The Responsibilities of a Legal Secretary
Grasping the Role of the Legal Secretary
Successful legal secretaries are required to possess a unique set of skills in order to achieve success. Depending on the size of a firm, a legal secretary may be assigned to one or more attorneys and may have numerous responsibilities tailored to the areas of practice within the firm.
A legal secretary is typically responsible for drafting pleadings, motions, and other court documents; communicating with clients; filing pleadings with the Local and/or Federal courts; formatting documents to conform to the specific Local, Federal and/or Administrative Rules of Court; and maintaining their own filing system as well as that of the attorneys they support. In addition, a secretary may assist a paralegal or attorney with the management of discovery documents and coordination of trial preparation and/or hearings and court appearances. It is essential that a legal secretary possess advanced computer and word processing skills as well as knowledge of the court systems and the rules applicable to each. A legal secretary must also possess superb communication and organizational skills. The duties of a legal secretary encompass far more than the traditional administrative responsibilities and they are considered an integral part of the law firm team.
Common responsibilities include:
Why these skills are essential to the job:
Regardless of the instruction provided by the supervising lawyer or manager , the legal secretary should take the lead in advising the attorney by asking questions with the objective of drafting documents that require no or minimal revision. In addition, the legal secretary’s proactive approach to asking questions should also extend to reviewing the attorney’s calendar to ensure that deadlines are not missed and to obtain copies of pleadings or documents that require signature or in which input or approval is required. Without this approach, the responsibility of determining which upcoming dates require a response or filing will fall solely on the attorney. A proactive approach which allows for the appropriate steps to be taken will greatly reduce the likelihood of a missed deadline. This skill, coupled with the ability to quickly respond to Supreme Court or Local Rules, will not only enhance an attorney’s calendar management abilities and firm reputation, but it will also save time in the long run.
Legal secretaries are vital to the success of every law office and therefore the importance of hiring qualified candidates cannot be understated.
An effective legal secretary will possess a multitude of skills that are key to the efficiency and success with which law practices operate. Those individuals who are committed to continuous improvement efforts and professional development will set themselves apart and contribute to the overall success of their individual law practices.
What to Include in the Resume of a Legal Secretary
When it comes to the essential resume sections for a legal secretary, the standard practices are very similar to those of other business professionals. The one thing that the legal secretary resume needs to have are very clear details regarding any important training or certifications required for the position. In that sense, the legal secretary has some similarities with those in the medical fields.
The legal secretary should include the following sections:
Contact Information
Your name, address, phone number (both day and night if applicable), email address, and LinkedIn address (if applicable) should all be very easy to find and clearly defined at the top of the resume.
Summary
This section details some of the key attributes that you possess as they relate to the employer’s needs. You can also include your years of experience at this level, and your professional goals as they relate to the employer’s needs. This should be a brief statement of no more than five to six sentences.
Work Experience
This section is typically at least two full pages in length. It can be presented in whatever way you find most useful, such as a simple list or a detailed description of every position you’ve held since high school. You need to be sure that you’re using powerful keywords that are related to the work you’re applying for in this section.
Skills
This is fairly self-explanatory, but if you have special skills that pertain to the job for which you’re applying, include them here. Anything you can do that the employer might find beneficial should be listed within this area.
Education
List your high school, college or university including graduation dates and your GPA if it was worth noting. You will also want to include any pertinent certifications or licenses that you might have. If you were part of any clubs, you may want to mention those as well.
Writing a Good Summary Statement
When you begin your legal secretary resume, you will be tempted to start with your objectives, but the objective statement may now be considered "outdated" and "ineffective". According to Business Insider, in today’s job market, objective statements take up space that could be better utilized. Profiles or summary statements have taken their place. When it comes to a summary statement, you will want to "grab" the reader’s attention right from the beginning. In fact, if you choose to write a summary statement, you need to do it the right way, according to Writers’ Market. Your summary statement will be at the top part of the page along with your contact information. The summary statement should describe your "unique qualifications" and "highlight key accomplishments" relating to the position you are applying for so that it persuades the reader to continue reading. How much detail does your summary statement require? The answer is: as much as it can. You want to cover your top qualifications in full detail including your accomplishments, education, past employment, skills and background. Most importantly, you’ll need to write it all in one sentence. Here’s an example of one sentence highlighting experience, accomplishments, background and skills: Highly-organized and detail-oriented with over 8 years of administrative experience by providing support to lawyers, and have extensive knowledge in all areas of administrative duties including: filing, data entry, presentation preparation, drafting memos, and direct communication with clients, attorneys, and outside vendors. The other option is to write a profile statement which is just a few sentences that outline your skills. You would want to aim for three or four sentences maximum. Here are some examples: Professional with over 8+ years’ experience providing support at law firms to lawyers and executives by preparing files, drafting and editing correspondence and memos, and managing and maintaining customer relationships. Detail-oriented Executive Assistant with a strong background supporting busy executive and legal departments in managing calendars, making travel arrangements, conducting market research, and producing presentations. Your summary or profile statement gives you an opportunity to really sell yourself as a candidate for the legal secretary position. If written well it will entice an employer to read your resume and perhaps call you in for an interview. It is worth putting in the time and effort to craft a compelling summary statement.
Describing Your Work Experience
The work history is arguably the most important feature of any resume. It is critical that you make it clear to the reader your duties and responsibilities. Without clear, concise job descriptions with focused descriptions of achievements, everything else fades into a murky pool of innocuous information that suggests that you have a resume with little to offer.
Every position you have held should be on the resume. I would suggest that you include everything back to Law School, as it shows continuity of experience. While it may be hard to believe, we have seen resumes that are not only not accurate for the sake of being inaccurate, but outright fraudulent in some cases. I cannot stress enough that your resume and any other information you provide to the employer must be true. For every embellishment, omission or misrepresentation found by the employer, there will be something on the internet to confirm every suspicion. Do not put anything out there that is not accurate.
