The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs is delighted to announce that our evening classes are returning to Regent’s University on Wednesday 13 September 2023. Regent’s University is situated in Regent’s Park in the heart of London. The beautiful architecture and setting provide an impressive and tranquil learning environment.
SecsintheCity, the UK’s number one specialist job site for PAs, EAs and business support professionals, has published the results of its 2023 salary survey. Over 1,500 professionals detailed the intricate insights of their working lives, shining a light on salaries, bonuses and benefits.
We don’t often come across court decisions concerning trespass, but it is an interesting area of law to delve into. In a way, it is similar to the tort of nuisance but more divided. For example, trespass encompasses trespass to the person (assault and battery), false imprisonment (including wrongful arrest) and trespass to goods and conversion. Trespass and nuisance are often seen banded together, which is much more common, but not so common as the tort of negligence, which is the ‘leader of the pack’, so to speak. Historically, trespass is possibly one of oldest of the torts. Why? Because this tort basically applies to land and, historically, land was the most important of things.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the amount of people working from home has increased from 4.7% to 38%. For many, remote working offers a better work-life balance and greater comfort than working in the office. The trouble is, it can be difficult to access training and development opportunities when working outside of a traditional office environment. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to upskill yourself as a remote legal secretary or PA. Here are three ways to grow your skill set and develop your career.
1. Learn how to use the latest digital communication tools
Whether you are studying, working, or both, a well-focused mind is an essential tool. So, how can you ensure that your brain is working as efficiently as possible?
Practice mindfulness
"Mindfulness is about focusing attention on the present moment, and practising mindfulness has been shown to rewire the brain so that attention is stronger in everyday life," says Dr Kim Willment, a neuropsychologist from Boston. She recommends taking a moment each day, even if for just a couple of minutes, to sit quietly and refocus your mind. By paying attention to what you are doing and the sensations around you, this small habit helps you to centre yourself and regain clarity.
Train your brain
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.
For many years now, the nationwide team at Heat Recruitment, have been collating retrospective analytical data from their in-house software systems. This has allowed them to create a comparative salary data set across all the sectors that they work in, including legal. They formalise this data and make it more widely available in the form of a Salary Survey.
Their previous Salary Surveys have been very successful at allowing legal professionals, including legal support staff, to gain further understanding of what salaries they could expect year on year. As well as showing how their current salary stood up to the average, and revealing what trends were noticeable in their sector at that time.
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.