2014

As a Legal Secretary, you are sometimes called on to take the minutes in a meeting and afterwards transcribe them. The taking and transcribing of minutes is a very valuable skill once perfected. However, it can be daunting if you are inexperienced or lack confidence.

If this is you, then panic not – DeskDemon.com has compiled 15 top tips on the subject. 

1.    Take Diaries to Meetings

Always take your diary (and your manager’s if need be) to meetings so you can ensure that the next dates fixed are suitable.

2.    Be at the Meeting Room Early

Get to the meeting room before the others. Set out papers, glasses, water carafe, stationery, etc. in advance, and be sure to note who is present and who sent apologies for absence.

3.    Use Abbreviations and Symbols

If you are looking for an interesting, varied and fulfilling job, then becoming a Legal Secretary is the career path for you. It’s not just law firms and Barrister’s chambers but also local authorities which need to rely on the skills and services of a good Legal Secretary, and most financial firms and large companies have Secretaries working in their legal department. This gives you great scope to choose the sort of working environment which would best suit you.

There are lots of different reasons to become a Legal Secretary, including the varied working life, the opportunities to advance your career and increase your earning potential, and the chance to learn about our legal system in depth so that you gain a better understanding of how it governs our society.

Variety

Last month, we highlighted the useful online portal to key legal websites for Students created by the Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs. These were sites that have been identified as some of the most useful in helping you to keep your legal knowledge up to date both when studying and when in practice. 

This month, we are highlighting a dozen more legal websites as further places on the Internet where you can find useful sources of law and information. There are literally hundreds of potential places to find legal resources on the Internet. The sites we have identified are those which we feel contain the right amount of detail and focus on areas of law that you are most likely to come across in legal practice. 

Smartphones and tablets have already revolutionized our lives – allowing us to shop on the go, apply for jobs, take and send photos and video clips, email from the beach, and instantly access maps as and when we need them.

A recent British survey found that we spend roughly 23 days a year looking at our phones. They really are a part of our lives, so it makes sense to try to use them to improve our productivity – rather than letting them hold us back from getting things done.

New apps are being developed all the time, and many of them can be used to make everyday life more manageable. Here are a few that could make your working day run more smoothly:

If you’re looking for a way to advance your skills and progress your career, you might consider taking one of our Single Subject Legal Advanced courses. These courses are designed for Students and Members who want to learn more about specific legal areas, enabling them to specialise in certain fields, gain new jobs, or earn promotions with a current employer. These courses are available for you to work on at your own pace, and you can start at any time of the year.

Course Level

Our advanced-level courses provide an in-depth understanding of specific areas of law, helping you not only master the subject but also gain paralegal skills that may help you advance your overall career. Upon passing an advanced-level course, you will receive a Diploma Certificate.

Course Subjects

Small talk matters in the business arena. It’s part of good business etiquette and helps build rapport with others. Small talk often leads to bigger things such as new clients and new business. Here are five timeless tips to enhance your ability to make small talk anywhere your business takes you:

1. Keep the spotlight on others

Be genuinely interested in others. It’s about them, not you. Get the other person talking by asking open-ended questions: the who, what, when, where, how, why questions. Ask about their job. If they are new in town, ask where they previously lived and worked. People will think you are fascinating if you get them to talk about themselves and their interests. 

2. Be well read

Setting continuing professional development goals is one way to ensure that your career keeps moving in a positive direction. Not only does CPD help you keep your skills honed and ready for the workplace, but it can also pave the way for advancement in your career and possibly even a transition to a new and exciting position. We encourage all Members of the Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs to engage in continuing professional development so that they can get the most out of their careers.

Of course, CPD is most effective when you have a clear idea of what you hope to achieve. Setting continuing professional development goals is one way to accomplish this. By taking the time to develop and set goals, you not only define exactly what you wish to achieve but also map out a plan to accomplish it.

