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Legal Secretary - Personal requirements

Hekeretari Ture

Skills & knowledge

Legal secretaries need to have:

good word processing skills
proofreading skills and knowledge of spelling, grammar and vocabulary
planning and organisational ability
an understanding of basic maths and accounting.

"You need to be computer literate for sure. If you can't type, you needn't bother."

Sheila Sharpe - Legal Secretary

Personal Qualities

Legal secretaries need to be:

well organised
reliable and responsible
professional and ethical
accurate
able to keep information private and confidential
able to work well under pressure and to deadlines.

"Time management and communication are the most essential qualities because you're working for two or three people and balancing their workloads."

Penny MacAskill - Legal secretary

Physical Requirements

Legal secretaries spend a lot of time using computers, so it is important that they know how to use computer equipment properly to avoid Occupational Overuse Syndrome (OOS).

They also need to have a tidy appearance.

"I'm up and down all the time and am never sitting longer than 20 minutes. I do a lot of work on the phone and the computer but I take a lot of breaks – it's a good excuse to get up and get a tea or a coffee!"

Penny MacAskill - Legal secretary

Previous page - Tasks and specialisations

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Updated August 2008

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