Google is the most popular Internet search engine used today. It indexes the greatest number of search pages and provides a free service for people to search this index in less than a second. In addition to providing easy access to billions of web pages, Google has many features that can help you find exactly what you’re looking for, which can be very useful when trying to find information at work or if you are working as a PA for your boss. Some of these features are listed below:

If you want to build or improve skills for yourself generally and for your career development in particular, here is an exercise sometimes known as the “shoe-stepping exercise” which is well worth using. By tapping into your own experience and observations you can select behaviours and strengths which you admire in others and learn to cultivate them yourself. Step into the shoes of a role model of yours; this could even be a colleague or a friend.

This technique is a powerful technique to calm the emotional subconscious brain and to build positive expectations, especially for 'one-off' situations like potentially difficult meetings or presentations. You can use this technique at any time when you are relaxed – first thing in the morning before you get up is often a good time. You don’t need to go into very deep relaxation, although you can.

On 7 June 2011, the UK government published ‘The Natural Choice’ – a white paper that outlines how the natural environment is going to be protected, restored and improved over the next 50 years.

This is the first white paper that has been published in 20 years, and it is directly linked to the findings made in the National Ecosystem Assessment that strongly proved how the natural environment must be looked after. It also acts on information found in a report on England’s wildlife sites called ‘Making Space for Nature’ by Professor John Lawton.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said:

Well now, it would seem that this really is the $64,000 question! Ever since the UK joined the European Community (the name at that time) back in 1973, many citizens of this country have been outraged by the way in which they feel that ‘Europe’ has continually interfered with their lives. From the ‘Metric Martyrs’ to being told what  the shape of our bananas should be, it appears that very few UK citizens have much time, or respect, for the workings of the European Union.

How you feel about yourself is a key issue in achieving anything in life. A self-confident person has high self-esteem, self-respect, and belief in her- or himself.  By developing your self-confidence, you will be able to achieve your goals, take opportunities that come your way and also have the strength to overcome any obstacles.

Self-confidence is very important for having a successful career. If you do not have confidence in yourself and your abilities, how can you expect others to? When attending job interviews or hoping for a promotion, the way you behave and believe in yourself will ultimately create a win or a lose situation.

Here are five tips to help boost your self-confidence:

Does this sound like a supermarket special offer to you, too? The Government had recently proposed that when defendants plead guilty straight away to an offence they committed, in court, they should be entitled to receive a 50% reduction on their tariff of imprisonment. This was just one of the ways the Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, was attempting to reduce the significant numbers within our prisons at the moment. As the Government is investigating ways in which money can be saved in all areas of the country’s expenditure, prison reform is definitely a burden on the taxpayer that is very high on the list.

For Legal Secretaries and PAs, it is important to know the vast array of abbreviations currently used in the legal world, and I seek to shed some light on the meaning of some of the most widely used legal abbreviations. Getting to grips with lawyers’ abbreviations will spring you forward in the right direction professionally. Secretaries are expected to research or look up commonly used legal abbreviations and, in particular, case references.

I worked for a Family Division Senior Partner who often recorded his dictation almost entirely in abbreviations. He would, for example, say, ‘at the FPC the judge in the case of Re: M (a minor) referred to [2004] 1 FLR 837 and FPR 4.2 when deciding with the CG whether to place the child in the care of the LA...’ Such phrases are common and probably even more complex now than ever before.

Will the proposed increase of the small claims limit spell trouble for the ‘man in the street’?

Ever since the highest court in the country changed from its title of the House of Lords to The Supreme Court, back in October 2009, it would seem that there has been a concerted effort to modernise our judicial system from the top down. This could certainly be said of the fact that on 16 May 2011, Supreme Court judgments were televised for the first time through Sky News.

Is this merely copying the United States of America, with their propensity to glamorise and televise their judicial system, or is there a genuine requirement for the hearings of the Supreme Court to be aired to the general population as a whole? This is an issue we will attempt to address within this article.