Professional Development

Last month, an article appeared in our journal about how you can gain valuable paralegal skills to advance your career. AH Paralegal Training provide an excellent course which can help you do just that, and it is taught by our wonderful tutor Amanda Hamilton. The AH Paralegal Practical Skills Course can be taken as a four-day intensive training programme or as a distance-learning course.  

Some employers look for Paralegal Secretaries who not only can perform Legal Secretary/PA work but who also have extra paralegal skills that they can utilise. It is also common for Legal Secretaries to advance their careers by acquiring paralegal skills so they can take on more responsibilities.

AH Paralegal Training are offering a special concessionary rate to ILSPA Students or graduates as follows:

Residential conveyancing in England and Wales is about to undergo a change thanks to a new online system called Veyo. The new online conveyancing system will allow for easy access to information and documents for purchasers, mortgage lenders, estate agents, and government agencies such as HM Land Registry and HM Revenue and Customs. This will not only bring conveyancing into the modern age but also give solicitors and licensed conveyancers more control over what information is shared and with whom. Once the system is fully implemented, the entire conveyancing process will be streamlined and made much more secure than under current conveyancing methods.

Conveyancing for the Digital Age

Being able to research in order to update your knowledge is a fundamental skill when studying law. In the Legal Secretaries Diploma course you learn about legal principles and how they relate to one another. To help you extend your knowledge and keep up to date with legal developments, the Institute have created a portal on their website giving you easy access to some key websites. These websites include those for various organisations Students learn about in the Diploma course such as the Houses of Parliament, the Law Commission, and the Law Society. In this article we will explain why the websites on ILSPA’s portal might be useful to you both during your studies and after you have qualified.

Finding and securing a job can be a protracted, often frustrating activity, but there are ways to streamline your search for the perfect law role, cutting out time and stress as you go. A massive trend in recent years has been the growth of highly targeted, specialist job boards, covering just about every career sector under the sun – from law to automotive to aviation to sales to travel sector jobs, to name just a few.

An article was last published in this Journal about the law of intestacy in 2009. There had been a Law Commission paper published on the 29th October 2009 with a number of proposals that might be formed into a new bill. Well, nearly five years later that proposed bill has been made into an Act of Parliament as the Inheritance and Trustees’ Powers Act 2014, receiving royal assent on the 14th May. The commencement date for the Act is the 1st October. So what has changed?

Key changes include simplifying how assets are shared when someone dies intestate and recognising more modern family structures (i.e. the fact that many in today’s society choose to cohabit rather than marry). 

The Intestacy Rule Changes 

The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs recently introduced a new Family Law unit to its Legal Secretaries Diploma course. This month we are considering possible changes to the law relating to marital property and prenuptial agreements. 

A prenuptial agreement is the term commonly used to describe a range of different agreements. These agreements are designed to set forth how property and finances will be dealt with if a married couple separate. A prenuptial agreement is one entered into before a marriage. A postnuptial or separation agreement is one entered into after marriage. 

Paralegals play an important part in the legal profession, helping Lawyers with cases, research and paperwork. While the Lawyer that a Paralegal works for is ultimately responsible for the work that is done, most Lawyers rely heavily on the services that Paralegals provide. Because paralegal work is so demanding, additional training can be useful in helping Paralegals develop new skills and advance their careers. Although there are a variety of options available to get this training, choosing the AH Paralegal Practical Skills Course can help existing Paralegals, and those wishing to become Paralegals, develop needed skills without undertaking months’ worth of study in addition to their regular work.

Who Is the Course Suitable For?

Legal Secretaries have an important role in a legal office, providing administrative support to the Lawyers of the firm, and they are a vital part of the cooperative efforts of legal teams. Legal Secretaries need to have not only significant administrative and organisational skills, but also need familiarity with legal procedures and the law in general. Of course, the more specialised training a Legal Secretary has, the more valuable he or she is to the firm.

You’ve found a job sent from the employment gods. You’re perfect, the company is perfect and the interview will be only a formality.

Before you apply and change your life forever, there is one vital thing to remember.

