Legal Secretary

This person has spent so much time helping the lawyer with research material and filing that they can command more remuneration in accordance with their years of experience. Usually, each lawyer will be assigned one legal secretary. The work that a legal secretary does ranges from the common secretarial duties to that which are law specific. Most legal matters do not end up in court. They are handled and completed through much correspondence with both parties and it is the legal secretary who prepares and mails the letters that the lawyer drafts to the relevant party. The legal secretary also communicates with any party involved in a case and this could be other secretaries in other firms, government officials, immigration officials, court staff and interpreters. They make sure messages get across and all the administrative nature of the work is done so the lawyer will be free to focus on preparing for a case. The administrative work is slightly different from that of other secretaries. The legal secretary books flights and arranges accommodation for the lawyer who may need to travel to another state to attend a court hearing. She also answers and screens phone calls to minimise distractions for the lawyer.

The legal secretary also prepares the invoice that will be billed to the client based on the number of hours the lawyer records. Lawyers charge per hour, so the legal secretary ensures bills are prepared in a timely fashion. Like all secretaries, legal secretaries remind lawyers of appointments and deadlines - for the lawyer these will also include matters related to court hearings and judgments. It is absolutely vital that the lawyer does not miss any court appointments or deadlines, so this is a very important aspect of the legal secretary’s job. The most important work, however, is the filing that the legal secretary does before and after a case. All kinds of documents have to be filed with the court and at different points in time. The legal secretary will assist the lawyer by making sure the documents of preparing for a case. A background in law will certainly help here, as the secretary will know exactly where to look, and will be able to make sense of the legal jargon and determine what is relevant to the case. A legal secretary is aware of legal proceedings, procedures and facts about the law. He or she can easily pursue a law degree and become a lawyer or continue to work behind the scenes.