Legal Secretary, then what?
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Topic: Legal Secretary, then what?
Posted By: busymum
Subject: Legal Secretary, then what?
Date Posted: 28 March 2008 at 8:36pm
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I was mulling over this today. Not that I'm planning on leaving my job! But just for the future.... I was thinking maybe into bank lending services or something? Does anyone know what those kinds of jobs pay in comparison? Or am I "at the top" unless I go for a law degree (which I don't want to do lol) -------------  |
Replies:
Posted By: mummy_becks
Date Posted: 28 March 2008 at 8:49pm
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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 was a puree feeder, forward facing, cot sleeping, pram pushing kind of Mum... and my kids survived! |
Posted By: my2angels
Date Posted: 28 March 2008 at 9:14pm
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well im in law, not a legal sec but know what they are getting paid and my sister is a lending officer at westpac and i know they are getting around the same... could be different up north though of course.
if you do your law degree be prepared to take a drop in pay for a while though cos the first couple of years they get paid absolute sh*t. What law firm you with? |
Posted By: Red
Date Posted: 28 March 2008 at 10:37pm
| I went from a legal sec to a massage therapist, but that is a drop in salary so I don't recommend that! |
Posted By: Bombshell
Date Posted: 28 March 2008 at 10:39pm
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legalexec??? you could study parttime and then qualify and already working in firms is an incentive to employ you as you have experience
otherwise - office manager - do accounts and stuff to upskill...manage a law office and upskill on HR - altho best pay for that would be in the larger cities |
Posted By: emz
Date Posted: 28 March 2008 at 10:46pm
| 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. |
Posted By: busymum
Date Posted: 29 March 2008 at 8:40am
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My opinion on legal exec was that once you have the experience then no one really cares if you did the paperwork... am I wrong? (I have 6yrs exp and have been a practice manager for 2 of those) ------------- |
Posted By: minik8e
Date Posted: 29 March 2008 at 10:18am
| 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). |
Posted By: my2angels
Date Posted: 30 March 2008 at 9:38am
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seem to be a few of us with experience in law.. do you all notice that when you say you work in a lawfirm, even if you make it clear your not a lawyer, people expect you to know everything about law and start asking questions! I get it all the time.
Also I know that we pay starting legal execs more than legal secs but on the other hand a number of firms are hiring junior solicitors who they can pay the same as a legal exec and will eventually be bringing the money in but they give them the legal exec type work to start with. |
Posted By: ChrisW
Date Posted: 30 March 2008 at 10:03am
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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. 
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Posted By: minik8e
Date Posted: 30 March 2008 at 10:11am
| I actually pretty much agree with you Chris. And it all depends on what you want to do as well. I was going to take a substantial pay cut after completing my degree from what I was earning as a legal exec, even though I was going to be in the same sector (commercial/property) doing pretty much the same work. That in itself put me off, plus it's so hard to reconcile what you learn at law school to actually working in a law firm - I personally felt a lot of it was irrelevant. But that's just me. And with the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act coming in (and hopefully various organisations will get their acts together) for me, my degree was irrelevant, as I want to stay in the property field. So yeah, it also muchly depends on what you want to do. |
Posted By: busymum
Date Posted: 30 March 2008 at 8:16pm
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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  )------------- |