The CV.

Have you fallen foul of the classic CV mistakes that hundreds of thousands of job seekers make when applying for jobs? Well, with our guidance, you’re guaranteed to avoid the dreaded “no pile” and get that interview.

1.    Spellcheck

Despite the obvious problems it presents, you wouldn’t believe the number of CVs that have grammatical errors and typos in them when sent to prospective employers. If your CV has spelling errors, it WILL be binned, no question.

In the eyes of the employer, if your attention to detail is poor enough to allow typos, what does that say about you as a person and a worker?

Whereas “the Magic Circle” may not be the official name of the group of UK law firms that the term denotes, there is definitely some magic surrounding the firms. The Magic Circle are a group of five firms that are considered to be the leading law firms in the UK. All five are headquartered within the UK itself with offices around the world. Although some of the firms traditionally rank among the top earners in the world each year, all of them command the respect of clients around the world.

Here are the five members of the Magic Circle, as well as some information on what makes each one so special.

Allen & Overy

Family law is in need of an update, according to the interim report of a working group set up by Sir James Munby, head of the Family Division. This isn’t necessarily surprising and may well be overdue, as the Family Court is falling behind the Crown Court in regard to how it treats vulnerable witnesses. Given that many of the witnesses who speak in the Family Court are children and others who might be considered ‘vulnerable’, there is an obvious need for this to be addressed.

In a previous article I mentioned that Google Docs has a marketplace for third-party add-ons. These five add-ons will improve your workflow dramatically. To install any of these add-ons, you simply click “Add-ons” from within your Docs editor. Find the add-on and click the blue box with a plus sign in it.

1.    EasyBib Citation and Bibliography Generator

EasyBib makes bibliographies and citations even easier than using Docs’ handy referencing side bar. You can search the web and academic journals and even drill down to content on a specific website. EasyBib lets you format your citations using three popular standards.

http://easybib.com

2.    Vertex Template Gallery

If you’d have told me 20 years ago that I would now be working as a Legal Secretary, I would have laughed.

I always wanted to be a Medical Secretary, as I had always been interested in that sort of environment. So after college, my dream came true and I started to work at my local hospital as a relief Medical Secretary. I loved my job and looked forward to every working day.

When I met my future husband, I left the hospital and moved 250 miles south. I was offered a post as a Legal Secretary in the personal injury department of a local Solicitor’s office, and suffice to say, I wasn’t overly enthusiastic.

How wrong I was. My knowledge of medical terminology stood me in good stead; however, I must have annoyed my colleagues with endless questions regarding legal jargon and the whys and wherefores of legal practice! 

Any legal case can involve a lot of paperwork, especially in large cases or cases in which one party is attempting to make a large number of claims against the other. Both parties may present evidence or make statements to help tell their side of the story, and this evidence may be presented in the form of a statement of case. While some countries, such as the United States, use a single form for these statements and use them merely to provide background information about the case being heard, English law gives a much more significant role to these statements in civil legal proceedings.

ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma course covers Civil Litigation, and Students learn exactly what statements of case consist of. One of our achievement test questions covers this area of practice, so we would like to support our Students’ studies with this article.

Legal Secretaries have to deal with a wide range of correspondence throughout the day. They not only interact with peers and colleagues on a daily basis, but also must effectively communicate with lawyers and other legal professionals regularly. This includes not only face-to-face communication, but also phone calls, email, written correspondence, and in some cases teleconferencing or other live video. Because of this, solid interpersonal and communication skills are a necessity when working in the legal field.

People Skills

This month we are continuing our review of recent changes to Civil Litigation Procedure. Our focus in this article will be on a new procedure that must be followed before any Court action can be taken in road traffic claims (RTAs), claims against employers or public liability claims. This procedure is referred to as the RTA pre-action protocols.

