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. 

I have decided to write this account of my own struggle of getting a job in the legal sector despite having a Diploma from the Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs and also to question whether transphobia exists in the legal profession.

First of all, a bit about myself: I am a 42-year-old transwoman (that is, a pre-op male-to-female transsexual), and I live in North Kent. I currently attend the Gender Identity Clinic in London about once every four months as part of the treatment. The condition is officially known as gender dysphoria, and those undergoing gender reassignment are protected under the Equality Act 2010. I am also an ex-serviceman, having served with the Regimental Band 2nd Royal Tank Regiment in the late ’80s and early ’90s. 

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

When you finish ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma and head out to find work, you will be joined by hundreds of others in just the same position you are in. It is important to be prepared for your job search and to be confident of the value you can bring to an organisation.
 
Before you apply
 
Applying for a job requires careful planning, and those who are well prepared will secure employment. A good way of going about your job search is to imagine you are employed in the business of finding yourself a job. You need to research and plan each step of the way to secure the right position.

The world of law changes on a regular basis, so Douglas Scott Legal Recruitment has kicked off its annual Big Data Survey and is inviting legal employees all over the UK to take part.

The salary and benefits benchmarker was launched last year and immediately acknowledged within the legal industry for shining a spotlight on all the issues facing legal recruitment, as well as for spotting trends within the ever-changing legal landscape. 

Last year's survey pinpointed a massive discrepancy between legal staff and their employers with regard to bonuses, which helped a number of companies target candidates more strategically. By highlighting the needs of potential recruits as well as future trends in the industry, we hope to again provide valuable insights that will make the recruitment process more effective for all concerned.

I enrolled for the Legal Secretaries Diploma course due to the fact that since I was young I always dreamt of being a Solicitor. As I grew up, I undertook experience in major law firms – Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Pinsent Masons. After these experiences my passion for law was confirmed, so I sought to look for relevant experience and to get a qualification before I began my Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL).

I really look forward to my studies every Wednesday at the Institute, mainly due to the fact that I enjoy the way my tutor teaches; he is very interactive and fully explains each module and is so willing to answer questions.

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.

“Would you say you’re a good communicator?” is a classic interview question, but the follow-up, “Explain why”, can really scupper interviewees, who might find themselves mumbling and scrabbling for examples and looking like anything but a good communicator!

Going into an interview for a Legal Secretary or PA job feeling fully prepared and confident about relevant skills will help you greatly on the day. But regardless of how much research you’ve done about the job, the firm, and its management style and global strategy, you could still be caught out by those pesky, quirky, unexpected ‘curve ball’ questions interviewers sometimes like to throw in.

While we can all agree that the autumn can be exceptionally beautiful in many ways – what with the glorious changing colours all around us – we would also tend to concur in that the dreaded colds do their rounds at this time of the year. 

If you are currently midway through studying for your Legal Secretaries Diploma with The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs, it is important to understand how we can help you.

If you have covered Constitutional Law in some detail, you will appreciate just how difficult it can be to get Private Members’ Bills pushed all the way through both houses of Parliament in order to become law. Only a very small percentage of these bills acquire Royal Assent and become statutes. Therefore, it is interesting when a Private Member’s Bill appears to be attracting more attention than usual, especially when it covers such an important aspect of family and criminal law. 

At present, there are many people who believe that the laws surrounding child neglect do not go anywhere near far enough to protect the youngest members of our society. Whilst they do cover ‘intentional neglect’, which basically means protection against physical neglect, there are absolutely no provisions in law to protect a child’s emotional, spiritual, educational and moral needs.