Do you feel your email writing skills are of a high-enough standard and there is little, if anything, you can learn further? Tut-tut, my friends! The simple fact of the matter is that from time to time we could all do with a refresher course in how to create a professional email.  

If you work as a Legal Secretary or PA, your communication must be of the highest professional standard. You need to keep in mind that clients will always expect 100% professionalism when they are paying law firms for their work. Never feel that it is acceptable to be a little more casual when it comes to sending emails in a business or professional capacity – it really is not!

If you work in family law as a Legal Secretary or PA, you will already be fully aware of the fact that this branch of the legal system has just experienced what many people are calling a revolution of change. New laws connected with family law have just come into force (April 2014), and for the most part, people are hopeful that they will mean some changes for the better in this area of law; however, others have concerns that the new laws could lead to a whole new set of problems.

The biggest change is the fact that the previous three-tier court system in family law has now been replaced by a single combined court. This is all primarily aimed at making this area of law more accessible and expeditious when it comes to dealing with around 270,000 such family law cases each and every year.

How committed are you to having a career you absolutely love?

Your level of commitment plays a key role in the process of creating a fulfilling career.  When people are undercommitted to their careers, they tend to get lousy results.  When they get clear about what they want and commit themselves to creating it, however long it takes, they usually get there in some fashion.

Action reveals commitment

How do you know how committed you are?  You can tell by your actions… by what you consider important enough to carve out time for.

Receiving rejection letters, emails and phone calls can be a tough part of the job-hunting process. Worse still are those days of hearing nothing at all, even when you’ve slogged over countless application forms. But try your best to fight despondency. Now is the time for inner strength and renewed energy. To keep on track until your ideal NQ solicitor, paralegal or legal secretary job is in the bag, it’s vital to stay focused and positive.

Legal jobs take multiple forms, but the skills needed to excel are the same for any position in law.

Whether you are an aspiring or qualified Lawyer, Paralegal, Secretary, Conveyancer or any other role in the profession, Anna Pitts of the Graduate Recruitment Bureau brings you the 10 essential traits you need for a career in law. For anyone looking to begin their career in law, especially if you are about to graduate, this is essential reading!

1. Organisation

Legal professionals can’t afford to be unorganised. You’ll be running on a tight schedule, and clients will be counting on you to be prompt and reliable. If running like clockwork isn’t your strong point, use a diary, daily planner and even Post-its if you need to, to get organised.

2. Teamwork

Does it come as a surprise to you that legal apprenticeships exist? There are a good number of ways in which you could complete a legal apprenticeship, and for many people this may be preferable to following a LLB law degree route.

Legal apprenticeships allow you to study to become a fully qualified Legal Executive at the same time as working and earning in a legal firm. The pay can be low whilst you study to become qualified – often only at the national minimum wage – but when you take into consideration the fact that you are being paid to gain a valuable qualification and experience, this does appear to be an excellent path to take.

Are you getting a sense of déjà vu here? Haven’t we heard this promise somewhere before? Yes to both of these questions: indeed, the Conservative Party used this enticement in their manifesto for the General Election back in 2010. However, when push came to shove and they were prompted to deliver on such a promise, they said they were unable to go ahead with this tax break after all, as the Liberal Democrats were so vehemently opposed to this move.

Most of our readers will spend a lot of time working with Microsoft Outlook as it is probably the most widely used mail and calendar client in organisations today. Here are some helpful keyboard shortcuts to lessen the time you spend in your Outlook in-box.

1. Open the address book with the ‘to’ field selected: ALT + .

2. Open the address book with the ‘bcc’ field selected: ALT + B

3. Move to the subject field: ALT + J

4. Check names in ‘to’ and ‘cc’ fields against the address book: ALT + K

5. Reply all: ALT + L

6. Reply: ALT + R

7. Send: ALT + S

8. Forward an item: ALT + W (will open a weekly calendar view if you are in the calendar)

9. Activate the find toolbar: F3

10. Spellcheck: F7

11. Select all: CTRL + A

12. Forward a message: CTRL + F

The skill to portray a good telephone manner is definitely one of the most important to your role in working as a Legal Secretary or PA. How you come across on the telephone affects the professionalism of your firm and, therefore, its reputation.

With this in mind, let’s treat this article as a gentle reminder of how best to develop a good telephone manner. There may well be some aspects here that had never occurred to you, and there may be some other things you do that are bad enough to warrant a visit from the ‘etiquette police’.

Applicable Salutations

First and foremost, we need to look at the applicable salutations you are using. It is always most professional to greet the caller with the relevant time of day (e.g. “Good morning/afternoon”), followed by the name of the company and then your name.

When you realise that you have many bad or mediocre habits that are holding you back in life, you may start to feel overwhelmed. Where should you begin?

Here’s a simple heuristic that will help you identify which habits to change first:

Add the Best and Drop the Worst

Let’s start with the first part.

Can you identify some of the absolute best habits you could add to your life, such that if you maintained these habits every day for the next 10 years, it would make a huge difference in your results?

Go ahead and brainstorm a few ideas. Jot them down. You don’t need a lot — a small handful of ideas are fine.

Now is there a certain idea that pops out at you? It may be on your short list, or you may come up with a new idea.