A Document Management System (DMS) is a computer software package that records, tracks and stores electronic documents. The type and size of the system for each law firm can vary, but employees are always individually trained, based on the type of document management system that they are using. Then they can use the law firm’s in-house system with the knowledge that is required in handling such sensitive information that is dealt with in this type of profession.

A Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme can be very beneficial for your career. By advancing your knowledge and skills, you can be confident that you are working at the top end of your profession. You will be competent in your role and enjoy a rewarding career.

CPD programmes can prove to be a useful tool when trying to understand your strengths and weaknesses within the workplace. You can focus on the specific areas that you need to work on, enabling you to improve your skills.

If you are prepared to put in the time and effort to be part of a CPD programme, you can reap many benefits.

Benefits of a CPD programme

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has stated that the government needs to get to the bottom of allegations against politicians over child abuse claims in the 1980s. Speaking from India, where he is touring with the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, Osborne said: “We need to get to the truth…We need to get to the bottom of what happened in many of our institutions, including potentially at Westminster.”

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has been asked to set up an inquiry into how the Home Office handled the allegations at the time. There has also been a call for a full public inquiry to run alongside a criminal investigation.

This month we are reviewing some of the recent changes to UK Courts that came into effect this year. We will start by considering changes to the Civil Courts and their procedure and finish our roundup with some changes to the Criminal Courts.

The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2014, together with the 69th update to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR), came into force at the end of April 2014 and brought in several changes to Civil Litigation. Two of the main changes are the introduction of the single County Court and new civil judgment enforcement procedure.

Single County Court

For some Legal Secretaries and PAs, acquiring Paralegal skills is a natural progression in their careers. Many ILSPA Members gain experience naturally through work at their firms or have taken  specific courses of study to further their skills. Legal Secretaries have a great opportunity to advance their careers in this respect and can be fee earners in their own right.

Working as a Legal Secretary will often mean dealing with clients and customers. As is the case with any service industry, it is imperative to show these clients the highest level of customer service skills at all times, especially considering how handsomely they may be paying for their legal advice and support. Here is some advice to ensure that your customer service skills are always at their best.

Respect

Whatever your position within a legal firm, you should display the highest level of respect for your customers. Remember that they are paying your wages and they have choices elsewhere if your firm is failing to deliver. An open and empathetic attitude should be combined with a willingness to help.  You need to make every customer’s experience with your firm as pleasant and smooth as possible.

The Children and Families Act 2014 introduces fundamental changes to the way in which children in care will be dealt with. This Act seems to cover everything, from banning smoking in cars to how the most vulnerable children with special needs should be treated. This legislation represents one of the biggest shake-ups in childcare seen in decades.

One of the most important features of the Children and Families Act 2014 is expediting the adoption process, in terms of both attempting to make it easier to adopt children and reducing the length of time that care proceedings take through the court system, with a new maximum of 26 weeks.

Expediting the Adoption System

Employment law changes are coming into effect. Now that it is June, ACAS early conciliation is in place and more is to come with regards to employment laws. The laws are changing as a way to help employees and employers; however, there has been some concern about the cost to employers. Find out what the updates are so that you can remain ahead of the game.

ACAS Conciliation

Online research can take a lot of time, especially if you do not take care to manage your bookmarks properly. There are many tools available for keeping your bookmarked pages ordered properly so that you always know where to find that interesting snippet of information you found last night at 1 a.m.

Firefox Sync

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/sync/

This is a web application which can sync all your bookmarks across your devices. Firefox Sync allows you to access a bookmark you found at work on your iPad, phone or laptop.

Xmarks

http://xmarks.com/

Telephone etiquette is a very important area of Legal Secretary work. There are ways in which to answer the telephone professionally and to take a message when needed. Taking the message incorrectly, especially when working as a Legal Secretary, as a PA or in other legal capacities at an office, can lead to problematic situations for the caller’s case or even for their overall faith in the firm’s competence.

One Rule to Always Remember

The person who answers the phone acts as the representative of the company. Whenever you pick up a call, whether you answer the phone often and take messages or you answer it just once in a while, you are the representative. You are the one who is making an impression on the person at the other end of the phone.

