Legal secretaries are the wheels and cogs turning at the heart of the legal profession.

Serving as both office managers and administrators, they will liaise with one or more solicitors on cases, and can also deal with case management in conveyancing and debt recovery.

Their usual tasks and day to day activities also include:

l Typing letters, legal papers, reports and other documents.

l Dealing with all communications, i.e. incoming post, email and telephone calls, etc.

l Taking and transcribing minutes of meetings, court cases, etc.

l Organising meetings, events, conferences, etc.

l Conducting legal research relating to particular cases.

l Handling all office admin tasks, i.e. filing, organising, etc.

l Dealing with accounts.

l Invoicing clients.

l Proofreading documents and letters.

l Diary management: (meetings, appointments, interviews, etc).

The working week for a legal secretary tends to follow the usual Monday to Friday 9am till 5pm pattern.

Starting salaries are in the range of £11000 to £15000, and there are excellent prospects for promotion for those who are willing to work hard and go the extra mile.

Their main working environment is in offices, but they can work off site at courts, police stations and conference centres.

For some, being a legal secretary is the first rung on the ladder to other work in the legal profession with many going on to study for law degrees.

At entry level there are no formal qualifications for legal secretarial work, but it is usual for some employers to require GCSE passes in English and Maths. Business studies and administrative qualifications can also be helpful.

Excellent keyboard skills are vital, along with good standards of grammar, spelling and punctuation. IT literacy is also important as most work is done on the computer.

New recruits will usually be trained on the job by senior staff members or by joining in-house courses.

Opportunities for legal secretaries are numerous. Solicitors' offices are found throughout the UK, but most vacancies are in London and other big population/urban centres, i.e. Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham, etc.

Vacancies are advertised in specialist publications, newspapers websites and recruitment agencies.