undue influence.