Career Advice

With businesses reopening and an end date fixed for the furlough scheme, some employers are starting a phased return of their staff. Here’s TotallyLegal’s advice for returning to work after furlough.

According to the results of Business Live’s recent Great Big Business Survey, over half of the businesses polled had taken advantage of the government’s furlough scheme since it came into effect in March, with 28.5% reporting that they had furloughed more than 75% of their workforce.

Telephone interviews continue to grow in popularity within the recruitment process, particularly for urgent roles that need filling fast or first-stage interviews. However, these can be daunting for candidates who may not have experienced one before.

During a telephone interview an employer can efficiently gain a technical understanding of your experience without having to set up a lot of time-consuming formal interviews. Thus, the employer can shorten the hiring cycle. It is therefore crucial that you make a strong first impression to ensure you are shortlisted for a formal interview and make it through to the next stage of the hiring process.

A Legal Secretary needs to be dedicated, efficient and highly organised in order for a law firm or business to run effectively.

Therefore, when interviewing for a Legal Secretary position, employers are looking for much more than good administration skills. Legal Secretaries need to demonstrate a genuine interest in the law, as well as excellent customer service skills and adaptability.

You might be interviewing for your first Legal Secretary job, or you could be an experienced candidate looking to make the move to a major law firm. Whatever your experience, we have put together some helpful tips on how to answer common Legal Secretary interview questions to reflect the best of your abilities.  

The last couple of months spent in lockdown have affected many lives in the legal industry, with staff now working from home, working reduced hours or being furloughed.

Jobs have been more scarce because many employers can’t justify bringing on new staff in these times of uncertainty, so for those who want to remain working in the legal industry, it’s been more challenging to find a new job.

The emergence of remote working has grown from a novel thought to an increasingly sought-after business perk within the legal profession. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic mandating that all types of lawyers at all types of seniority level work from home, is remote working here to stay for the considerable future?

SecsintheCity – the UK’s number one job board for PAs, Secretaries and other office support professionals – has just published the findings of its 2019 Audience Insight Report.

In autumn 2019, 4,000 office support professionals responded to our annual salary survey, providing the details of their daily working lives for a report that allows you to benchmark your current earnings and find out more about the stories and statistics behind your profession.

Responses revealed that, at 8%, Legal Secretaries and PAs make up a significant portion of our audience, while 10% of respondents said they were crafting a career in the legal sector.

Knowing how to start your CV is bound to set you apart from the rest.

There it is – the job opportunity you’ve been waiting for. The criteria reflect your experience; the responsibilities excite you and the benefits are just the cherry on top.

There’s just one problem: your CV hasn’t been updated in quite some time and could certainly do with a rewrite. If recruiters spend an average of six seconds looking at a CV before deciding whether to read on or skip to the next one, first impressions are paramount to your success. Faced with an empty template, there’s a good chance you’re wondering how to start your CV. Fortunately, we’ve broken the process up into seven easy steps you can follow to create a winning professional resumé:

1.    Pick a simple format

Writing your personal statement can certainly be tough, but this easy how-to should help.

It’s the first thing a prospective employer will read when they open your CV – for that reason, it’s also the first thing many ambitious job hunters struggle with when making their application.

On the surface, the task of writing a summary of your value as an employee seems straightforward: it’s only a few lines, after all. Yet, considering the competition in the market and the fact that even one spelling or grammar mistake can cause your resumé to be discarded, there’s a lot resting on the profile section of your CV.

Ten years ago, the role of a personal assistant was heavily centred around administrative skills – typing, minute taking, diary management and so on. Now, as we enter a new decade, it is safe to say that the role of the PA has evolved along with technology and a shift in working practices.

Today, the duties of a Personal Assistant stretch far beyond admin – they are now taking on more and more responsibility in the lives of their bosses, clients and the companies they work for.

The role of a modern PA is constantly changing, and no one knows it better than PAs themselves. In this article, we highlight some key skills and top tips that will help you excel as a PA in 2020.

Project Management

As the cost of the services of a talented Solicitor or Barrister skyrockets, and a reduction in legal aid continues, fewer consumers are finding that they can afford costly legal services. They are searching for an alternative.

Paralegals are emerging as that alternative, but the profession still remains an unknown quantity to all but the professional Paralegals themselves, particularly in the eyes of qualified lawyers, who believe Paralegals are simply “would-be Solicitors”.