Answering the Phone Appropriately

I started working in the legal profession in 1975 when I left school.  I have worked for the same firm all my working life and thoroughly enjoy my job. 

Receiving rejection letters, emails and phone calls can be a tough part of the job-hunting process. Worse still are those days of hearing nothing at all, even when you’ve slogged over countless application forms. But try your best to fight despondency. Now is the time for inner strength and renewed energy. To keep on track until your ideal NQ solicitor, paralegal or legal secretary job is in the bag, it’s vital to stay focused and positive.

How committed are you to having a career you absolutely love?

Your level of commitment plays a key role in the process of creating a fulfilling career.  When people are undercommitted to their careers, they tend to get lousy results.  When they get clear about what they want and commit themselves to creating it, however long it takes, they usually get there in some fashion.

Action reveals commitment

How do you know how committed you are?  You can tell by your actions… by what you consider important enough to carve out time for.

If you work in family law as a Legal Secretary or PA, you will already be fully aware of the fact that this branch of the legal system has just experienced what many people are calling a revolution of change. New laws connected with family law have just come into force (April 2014), and for the most part, people are hopeful that they will mean some changes for the better in this area of law; however, others have concerns that the new laws could lead to a whole new set of problems.

The biggest change is the fact that the previous three-tier court system in family law has now been replaced by a single combined court. This is all primarily aimed at making this area of law more accessible and expeditious when it comes to dealing with around 270,000 such family law cases each and every year.

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!

For many working in legal departments, using Microsoft Excel is a daily necessity, from producing invoices to taking stock of how much stationery is in the storeroom. As with most essential office software, there are many things you can do to make daily use more easy and pleasurable. Here are five useful tips:

Entering Text over Several Lines

If you have a lot of text to enter into a cell and you want it to appear, hit ALT+ENTER and your cursor will be taken to a new line.

Navigating Worksheets with Shortcut Keys

Shortcut keys are always good to know. If you have a lot of worksheets, you can navigate them by pressing CTRL+PAGE DOWN to move right and CTRL+PAGE UP to move left.

Hiding Data in Printouts

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.

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.

Most of our readers will spend a lot of time working with Microsoft Outlook as it is probably the most widely used mail and calendar client in organisations today. Here are some helpful keyboard shortcuts to lessen the time you spend in your Outlook in-box.

1. Open the address book with the ‘to’ field selected: ALT + .

2. Open the address book with the ‘bcc’ field selected: ALT + B

3. Move to the subject field: ALT + J

4. Check names in ‘to’ and ‘cc’ fields against the address book: ALT + K

5. Reply all: ALT + L

6. Reply: ALT + R

7. Send: ALT + S

8. Forward an item: ALT + W (will open a weekly calendar view if you are in the calendar)

9. Activate the find toolbar: F3

10. Spellcheck: F7

11. Select all: CTRL + A

12. Forward a message: CTRL + F

Are you getting a sense of déjà vu here? Haven’t we heard this promise somewhere before? Yes to both of these questions: indeed, the Conservative Party used this enticement in their manifesto for the General Election back in 2010. However, when push came to shove and they were prompted to deliver on such a promise, they said they were unable to go ahead with this tax break after all, as the Liberal Democrats were so vehemently opposed to this move.

Does it come as a surprise to you that legal apprenticeships exist? There are a good number of ways in which you could complete a legal apprenticeship, and for many people this may be preferable to following a LLB law degree route.

Legal apprenticeships allow you to study to become a fully qualified Legal Executive at the same time as working and earning in a legal firm. The pay can be low whilst you study to become qualified – often only at the national minimum wage – but when you take into consideration the fact that you are being paid to gain a valuable qualification and experience, this does appear to be an excellent path to take.

Legal jobs take multiple forms, but the skills needed to excel are the same for any position in law.

Whether you are an aspiring or qualified Lawyer, Paralegal, Secretary, Conveyancer or any other role in the profession, Anna Pitts of the Graduate Recruitment Bureau brings you the 10 essential traits you need for a career in law. For anyone looking to begin their career in law, especially if you are about to graduate, this is essential reading!

1. Organisation

Legal professionals can’t afford to be unorganised. You’ll be running on a tight schedule, and clients will be counting on you to be prompt and reliable. If running like clockwork isn’t your strong point, use a diary, daily planner and even Post-its if you need to, to get organised.

2. Teamwork

As a Legal Secretary, you will sometimes find yourself needing to compile well-researched documents. The hallmark of any respectable reference document is its citations. Without citations to the sources of your information, your research is quickly rendered useless, as it is not verifiable in any way. 

Fortunately MS Office makes it easy to add citations to documents quickly and easily.

You can add your citations by following these steps:

Have you been reading information about the Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs’ courses and considering the possibility of studying again? Do you find yourself thinking that such study might be way over your head now that you are getting on a little bit in years? If this strikes a chord with you, carry on reading this article for some inspiration and advice in this regard.

ILSPA Students

So, to get straight to the heart of the matter here: you are never too old to study something that interests you. One of ILSPA’s course developers is in his 70s now and has recently started a Master’s Degree in Law!

This month we are focusing on local searches, which are one of the most important checks that a purchaser should carry out before signing a contract to buy property or land.

Local searches are usually provided by the local authority where the land or property is located. These searches form part of the standard conveyancing process and are obtained by completing a Local Land Charges search (LLC1 search) and Enquiries of a Local Authority (CON 29 search). The CON 29 form was last written about in a Journal article early last year. The parts of this form relating to drainage and water searches was to be used by most water and sewerage companies since 1 November 2013, and all providers in England will have to use the new forms and reports by spring 2014.  

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.

I think it is of value to play the part, step up, join in, think, act, move forward, plant the seeds and grow!

Last August I left my job at the Met Office, Exeter, as Executive Assistant to the Chief Scientist and wondered what I could do next. I am a single mum with a lovely teenage girl. I thought perhaps it would be exciting to do something quite different, and I thought that the Legal Secretary Qualification would offer me a ‘bolt on’ to my business and administrative skills. Last year, I had the opportunity to study for and gain the PRINCE2 Project Management Qualification.

“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 year 2014 is very important for employment law. The current laws were introduced in the mid-1990s, so with it being nearly 20 years later, it stands to reason the UK government would be looking to change employment laws to meet current requirements and changes that have occurred to employment as a whole. Several proposed changes have been put into the works, with most of the employment changes occurring in April 2014. These new laws will have a greater impact on some employees than on others.

In review, 2013 proved a mixed year for UK law jobs. Against a backdrop of the planned changes to Legal Aid provision and personal injury law and regular news of law firms falling into administration – particularly at the mid-tier level – there was generally felt to be more optimism about law job prospects and salaries than has been felt in the previous three or four years. 

At Simply Law Jobs, we can confirm an upward trend in law job postings, which is extremely encouraging for our registered jobseekers. Our figures show that during 2013 the number of law vacancies posted rose by 16% compared to the previous year – up from 117,258 in 2012 to a massive 136,362 in 2013.

The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs offers a variety of popular distance learning courses which will help you to advance your legal knowledge and skills. Our Legal Secretaries Diploma and Single Subject Legal courses are studied by thousands of Students throughout the UK and overseas.

Distance learning courses are sought by Students each year because of the benefits this study method offers. Attending a college or university can be beneficial to receive direct contact with a tutor; however, studying the course at home brings its own benefits.

If you can minimise nervousness in the run-up to your interview, you’ll be in a good position to perform well on the day. It’s worth remembering, though, that a few nerves and being under a little stress can be good for you, according to the latest medical research. Being under slight stress is likely to fire you up, make you more alert, able to tune out distractions and think creatively – all great aids to an impressive job interview! Interviewers expect you to be a little nervous too, and will take that into account. 

