In many industries, the line between managers and workers tends to be fairly clear. Managers manage; workers work. An employee in a retail setting, for instance, generally isn’t responsible for handling their manager’s schedule, making calls and sending emails on the manager’s behalf, or preparing the manager for important meetings.

At the corporate level, however, things are a bit different. An admin supporting a high-level executive is expected to do all those things and more. Your entire job revolves around making your executive’s job easier. And one of the best ways to do that is to learn how to “manage up”.

On 18 November 2021, SecsintheCity, the UK’s only dedicated job site for business support professionals, celebrated the tenth annual PA of the Year Awards, partnering with Tay Associates.

These awards are an important event for the recognition of the excellent work that PAs, EAs, and office managers carry out every year. Given the uncertain nature of the last year, it’s especially important to speak about the redoubtable nature of these professionals and the crucial role they play in every business.

Though the awards typically take place at The Ivy in London, this year – as was the case in 2020 – they were held virtually. Even so, attendees still turned out in their black-tie outfits on Zoom.

This might strike you as a relatively mundane topic, but in legal practice, file opening is something that everyone in a law firm should be familiar with. That is not to say that everyone in the firm will be entrusted with this important task, and it is often well-trained admin and support staff like Legal Secretaries who are required to do this work.

The first clue you might have about the importance of file opening procedure is the fact that it is known by so many different names – customer due diligence, onboarding, verification of identity, verification of funds, anti-money laundering (AML). These are all terms that are commonly used in relation to the humble task of opening a file.

One thing is for certain, there is no one set way into the legal industry! No matter which role you are interested in – Solicitor, Paralegal or Legal Secretary – there are multiple paths you can consider to reach your goal. Simply Law recently spoke with Beata Rebalska. Beata is a Risk and Compliance Assistant at Clyde & Co. She kindly shared her path to becoming a legal professional.

The legal industry

I have wanted to become a lawyer for as long as I can remember, and that’s why after finishing school, I decided to go to college to study law, business and finance.

Imagine that you’re going on a vacation. You’ve spent months researching your destination. You have a detailed itinerary of everything you plan to do when you arrive. The excitement is building, and it’s almost time to set off.

But you don’t just show up to the airport and board a plane. A lot of planning has gone into this trip – from the airline you chose to fly, to the hotel you selected, and to the restaurants you’ll eat at. You worked with a budget. You made detailed packing lists. You probably arranged for someone to water the plants and bring in the mail while you’re gone. All of this had to happen to make the vacation successful.

The new year is often a time for budgeting and looking for good deals. As ILSPA students are eligible to purchase a TOTUM PRO card, we wanted to share some exciting updates and information for 2022.

TOTUM PRO is an exclusive membership benefit which allows you access to a wealth of savings and offers on everyday essentials as well as some treats! TOTUM PRO unlocks discounts on lots of brands, from groceries to travel and luxury items. It couldn’t be easier to start saving, so just click on the link to find out more:

https://www.totum.com/se/student-discount/cat/totum-pro

Here is a selection of vacancies from our Legal Secretary Jobs Board this month:

Experienced Legal EAs/Secretaries – Armstrong Teasdale Ltd     

Location: London

Salary: £35,000  

Armstrong Teasdale is seeking bright and experienced legal secretary/EAs to join our Corporate and Commercial teams.  This is an exciting opportunity to join a US law firm in its first international office and during a period of growth.  The firm has 12 additional offices throughout the US and a total of more than 640 lawyers and staff internationally.

View the full job description here:           

https://www.institutelegalsecretaries.com/jobs/candidate/job/188840/

The new year is a great time to reflect on how you can help yourself, others and the world around us. As time goes on, we are becoming more and more aware of the effect we are having on the planet and what we can do to reduce our impact. If you would like to make some meaningful New Year’s resolutions, here are some ideas:

1. Spend more time in nature

If I asked you to estimate how many passwords you have, what would your guess be? 20? Maybe 30?

Chances are you’re underestimating. According to research by NordPass, the average person has 100 passwords.

If you’re supporting multiple executives, chances are that number is even higher for you.

Think about it. You need a password to boot up your work computer, log in to your network, access your office intranet, open your project management software and access your cloud server. That’s five passwords before you can even start your workday!

Do you work with sensitive material? Your files are probably password protected. Do you handle your executive’s inbox? There’s another password.

Here is a selection of vacancies from our Legal Secretary Jobs Board this month:

Support and Volunteer Co-ordinator – Lawcare  

Location: Uk Wide - working from home

Salary: £25,000  

Do you want to make a positive difference to mental wellbeing in the legal community? Lawcare is recruiting for a Support and Volunteer Coordinator to join their small, supportive, and dedicated team. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone with experience of working in the legal sector who is looking for a new challenge and wants to put their expertise to inspiring and meaningful use.

View the full job description here: