If you are seeking advancement opportunities and enjoy varied tasks and types of law, then very large firms may be just right for you. There might be opportunities to work in other countries or different states throughout the U.S. Large firms practice multiple types of law under one roof, so you may also be given a chance to learn many different types of law simply by working in one firm.
In almost all cases, the large firms pay the highest wage to all employees and offer a wider range of health benefits, employee savings plans, tuition re-imbursement, and perks. You will need to have, at the very least, one year of legal experience before being hired by a large firm; some will require three years of experience. If you work for a smaller firm now, you might want to check around and see how much on-the-job experience is required by larger firms you are interested in.
All large firms will employ paralegals, clerks, consultants, secretaries, and receptionists; and many, but not all, will also retain jury consultants, researchers, experts such as psychiatrists, medical doctors and the like, and a plethora of special counsel. You will be quite busy and can expect frequent trips to courthouses when necessary or required. You might also be expected to travel out of the state or country on occasion. The supporting staff will be rather large, and you will be expected to delegate your attorney's work to the proper person. Opportunities to provide research will be slim, as a staff of paralegals and assistants will be in charge of these services.
They offer, on average, a lower starting salary and less comprehensive health benefits than larger firms, but they may have perks that compensate for this, such as a flexible work schedules, longer paid vacations, and generous bonuses. For many moderate to highly experienced legal secretaries, medium-sized firms are the best of both worlds, offering opportunities for advancement and the chance to learn multiple types of law specialties, plus receive a variety of perks. As with a large firm, you will be extremely busy nearly every day, but you will have help in the form of a large supporting staff.
There are multiple benefits of working for a small law firm. They include invaluable on-the-job-training, the opportunity to learn vital legal research skills, flexible working hours, a personal and more relaxed working environment, and generous holiday bonuses. Some drawbacks include a lower starting salary, high employee contribution health benefits, the lack of a 401(k) plan, a heavy workload, and the inability to gain experience in a large variety of specialties.
You most likely will work for a single attorney in a firm of this size and will be steeped in whatever that person's specialty entails, whether it be tax law, family, or divorce law, corporate law, or real estate. You may, on occasion, during lulls, be given another attorney's work to do when necessary, but it will not be often enough to truly learn that legal area well. When there is urgent activity, you may be asked to stay well past your usual quitting time to get documentation sent out in time.
On the upside, you also will be dismissed early on holidays when the courts will be closed the following day. In comparison to large firms, smaller firms have much less activity on a daily basis. As mentioned previously, this is the most likely hiring opportunity for those with basic secretarial skills wishing to gain legal experience. You may easily parlay one year of experience at a small firm into a choice job at a medium-sized or large firm if you keep your eyes, ears, and mind open and learn as much as you possibly can.
Some general thoughts to keep in mind if you are applying to a small firm with the sole purpose of gaining experience:
1. Although most firms you apply to while still working for another will be discreet and avoid contacting your current office, a great recommendation is a huge boon; thus, it would be wise to stay on good terms with the attorney you work for.
2. Even if you decide to interview without informing your current employer, when you have been offered another position, be gracious and polite and leave on the best terms possible.
3. If you had a good rapport with your attorney, stay in touch if possible, particularly if that attorney is at the associate level. He or she may also be moving up and into a larger firm, and if you worked well together, there may be a chance to work with him or her again in the future.
The sole practitioner's work involves but is not limited to wills, estates, traffic violations, divorce, bankruptcy, minor criminal offenses, and handling the legal affairs of small businesses and corporations. This type of law office is analogous to the practice of a general physician or family doctor.
There are many benefits to working for this type of firm. Most importantly, it is often the perfect starting place for someone with secretarial skills who has no law office experience. While a medium-sized or large firm might turn away someone without prior experience in law, the sole practitioner is usually willing to train. Accordingly, the salary is lower and medical benefits may be slim or non-existent. However, if you do not have the benefit of a formal education and you want to become a legal secretary, then this is the perfect place to start. You will have the excellent advantage of learning about many different types of law, you will learn how to correspond with judges and clerks, and you may be asked to provide research and do a great deal of drafting of letters and other documentation on your own.
Additionally, sole practitioners are often easier to work for, more casual in their dress code and daily hours, and more forgiving if you have family responsibilities that you need to take care of. This is also a great place to work if you are currently a student earning a degree or certificate in the field of law.
Conclusion
Computer Skills Required
For legal secretaries, a desktop or laptop computer is the most used office tool of the trade. Computer skills that will be expected of you include being able to navigate and use Windows' operating system and several types of software applications, the ability to save documents to and retrieve documents from a network drive and a local drive, knowledge of the Internet, proficiency with e-mail, and the understanding of printer applications and methods of printing. While typing is not technically a computer skill, you will be expected to type quickly and accurately.