This month we are looking at some of the latest developments in the world of wills and probate. 

The Law Society Wills and Inheritance Protocol

A new protocol published in July 2013 was linked to the Law Society’s Wills and Inheritance Quality Scheme. The protocol is not currently compulsory for Solicitors unless they are members of the Quality Scheme. 

The protocol sets out the ‘preferred practice’ for will drafting, probate and estate administration and covers areas of practice that commonly give rise to risks and errors. The protocol is intended to form the policy that a legal practice should follow to help it meet the high-quality service standards that clients expect. A few examples of key points that are covered on will drafting include these:

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. 

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.

This month we are considering how the rapidly changing area of civil litigation has fared over the past year. There have been several articles in the Journal about the recommendations made by Lord Justice Jackson in his wide-ranging review in 2010. This review and the recommendations he made came into force in April this year as part of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. Many have suggested that we are now experiencing the most significant changes to civil litigation in nearly 15 years. So how effective have the changes been, and what have they done to the legal profession?

Damages-based agreements

Child abduction by a parent has reportedly doubled since 2003-2004, stated the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). In 2003-2004, 272 new cases of child abduction by a parent were reported. In 2012-2013, 580 cases were reported. In an attempt to solve this increasingly troubling situation, ‘Caught in the Middle’, a film, was recently published on YouTube. The film looks at the children who suffer the most from parental disagreements that lead to abduction.

According to the statistics and legal advisers helping to bring children home, many of these cases occur around Christmas or after summer holidays. These two times of year are considered the most stressful, which can lead to rash thinking from one parent. Abduction is detrimental to the child, who is suddenly removed from their parent, friends and familiar homeland.

If you are preparing for a legal secretary job interview, make sure you don’t stumble on a question that many people simply forget to plan for, and live to regret. “Tell us what you can bring to this role?” is an incredibly obvious question, and you’re guaranteed to hear it at just about any job interview.

Yet somehow many of us struggle to have a knockout answer lined up, and therefore risk not sounding committed to the job in question and failing to sell ourselves effectively.

In front of a packed and vocal crowd attending the annual Legal PA of the Year awards ceremony, Gemma Boyle from Addleshaw Goddard (Manchester) was named 2013 Legal PA of the Year.

Gemma, still very emotional and dazed after receiving her award, said: “I just want to say how honoured I am that everyone at AG felt I was good enough to be nominated - let alone shortlisted or even win! Everyone at AG has been very supportive over the last 10 years and I feel fortunate that I get to work for Andrew and the Delivering Differently team and help lead the exciting changes the firm is making. I'm really looking forward to the next 10 years at AG!”

Office* – the UK’s largest event for PAs, EAs, VAs and Office Managers – returns to London’s Olympia on 7-8 October 2014. Visitors can expect it to be a big year for office*, with over 175 leading suppliers, 32 training seminars, inspirational free keynotes and unrivalled networking opportunities. If you can only visit one event this year, make sure it’s office*.

Over 4,000 attendees walked the aisles last year (up 11% from 2012), and the show’s fifth anniversary edition – still four months away – is already on track for another great performance. 

Since the show’s 2010 launch, exceptional educational content has always been a key draw. The 2013 show saw over 70% of visitors enjoying 12 free keynotes and eight free office* Interactive Theatre sessions. Meanwhile, nearly half of attendees at the two-day show signed up for one or more of the 32 seminars on offer.

Are you looking for Legal Secretary or PA work? Look no further than ILSPA’s Legal Secretary Jobs Board. Our board is the UK’s largest niche recruitment site for Legal Secretaries and PAs and currently it advertises over 2,000 jobs in the legal profession.

Vacancies are posted by a variety of legal recruiters and law firms throughout the UK. The board also aggregates Legal Secretary and PA jobs listed across the Internet from jobs boards such as totallylegal.com and legalprospects.co.uk.

