If you’d have told me 20 years ago that I would now be working as a Legal Secretary, I would have laughed.

I always wanted to be a Medical Secretary, as I had always been interested in that sort of environment. So after college, my dream came true and I started to work at my local hospital as a relief Medical Secretary. I loved my job and looked forward to every working day.

When I met my future husband, I left the hospital and moved 250 miles south. I was offered a post as a Legal Secretary in the personal injury department of a local Solicitor’s office, and suffice to say, I wasn’t overly enthusiastic.

How wrong I was. My knowledge of medical terminology stood me in good stead; however, I must have annoyed my colleagues with endless questions regarding legal jargon and the whys and wherefores of legal practice! 

In a previous article I mentioned that Google Docs has a marketplace for third-party add-ons. These five add-ons will improve your workflow dramatically. To install any of these add-ons, you simply click “Add-ons” from within your Docs editor. Find the add-on and click the blue box with a plus sign in it.

1.    EasyBib Citation and Bibliography Generator

EasyBib makes bibliographies and citations even easier than using Docs’ handy referencing side bar. You can search the web and academic journals and even drill down to content on a specific website. EasyBib lets you format your citations using three popular standards.

http://easybib.com

2.    Vertex Template Gallery

Family law is in need of an update, according to the interim report of a working group set up by Sir James Munby, head of the Family Division. This isn’t necessarily surprising and may well be overdue, as the Family Court is falling behind the Crown Court in regard to how it treats vulnerable witnesses. Given that many of the witnesses who speak in the Family Court are children and others who might be considered ‘vulnerable’, there is an obvious need for this to be addressed.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has stated that the government needs to get to the bottom of allegations against politicians over child abuse claims in the 1980s. Speaking from India, where he is touring with the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, Osborne said: “We need to get to the truth…We need to get to the bottom of what happened in many of our institutions, including potentially at Westminster.”

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has been asked to set up an inquiry into how the Home Office handled the allegations at the time. There has also been a call for a full public inquiry to run alongside a criminal investigation.

A Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme can be very beneficial for your career. By advancing your knowledge and skills, you can be confident that you are working at the top end of your profession. You will be competent in your role and enjoy a rewarding career.

CPD programmes can prove to be a useful tool when trying to understand your strengths and weaknesses within the workplace. You can focus on the specific areas that you need to work on, enabling you to improve your skills.

If you are prepared to put in the time and effort to be part of a CPD programme, you can reap many benefits.

Benefits of a CPD programme

ILSPA is delighted to launch our new website. After months of planning, preparations, and the wonderful work of our design and IT team, our vision has become a reality.

Our new site has been designed with our visitors, Members and Students in mind. We have aimed to make the site easier to navigate and have presented information in a way which is clearer, more accessible and visually appealing.

With the fantastic launch of ILSPA’s new website comes our new Legal Secretaries Diploma course.

We have added an additional unit to the course on Family Law and Practice, which means that Students will have even better job prospects once they have qualified. The course now covers the four most common practice areas which are worked on in law firms and legal departments.

Not only have we added an extra unit to the course, but Students are now able to study online. The online course material provides a learning aid for both distance learning and evening class Students.

All the course material can be accessed through the Membership area of our website, which includes a wealth of Student resources to help and support Students throughout their studies.

A Document Management System (DMS) is a computer software package that records, tracks and stores electronic documents. The type and size of the system for each law firm can vary, but employees are always individually trained, based on the type of document management system that they are using. Then they can use the law firm’s in-house system with the knowledge that is required in handling such sensitive information that is dealt with in this type of profession.

This month we are continuing our review of recent changes to Civil Litigation Procedure. Our focus in this article will be on a new procedure that must be followed before any Court action can be taken in road traffic claims (RTAs), claims against employers or public liability claims. This procedure is referred to as the RTA pre-action protocols.

We are delighted to share some wonderful news with you. Rebecca Saville, who won the title of Up and Coming Legal PA of the Year, recently passed the Legal Secretaries Diploma course and received a distinction for her work. Well done, Rebecca! 

Every year, Strictly Recruitment holds the Legal PA of the Year Awards in London. They launched the awards in 2012 to recognise the vital role Legal PAs, Secretaries, Support Staff Managers and Team Leaders play in the industry. The awards are the only scheme of this kind to be fully supported by the legal profession.