The world of law changes on a regular basis, so Douglas Scott Legal Recruitment has kicked off its annual Big Data Survey and is inviting legal employees all over the UK to take part.

The salary and benefits benchmarker was launched last year and immediately acknowledged within the legal industry for shining a spotlight on all the issues facing legal recruitment, as well as for spotting trends within the ever-changing legal landscape. 

Last year's survey pinpointed a massive discrepancy between legal staff and their employers with regard to bonuses, which helped a number of companies target candidates more strategically. By highlighting the needs of potential recruits as well as future trends in the industry, we hope to again provide valuable insights that will make the recruitment process more effective for all concerned.

The first step to understanding how the laws are changing and what that means is to understand what the whistle-blower laws are in the first place. When an employee provides a statement that their company or department has done something that is illegal or dangerous, or not in the interest of the public, it is called whistle-blowing. 

There are laws in place that help protect the people who are blowing the whistle as well as the companies. For example, if a single person within a company takes a bribe, the company can be released from liability of wrongdoing if it proves it has practices in place that discourage the taking of bribes. However, the people who suffer the most damage from blowing the whistle are the employees who step up. 

I enrolled for the Legal Secretaries Diploma course due to the fact that since I was young I always dreamt of being a Solicitor. As I grew up, I undertook experience in major law firms – Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Pinsent Masons. After these experiences my passion for law was confirmed, so I sought to look for relevant experience and to get a qualification before I began my Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL).

I really look forward to my studies every Wednesday at the Institute, mainly due to the fact that I enjoy the way my tutor teaches; he is very interactive and fully explains each module and is so willing to answer questions.

The topic of human trafficking and modern-day slavery is an issue that is always guaranteed to provoke emotion in people. Some official sources are claiming that there has been up to a 300 per cent rise in human trafficking numbers from certain countries (Albania, Lithuania, Romania, Vietnam, etc.) in just two years.

This really is an abhorrent side to modern-day life. Despite the fact that slavery should have been fully abolished back in the 19th century, an alarmingly large number of criminals are making vast sums of money out of trafficking humans around the world. 

This month we are considering a recent Supreme Court case and whether it affects the Law of Contract. The Law of Contract is covered in Unit 2 of ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma course, where the elements of what makes a legally binding agreement are considered. As with any area of law, there are continual developments which your regular reading of the Legal Secretaries Journal and News section of our Membership area should help you keep up to date with.

Formation of a contract

In my younger days people would say that shorthand and typing were “such useful skills” and that one would scarcely be out of a job with such aptitudes tucked under one’s belt.

‘Shorthand’ includes many types both written with the pen and produced by machines. Pitman, Gregg and Teeline are renowned pen methods, whereas Stenotype and Palantype are well-known machine systems.

“Would you say you’re a good communicator?” is a classic interview question, but the follow-up, “Explain why”, can really scupper interviewees, who might find themselves mumbling and scrabbling for examples and looking like anything but a good communicator!

Going into an interview for a Legal Secretary or PA job feeling fully prepared and confident about relevant skills will help you greatly on the day. But regardless of how much research you’ve done about the job, the firm, and its management style and global strategy, you could still be caught out by those pesky, quirky, unexpected ‘curve ball’ questions interviewers sometimes like to throw in.

While we can all agree that the autumn can be exceptionally beautiful in many ways – what with the glorious changing colours all around us – we would also tend to concur in that the dreaded colds do their rounds at this time of the year. 

If you are currently midway through studying for your Legal Secretaries Diploma with The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs, it is important to understand how we can help you.

If you have covered Constitutional Law in some detail, you will appreciate just how difficult it can be to get Private Members’ Bills pushed all the way through both houses of Parliament in order to become law. Only a very small percentage of these bills acquire Royal Assent and become statutes. Therefore, it is interesting when a Private Member’s Bill appears to be attracting more attention than usual, especially when it covers such an important aspect of family and criminal law. 

At present, there are many people who believe that the laws surrounding child neglect do not go anywhere near far enough to protect the youngest members of our society. Whilst they do cover ‘intentional neglect’, which basically means protection against physical neglect, there are absolutely no provisions in law to protect a child’s emotional, spiritual, educational and moral needs.

Children’s care homes have been all over the news in recent weeks after scandals have erupted around the dangers of being unable to access information on children’s homes. This has concerned the delicate topic of how it has enabled children to be groomed by gangs and paedophiles. 

Technically, there are no laws around secrecy; however, requests to access information have been met with a wall of secrecy. This is primarily due to the Data Protection Act (DPA), which protects classified data held on any individual in the United Kingdom. The Act itself has caused difficulties when officials were unable to access information regarding vulnerable children in care. Ofsted are bound by the DPA, and they are unable to disclose information unless the applicant applies via the DPA; this can be a lengthy process.