The idea of being able to study a complete course from the comfort of your own home certainly sounds like an attractive proposition for many people. It allows you to enrol for courses that do not offer classes in your area, study at your own pace and fit your work around your existing commitments, to name but a few of the benefits. However, this style of learning may require many students to rethink their study methods and mind-set, especially if they are new to the concept. This is why we have produced a list of 10 top tips to help you with your distance learning and hopefully achieve a good grade. 

1.    Set enough time aside to study

There is nothing worse than cramming your studies into a few minutes that you have managed to grab in your busy schedule. Be sensible here and allocate a sufficient amount of time for studying each week.

If you are studying ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma course, you will be familiar with the elements of offer, acceptance and intention in regards to contracts. Whilst these elements of the law of contract should make perfect sense to you, the elements of consideration might be a little trickier to understand.

For many centuries, the English legal system struggled to produce a clear definition for the contractual element of consideration. However, towards the end of the nineteenth century, the case of Currie v. Misa (1875) LR 10 Ex 153 came along and allowed Lush J to define consideration in the following way:

Amy Marsden, EA to the CEO at WorldRemit, was announced as PA of the Year 2016, at an awards ceremony hosted by SecsintheCity, the UK’s #1 job site for PAs and Executive Assistants. 

The awards ceremony was held at The Ivy Restaurant on Thursday 10th November. 

The winners of the PA of the Year Awards 2016 are: 

-    PA of the Year – Amy Marsden, World Remit
-    Social Media PA of the Year – Janice Parker, Odgers Berndtson 
-    Legal PA of the Year – Georgie Theobald, Facebook
-    Outstanding Achievement Award – Sue Fletcher, Department of Health 

Amy Marsden is EA to the CEO at WorldRemit, an online money transfer provider – a role she was headhunted into in September. Following the announcement, Amy said: “I’m overwhelmed to have won SecsintheCity’s PA of the Year Award 2016. 

Here is a selection of vacancies from our Legal Secretary Jobs Board this month:

Legal Secretaries – Girlings
Location: East Kent 
Salary: c. £19,000

Girlings, a leading East Kent firm with offices in Canterbury, Ashford and Herne Bay, is currently seeking competent Legal Secretaries with experience in Private Client, Family and Residential Conveyancing.

View the full job description here: 
https://www.institutelegalsecretaries.com/jobs/candidate/job/64879/ 

Part-Time Conveyancing Secretary/PA – Rosenberg & Co
Location: Hampstead
Salary: £18,000 - £22,000 depending on experience 

We would like to share some exciting news with you. ILSPA graduate Georgie Theobald won the Legal PA of the Year Award with Secsinthecity last month.  

The PA of the Year awards were founded by Secsinthecity to provide recognition for the hard work and professionalism performed by PAs. The awards have been running for 5 years and each year the organisation receives nominations for dedicated PAs throughout the country. This year, Secsinthecity received over 400 entries with categories such as Legal PA of the Year, Social Media PA of the Year, PA of the Year as well as an Outstanding Achievement category.

We are delighted to announce that our new online test system has been released.  Students can now complete the achievement tests for their courses through our website and no longer need to email them to our Course Assessor.  

The online test system is a great facility for our Students.  They are now able to complete their coursework with greater ease due to having everything in one place.  Students have the benefit of receiving their test results instantly after submission and our system is able to show them their correct answers, whilst helping them to learn which questions they got wrong. 

ILSPA's Chief Executive, Emma Stacey, expressed:

Planning to get involved

Work experience is one of the best opportunities for you to learn more about Legal Secretary work, employment opportunities and to support your studies of ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma course.  You may have completed a legal work experience placement in the past or have significant previous experience in a non-legal environment.

Before you commenced your studies through The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs, it is likely you had a good idea of the area of law in which you would like to work.  However, if this is not the case and you are still pondering exactly what you should do after your course, hopefully this article will provide you with some inspiration and show you that the legal industry is indeed a very diverse one.

The diversity of this industry derives mainly from the multifaceted nature of our legal system itself. When people first consider studying towards any legal qualification, their minds are usually drawn to criminal law. Due to myriad television programmes and films constantly portraying and even glamourizing this pillar of the law, it goes without saying that this seems a very exciting and appealing area to work in.

Off the top of your head, what’s the best thing about the internet? Is it that you’re able to see as well as talk to friends and family members on the other side of the world? Is it that you can listen at any time of the day or night to practically any music track you can think of? Or is it simply that you’re never more than a minute away from a really cute cat video? 

All of these things are great. But I think that the best thing about the internet is the ability to connect with people you might otherwise never have come across, and to pool your knowledge and resources together: in other words, to network. 

Here is a selection of vacancies from our Legal Secretary Jobs Board this month:

Legal Secretaries – Girlings
Location: East Kent 
Salary: c. £19,000

Girlings, a leading East Kent firm with offices in Canterbury, Ashford and Herne Bay, are currently seeking competent Legal Secretaries with experience in Private Client, Family and Residential Conveyancing.

View the full job description here: 
https://www.institutelegalsecretaries.com/jobs/candidate/job/64879/ 

Junior Secretary – Gregsons Solicitors
Location: Wimbledon
Salary: up to £20K depending on experience