A legal secretary provides administrative support to solicitors and other legal executives. Typing letters, creating legal documents, working with dictation notes, answering correspondence from clients, keeping records and attending courts or police cells with their employers are common tasks.
Here we list a number of UK recruitment agencies with particular experience in filling legal secretary positions with legal enterprises and organisations across the country.
Entry requirements
There are no set qualifications for this role, although prospective employers are likely to look for good GCSE grades in English, along with experience in office environments " such as temporary office work, known as temping.
Temping work may be easier to obtain following a course in secretarial studies, computing, typing or audio transcription.
A course specifically in legal secretarial skills may also be of help, although good general administration skills and a working knowledge of the law should suffice.
Most legal secretarial work is full time, 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, but part time and temporary work may also be available. Work is generally carried in the office environment, although some work external work may be done, delivering documents or attending police stations or courts with employers.
Salaries
Depending on location, salaries legal secretarial staff start at between £12,000 and £20,000, climbing to between £20,000 and £30,000 as experience is gained. Those with many qualifications in high profile law firms may earn up to £36,000 per year.