Legal assistant work requires you to be trained with appropriate law education in order to provide support for lawyers. Someone in a legal assistant job cannot give clients legal advice, sign legal documentation, or represent anyone in court. Along with the legal knowledge and qualifications, legal assistant vacancies will require a candidate to have some secretarial and administration experience, good legal research skills and excellent writing skills.
Somebody in a legal assistant job would be expected to carry out a number of different tasks within a firm. Supervising lawyers may ask a legal assistant to draft contracts as well as some other legal documents before they are given to the lawyer and their client. Legal research will also be carried out in order to support a client’s case and generally assist the barrister in a courtroom situation.
Before clients see a lawyer, legal assistant work may entail interviewing them and any witnesses that may be involved. This kind of work is effective for a case as it provides a solicitor with all the necessary initial information needed to build a case.
Depending on the specific field of law, legal assistant vacancies will probably seek more general legal knowledge from candidates. However, if a candidate does have relevant experience in a particular field, legal assistant work would be given to that person to save on training on the job. Firms will exploit particular strengths in candidates and so their work may vary. An example of this is if a potential legal assistant has experience or particular knowledge in family law. This candidate will be used for his/her know-how of adoption, divorce, custody and prenuptial agreement document writing.
It is possible to seek legal assistant work without being formally educated in that arena but may have another background in law without the qualifications. These people too can find work if they demonstrate that they are able and know about law. Depending on the firm, some may prefer to only hire those that have the necessary qualifications.
Anyone considering applying for legal assistant vacancies should have the following qualities:
- Exceptional writing and research skills
- Attention to detail
- Customer service skills
- Knowledge/qualifications of the law practised
- Computer literacy
- Good admin and general secretarial skills/experience