The top recruiter at present on ILSPA’s Legal Secretary Jobs Board is Professionals in Law. Professionals in Law support legal recruitment in London and the UK's major cities, as well as internationally.

We are delighted to share some wonderful news with you. Rebecca Saville, who won the title of Up and Coming Legal PA of the Year, recently passed the Legal Secretaries Diploma course and received a distinction for her work. Well done, Rebecca! 

Every year, Strictly Recruitment holds the Legal PA of the Year Awards in London. They launched the awards in 2012 to recognise the vital role Legal PAs, Secretaries, Support Staff Managers and Team Leaders play in the industry. The awards are the only scheme of this kind to be fully supported by the legal profession.

With the fantastic launch of ILSPA’s new website comes our new Legal Secretaries Diploma course.

We have added an additional unit to the course on Family Law and Practice, which means that Students will have even better job prospects once they have qualified. The course now covers the four most common practice areas which are worked on in law firms and legal departments.

Not only have we added an extra unit to the course, but Students are now able to study online. The online course material provides a learning aid for both distance learning and evening class Students.

All the course material can be accessed through the Membership area of our website, which includes a wealth of Student resources to help and support Students throughout their studies.

ILSPA is delighted to launch our new website. After months of planning, preparations, and the wonderful work of our design and IT team, our vision has become a reality.

Our new site has been designed with our visitors, Members and Students in mind. We have aimed to make the site easier to navigate and have presented information in a way which is clearer, more accessible and visually appealing.

Office* is taking place on 7-8 October and is now CPD-accredited – giving even more value to our cost-effective training seminars for you and your company.

You will be able to claim a CPD Certificate of Attendance for any paid-for training seminars that you go to across the two days – these can be used in your formal CPD record for a professional body, institution or employer, and each hour of contact learning time will equate to one point.

The new website just launched by The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs is packed full of valuable information for both trainee and experienced Legal Secretaries and PAs.  One of the features on ILSPA’s website is an exclusive online Membership area, which includes a wealth of resources to help people in their studies and careers.  A bonus for Students is that ILSPA’s widely recognised Legal Secretaries Diploma course is now online.

Emma Stacey has been working at ILSPA for 10 years and celebrated this wonderful milestone at an organic restaurant near the head office at Dartington Hall at the end of November. She started in November 2004 and has had a big hand in the growth of the Institute over the years, helping it become what it is today. Emma answered some questions so you could find out more.

What was it like taking on the role of Chief Executive at ILSPA?

M&C Saatchi’s Stuart Martin was announced as the winner of the 2014 PA of the Year Awards, hosted by SecsintheCity, the UK’s #1 job site for PAs and Executive Assistants.

The announcement was made at a prestigious Awards ceremony, held at the The Ivy Restaurant on Thursday 6 November 2014.

The winners of the PA of the Year Awards 2014 are:

-    PA of the Year – Stuart Martin, M&C Saatchi
-    Social Networking PA of the Year – Katie McEwan, Ann Summers
-    Legal PA of the Year – Rachel Newman, Hogan Lovells International
-    Interim PA of the Year – Rowan Forman, Threadneedle Investments

Stuart Martin is PA to the Group Executive Creative Director at M&C Saatchi.  

Stuart said: “It's an absolute privilege to have won this award and have the opportunity to be representing male Personal Assistants that work in this industry. 

The British Legal Awards took place on 27 November 2014 and it was the highlight of the legal calendar. The awards are an annual showcase for the greatest achievements made each year by law firms operating in the United Kingdom. This provides a chance to reward lawyers for their hard work and contribution to the British economy as well as recognition of the innovative and varied work they carry out on a day-to-day basis. 

The winners of the awards reflect the diversity of the legal sector in the UK and prove that the awards really do celebrate the variety of contributions made by British legal teams each year. This year, winners included firms such as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Allen & Overy, DLA Piper and Berwin Leighton Paisner. The difference in the size and specialties of the winning firms demonstrated the variety within the legal sector in the UK.