Legal Secretary, then what?

Pass sorry. Have you looked at some bank websites to see what you need to do that type of job??

I have a friend from school who has a BBS and went straight to work to at Westpac and is now in the lending type of job after doing a few years as a teller. I can't remember what she majored in thou sorry.

I went from a legal sec to a massage therapist, but that is a drop in salary so I don't recommend that!

Yeah I was going to say legal exec too, a couple of girls at work are doing their papers part-time (both have young babies so are on maternity leave). Could be worth a shot if your interested in that sort of thing.

That's not necessarily true busymum, it all depends on the firm. It's kind of like....backup I suppose. And you can become a member of the NZ Institute of Legal Execs, it's kind of official. To me, it was worth it, because as a legal exec you seem to get a lot more responsibility and autonomy than that of a legal sec. That's what I've found anyway. I went from legal receptionist to legal sec, to legal exec, to legal exec/office manager and am now in insurance (no legal exec jobs in the Naki when I moved). I'm hoping to go on to underwriting (choosing the risks that we insure, what we charge etc) or possibly legal opinion (have done half a law degree but don't necessarily need it for legal opinion).

Hi there

I wouldn't recommend doing a law degree, you will take a drop in pay and it could be for more than a couple of years - maybe 3-4 and then if you need to get a student loan you will have further deductions from your pay .... If the clock was put back I wouldn't do it again and thats after 5 years of practising. There are plenty of less stressful and more enjoyable jobs out there. Okay so eventually my pay could be substantial ..unless I go on maternity leave but there is more to life then money right !!!.

At the moment I know of a legal executive who went into a banking position after say 10 years in a lawfirm. She is getting paid in excess of $70k (not paid for Tauranga) and she said the hours and job is "cruisy" compared to the lawfirm. She has not once worked past 5.00pm.

In terms of becoming a legal executive, I believe it depends on where you work as to whether this is the right move. Firstly, we do have legal execs that have never done their papers and they are still referred to as legal executives and they are paid on experience and of course how much money they bring in. We also have another one who has been completing a couple of papers a year while working as she wants the qualification.
Some firms treat legal execs as little more than legal secretaries while others expect legal execs to be doing all the same work as solicitors (usually without the pay of course).

Sorry about the long blog and I am sure there are plenty of solicitors that would disagree with what I have said. But hey, its purely my opinion.



Edited by ChrisW

hmmm there's such a wide variety of expectations for legal secs/execs, I guess the main thing is whether you do conveyancing or not... for me, I'm doing one conveyancing transaction a week; most of my work is PA work in the relationship property sector

And yes, sat down in a park for my lunch break the other day, some dude came over and started chatting (wasn't many seats left, to be fair) and waddya know, he's just separated and wants relationship property advice. Oh I know you're just a secretary, but you probably know the answer to this...? Haha yea and it won't cost you anything either ay. Gah! Cost me my lunch break cause then he wanted to walk back with me to get a business card and appointment! (thankfully I don't meet with clients )