News/Events

Silver River Productions have been asked by Channel 4 to produce a new history series that tells the story of social change over the past 40 years through the stories of four different professions – Doctors, Police Officers, Teachers and Secretaries.

The films will be constructed from the testimonies of workers. Each profession’s history will be told from the perspective of the people who lived through it, telling stories that are funny, shocking and revealing and giving viewers a personal, human insight into social changes we’ve all taken for granted.

We would like to share how impressed we are with the standard of coursework we have been receiving for our Legal Secretaries Diploma course. Recently we have seen a very high number of Students achieving distinctions, which is no easy feat. Through gaining a distinction, Students show that they have a thorough understanding of various areas of law, can produce legal documents with the highest attention to detail and can follow instructions to perfection.

We have been running our Legal Secretaries Diploma course at Regent’s College in Regent’s Park for over 10 years and find it to be an excellent venue for our Students. The college recently became Regent’s University, after it received confirmation from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills that it met the criteria for a university title. 

An intensive scrutiny process was led by the Quality Assurance Agency and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), which included a governance audit, a check on student numbers and a consultation on the proposed change in name.

Douglas Scott Legal Recruitment is helping to judge the inaugural Legal Support Staff Awards, which have been organised by GEM Legal Training and will take place at Bolton De Vere White’s hotel in September 2013.

Gemma Rush, pictured here, is a recruitment consultant at Douglas Scott.  She is judging the Legal Secretary of the Year award – tipped to be one of the busiest categories. Gemma has worked at Douglas Scott for over two years where she manages the legal support desk. Prior to joining Douglas Scott, she worked in human resources at the Co-operative Bank.

Recognising the employees who are so important to the success of law firms, the Legal Support Staff Awards are being organised by GEM Legal Training to assist legal firms across England and Wales by rewarding talent at every level of the business infrastructure.

CareersINFO produce careers job profile films for young people and are looking to create film content for their online careers resource Skills Explorer: http://www.skillsexplorer.com/. Skills Explorer gives users a chance to explore their skills and career options through videos.

The main aim is to educate young people in schools about the different work opportunities available to them. To that end, Skills Explorer is a free new way for students to connect with world-of-work job profile films, giving users a chance to explore their skills and career options like never before.

Skills Explorer supports classroom, workshop and one-to-one career discussions with tailor-made talking points, learning opportunities and next steps for students, careers advisers and teachers alike.

In front of an enthusiastic crowd of more than 200 attending the first national awards ceremony dedicated to legal services support staff, Angela Dyos from Clifford Chance was named 2012 Legal PA of the Year.

Angela, still a little dazed after receiving her award, said; I can't believe I have won. I have never done anything like this before. It has taken me out my comfort zone, as I have been with the same company for 18 years. It has been so rewarding.

The awards ceremony, organised by recruitment specialists Strictly Legal, took place at McQueen in London on Wednesday 14 November. Representatives from more than 30 law firms were eager to discover who, from the hundreds of entries received from across the UK, had won awards in the four categories.

On Wednesday 14 November, ILSPA co-sponsored and attended the Legal PA of the Year Awards 2012, which was hosted by Strictly Legal – a globally operating recruitment agency based in London. The awards ceremony took place at McQueen in Shoreditch, which won an award itself for being London’s best bar in 2010. Representatives from more than 30 law firms attended the event, and there was a wonderful array of legal professionals eagerly anticipating who, from hundreds of entries across the UK, had won the awards.

The awards comprised of four categories – Legal PA of the Year, Up and Coming Legal PA of the Year, Secretarial/PA Manager of the Year and Document Production Operator of the Year. The atmosphere as the finalists and winners were announced by Paul Kelly, Director at Strictly Legal, was exciting and fun.  

Every year scores of awards are up for grabs for Lawyers and HR teams but never for Legal PAs or Secretaries. This has now changed! One of the UK’s leading legal Secretarial and PA agencies, Strictly Legal, has launched the inaugural Legal PA of the Year Awards. The process offers a unique opportunity to recognise the vital role that Legal PAs and Managers play in the industry. 

If you haven’t already heard, 12 September 2012 is National PA Day. This will be the 2nd annual celebration of Britain’s PAs – the people who make Britain’s offices work – so why not be part of it by spending the day with your fellow PAs at Office?

This annual day will celebrate Britain’s PAs – the unsung heroes of Britain’s offices – and aims to highlight the increasing importance of the estimated 600,000 highly skilled PAs working in offices across the UK and to promote the profession to well-educated young people seeking an exciting and stimulating career.

The Institute is delighted to inform you that our new website will be launched on Wednesday 6 June. We have worked on it with much love and care to provide our Members and the public with an attractive and welcoming place to find the information they need to progress in their careers. ILSPA is dedicated to helping you with your career every step of the way, and we will be providing more benefits for Members.

One of the many benefits of Membership is having access to the exclusive Membership area on our website. This has been redesigned and encompasses a wealth of useful information and resources for Members: