A career within the field of law is not all about Judges, Juries and dramatic cases fought in the courtroom.  In fact, a large proportion of legal work goes on behind the scenes in the office and is done by support staff such as Legal Secretaries.  Legal Secretaries ensure the smooth running of a legal department by providing essential administrative and managerial support.  Legal Secretaries are expected to carry out administrative duties such as producing legal documents and compiling official correspondence as well as more specific work such as conducting legal research.  Apart from office work, Legal Secretaries can also be required to attend court hearings or visit police stations from time to time. 

ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma unit relating to Wills, Administration and Procedure sets out why it is important to make a will, and the assessments for the course require Students to type a will.

It is possible to make a will without professional assistance; in fact, it is possible to pick up a draft will with basic instructions on how to complete the same from a high street stationery retailer.  Whilst this can produce a valid will, it is also very easy to make a mistake when writing the will or signing it, which can render it invalid or ambiguous. 

This is the final part of the series and I thought that I would end it with the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me in my legal career.  Before I do this, however, I just want to mention two incidents that are highlighted in my memory.

For a period in my career, when I and my family had moved down from London to Devon, in the West Country, I ran my own conveyancing practice, which became very successful – so successful that I incorporated into it a high street estate agency so that I could provide the two services under one roof: negotiate the sale and/or purchase of clients’ properties and do the conveyancing for them, all for one composite fee.

There are no specific qualifications or experiences that can prepare a person to study law. For school-leavers, A-level studies in subjects that are similar to law such as economics or politics may be beneficial but are not essential. 

However, there are a number of skills which would be beneficial to individuals who are interested in studying law:

Strong Understanding and Use of Oral and Written Language

Language is the most important tool for anybody studying or practicing in law. Students and practitioners need to be able to communicate with clients and colleagues, and language is the basic communication tool by which to get a point across, as the law, by its very nature, needs to be accurate and clear.

The mind is like a muscle; in the same way as a muscle, the mind cannot be in tension and relaxed at the same time.

Visualisation has proved one of the most effective ways to relax. It is well worth taking time to practise this as a relaxation skill. It is an experience of focused attention on images and feelings which are positive and nourishing for you, allowing you to cultivate an ever-greater sense of freedom from the distractions of mood or circumstances. 

A question a lawyer is often asked is, “How can you defend a client when you know he or she is guilty?” The answer to that, of course, is that you can only know if a client is guilty if he admits it, and if he does admit it, then, of course, you cannot run a ‘not guilty’ plea – you can plead in mitigation, bringing to the attention of the court any circumstances that you think will help the court in determining the sentence to pass, but you cannot put forward a defence to the charge, because such a defence would be spurious. However, what about a situation where your client’s instructions show that an offence has, or may have, been committed, but it is not the offence that he has been charged with?

With spring just around the corner, now that you might have a little more of a ‘spring’ in your step, this exercise builds on some of the previous relaxation exercises in a rather more active way. Believe it or not, walking promotes our relaxation response; any physical exercise produces natural, feel-good chemicals in your brain. It need not be a long walk – even 10 minutes once or twice a day makes a positive difference. Building on this distance can enhance the relaxation response and turn walking into something you can add to your relaxation repertoire in order to promote better physical and mental health overall. With practice, walking can become part of your routine of simply going to work, going home after work or, if you have a particularly stressful day, taking 10 minutes to step outside and feel refreshed.

When studying Land Law, few students expect to come across what ordinary people might regard as legalised theft. The part of the law I am referring to is known as adverse possession, which can allow a squatter to obtain rights over land – commonly referred to as ‘squatter’s rights’. This concept may seem controversial, but it is based on the notion that unused land does not benefit society as a whole. In other words, on some occasions it is better for everyone that a limited resource like land should be used by someone rather than by no one. 

The basic rules for someone to gain adverse possession are that they must prove the following:

Education in modern society has largely been a regimental process. A person is born, begins their education at an appropriate age, continues to higher schooling, and achieves education until they can secure employment! But in fact, learning is a lifelong process; we learn things constantly, every day of our lives. A variety of surveys have shown that people who undertake formal study later in life not only have the obvious benefit of gaining new knowledge, but also receive related benefits that improve their overall well-being. 

On 21 January 2013, the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) published its ‘Review of Government action on United Nations’ recommendations for strengthening children’s rights in the UK’. The report criticises the Government for failing to implement the changes recommended in a 2008 report by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child – changes which, in 2010, the Government had committed to take into consideration when enacting law and policy.