Professional Development

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!

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.

There is no fatigue so wearisome as that which comes from lack of work. – Charles Spurgeon

If you’ve been stuck in a lazy rut lately, here are some suggestions to get yourself working productively.

Accept That Many Results Require Hard Work

Remind yourself of the simple causality chain from decision to action to results. That middle phase is where most of the work is.

If you have no willingness to ever work your ass off, if you have such resistance to the very notion of pushing yourself, if you have an overdeveloped sense of entitlement that all the goodness of life should flow to you with effortless ease, that’s great. You can read this article purely for entertainment purposes.

“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw

Those legal professionals who are effective in client communications are those who stop, for just a moment, to reflect upon who their clients are, the client’s personal makeup and whether they are in the legal field familiar with legal terminology. To be effective is to know that both the receiver’s and the communicator’s interests and backgrounds are considered. That means a good communicator has listened to his receiver.

The new year is a great time to make a fresh start and focus on what you would like to do to improve your life in both personal and professional ways. You may think about behaving more mindfully with your family, friends or colleagues; working more efficiently in your job; or dedicating more time to your studies.

Naturally, we have a fundamental human desire to better ourselves and to gain a sense of fulfilment in what we do. Willpower alone is often not enough to make changes. We can, however, hone skills to help us create a successful life.

Increasing your knowledge of law will help you be better prepared to enter the workforce or succeed in your current role. Legal events and updates happen daily and Members who go that extra mile will be much more confident and helpful to their employers and potential clients.

There are numerous ways to locate legal resources on the Internet, but if you are a Member of the Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs, there is no need to look any further than the Membership area of our main website or our Legal Secretary Journal. 

Matrimonial and Family Law is a common legal area which lawyers deal with. If you are interested in learning about this area of law because it holds a particular interest for you or you would like to better your job prospects, read on.

The best place to start with this subject is, ironically, the end. When a couple decide that their relationship has ended, there will inevitably be a number of things that must be dealt with. This might include childcare, financial matters and housing. Many couples choose to separate and make informal arrangements to avoid the need for a court to decide the issues. In this article we will consider the example of a married couple that is not able to reach an informal arrangement.

Formal steps to become divorced

In my younger days people would say that shorthand and typing were “such useful skills” and that one would scarcely be out of a job with such aptitudes tucked under one’s belt.

‘Shorthand’ includes many types both written with the pen and produced by machines. Pitman, Gregg and Teeline are renowned pen methods, whereas Stenotype and Palantype are well-known machine systems.

As a Legal Secretary or PA, you may be required to proofread a document before it is sent out. This means checking it over carefully yourself or reading it out loud with someone else who also has a copy. You may even be asked to just look something over for someone. If you are given a proofreading task, it is useful to know some tips, as it can be easy to read the body of the text quickly and not notice small, but important, errors.

Firstly, make it easy to read. When checking a document, try to do so from a paper copy, rather than reading it from a computer screen. If the document has a particularly small font, it is helpful to enlarge it so it is then easier to read.

Consistency