Most legal offices now use the operating system Windows; however, a few will use a Macintosh operating system. If this is the case, the office would not expect you to know that system and would be willing to train you on its use, provided you have other computer skills; or, alternatively, the firm will specifically mention that Mac is used and someone with experience in that system is required.
Although in the last five years or so, Microsoft (MS) Word and the Microsoft Office suite have become the norm for most offices, including law offices, WordPerfect still has a stronghold in many law offices. While they are very similar, Word and WordPerfect have some differences. If you are serious about becoming a versatile legal secretary, and it is your desire to move to other offices during the duration of your career, then it would benefit you to obtain a working knowledge of WordPerfect in addition to Word. Without a doubt, you must have an excellent knowledge of MS Word no matter what type of office you work in. You should know how to create, save, format, print, and e-mail documents easily. You should have an excellent understanding of how to copy; cut;, paste; indent; create templates; apply styles such as bold, italics, and underline; create headers, footers, and footnotes; apply numbering and bullets; and create and format tables. You should also know how to create and print envelopes and labels.
Other software applications that you should have a working, proficient, or excellent knowledge of are Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Outlook. Excel, if you are not familiar with it, is a spreadsheet program that incorporates the use of formulas to perform various mathematical functions. Law offices often use Excel to keep track of hours, for billing, or for other office bookkeeping or recordkeeping functions. Although it is not a database program, Excel is often used to keep track of clients' contact information because its row and column format and sorting functions make it easy to do so. Access is a powerful database program; it is not often found in medium-sized to small law offices, although large firms often use it. PowerPoint is a presentation program that is utilized for a large variety of functions. It is well worth learning this program for any office work, as it has become very popular in the last several years. PowerPoint uses graphics, text, audio, and video to provide information or present an idea in a visually engaging manner. Finally, your skills in Outlook should be beyond proficient. Outlook is a combination e-mail/organizational software that allows the sending of richly formatted e-mail with attachments, the scheduling of appointments with reminders, the ability to keep a comprehensive address book, a task scheduler, and a multifunction calendar.
If you are not at least comfortable with all of these programs, you should bring your skills up to proficiency as soon as possible before interviewing for any legal secretary position. There are various methods of doing this. You may also utilize your local library for books with compact disc, read-only memory (CD ROM) instructional videos, or you may purchase books of this sort from your local bookstore. You also may take an online course or purchase computer-based training CDs that will provide you with step-by-step instruction that you can take anywhere you have a computer with a CD drive. You will have to decide which method of learning is best for you given your current circumstances. It is entirely possible to learn these programs during your lunch breaks at your current job.
If you desire, upon completion of any software instruction, you may go one step further and take a Microsoft-certified test at a facility close to your home or office. This will provide you with a certificate of proficiency or excellence. At the very least, be sure to obtain an excellent working knowledge of Word, Outlook, and Excel, in that order. If you have the time and ambition, go the extra mile and add PowerPoint and Access to your software toolbox.
The Microsoft office training page can be accessed from the Microsoft Web site. It provides valuable information on how you can obtain training and certification. In many cases, you may be able to enhance your current skills in an older version of the Office suite for free.
This page offers free, self-paced Microsoft Office training, as well as information on how to get certified in individual applications or the entire Office suite (MOS).
Each law office has its own saving and naming structure, and you will be introduced to these upon hire and during your introductory period at any new firm. There are some computer document rules that are standard, and you should follow these guidelines closely:
- Immediately save any new document you create with a meaningful name.
- Make good use of Word's template feature for the repeated creation of standard documents.
- Set your word-processing software (Word or WordPerfect) with automatic save.
- Consistently and periodically save your work as you type.
- If you have not saved a document to the company server, or if you do not have a company server, be sure to back up your documents at the end of each day to a CD, zip drive, flash drive, or even a floppy disk if necessary.
- Always add the document name in the lower left or right corner of the document.
- Never print until you have edited completely and run a thorough spell-check.
- Stick with Times New Roman or Arial fonts in standard black rather than using fancy fonts and/or colored fonts.
- With the exception of company logos, do not add graphics to legal correspondence.
- Make use of the Windows folder system to organize your documents properly.
E-mail has become a convenient fact of business life, and it can be an enormous time-saver when it comes to quick correspondence. However, as with creating documents, there are some standard rules you should follow when creating business e-mails:
- When sending important e-mails that require some action on the part of the recipient, follow up with a phone call if a timely reply is not forthcoming.
- Never use all capital letters when sending an e-mail; in computer lingo, this is the equivalent of shouting.
- Be sure to copy your boss on important e-mails.
- Follow standard business format when sending a business e-mail. Save things like J's, text abbreviations, and slang for your personal correspondence.
- Make use of Outlook's signature feature to add the firm's name, contact information, your name, and office confidentiality statement to all e-mails without having to type it into each e-mail.
- Do not delete important replies and e-mails; rather, create a folder within Outlook and organize e-mails the way you would letters and other correspondence.