List every position you have held and include a brief description about the position and the accomplishments you achieved while in that position. Generally, the last 10 years or so is sufficient on the resume, but if you only have two or three positions over the past 10 years, list them all. You should include items like: names of attorneys for whom you worked, your supervisors, the client industries you served, software used, fields of law you practiced, and of course, job functions that show off your skills and abilities as best you can.
Action verbs make your achievements leap off the page, so do not be shy about using them liberally. Use "Managed" instead of "Oversaw" and "Developed" in place of "Created." Adjectives and adverbs are not necessary to describe the tasks represented by the verbs – save those for your newspaper articles and novels! Of course, do not ignore details that demonstrate your excellence. "Created and maintained database of more than 500 clients and target business…" is desirable, while "kept track of customers" is not; the difference is in the details of the responsibilities described.
Keep each responsibility to a short paragraph. This is not the place for fullness of detail as your cover letter is the better place for that. Balance is essential. Too much information will result in a long list of accomplishments that will bore the reader. On the other hand, too little information will leave questions in the readers mind and frustrate them. The Time Machine is not ready to assist us with returning to the time when responsible individuals spotted each widely spaced period and fixed the messages contained within.
Listing Relevant Skills on Your Resume
In addition to formal training, legal secretaries need a variety of skills to stand out in an increasingly competitive field. Not surprisingly, the most relevant skills for legal secretaries are primarily technical and administrative, but the most successful legal secretaries also have a range of soft skills that help them effectively forge relationships with lawyers, judges, and clients. Among some of the most relevant technical skills are the ability to review and prepare legal documents in a timely manner, organize files, and maintain billing records . Legal secretaries also use technology to a significant degree so must have a basic comfort level using software programs and web-based resources. Soft skills are also key for legal secretaries, who need impressive communication skills, both written and verbal, to interact effectively with all relevant audiences and forge relationships, and strong reading comprehension skills to understand and sort through complex legal documents. Legal secretaries should also be detail-oriented and have superior organizational skills to keep both legal offices and law firms running smoothly. Finally, self-motivation and the ability to work well under pressure are necessary attributes for any legal secretary.
Your Education and Certifications
Your educational background and any job-related certifications can give you the edge over less qualified applicants. Attorneys that follow best hiring practices are more likely to favor applicants with these credentials than not. Education should be placed in reverse chronological order, starting with your highest degree. For example:
Doctor of Jurisprudence, University of Illinois – Chicago 2001
Bachelor of Arts, English, University of Illinois – Chicago 1996
Bachelor of Science, Business, University of Illinois – Chicago 1994
Continuing education classes or certifications and the dates earned should also be included in your education section. However, these credentials should not negatively influence how your clients or potential clients view your resume. If you took an e-course online through a resume seminar, for example, listing it in your education section may confuse your clients. On the other hand, if you took classes through the National Center for Paralegal Studies or the National Association of Legal Secretaries, for example, including them in your education section may lend credibility to your qualifications.
It is also a good idea to include professional affiliations to lend further credibility to your resume. Many state and area bar associations offer training to their members. These training opportunities can lend a degree of professionalism to your education level. In addition, if you have experience with various legal software systems, having a certification for those specific systems can be very beneficial to your legal secretary resume as well.
Customizing Your Resume
When it comes to crafting the perfect legal secretary resume, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each resume must be a tailored fit for each individual position of interest. Cookie-cutter resumes merely become generic, losing the opportunity to pop out from the stack of resumes in the eyes of a decision-maker. When the quality of your resume is such that it is indistinguishable from the majority of its competitors, you risk being passed over for more qualified applicants. This is particularly true for legal positions, where hiring managers are often well-versed in what to look for in an applicant’s resume.
Moreover, it is important to remember that lawyers are busy people who leave the nitty-gritty details of the hiring process to admin staff. Your initial resume therefore becomes the first impression, not only to a potential employer but also to their "gatekeeper." That’s where the importance of understanding how to customize your resume to the specific requirements of each position comes into play. A resume directed at a particular law firm or legal department can be the crucial detail that guarantees a call-back.
Perhaps the best way to achieve this level of customization is by making a careful comparison between the specific job announcement for a position and the majority responsibilities contained in your own current or most recent position. The goal is to highlight qualified experiences that are in alignment with the key responsibilities for the position you are seeking, while de-emphasizing (or completely setting aside, if necessary) the responsibilities that are less relevant to the duties and responsibilities that a new position would involve. In some cases, the job announcement itself is broken down into sections where such an analysis is easier. Alternatively, you can create your own outline of key job requirements and compare your resume with each item on the list. The goal is always to ensure that key requirements are adequately listed on your resume while helping an employer to visualize you as the ideal candidate for each position of interest.
Finally, it is equally important to note that, while the skills an applicant possesses may be highly transferable, a successful resume isn’t. Writing a new resume for each position is critical because different firms and legal departments look for different aspects of qualifications. Taking the time to modify each resume you submit according to the unique needs of a particular position will yield the highest chances for securing an interview, and perhaps the job you’ve been waiting for.
Using Online Tools to Create a Resume
The internet continues to evolve as a useful tool for job seekers. Specifically in the legal field, there are now several online opportunities to craft a professional looking resume. Many legal staffing websites have resume builders that are easy to use. These tools step you through the process of creating a professionally written resume. Taking advantage of these free tools is important, as job seekers understand that a well organized and grammatically sound resume is essential to landing that perfect position. Online resume builders also allow you to easily upload and store your resume so that it is ready when needed. Resume enhancement software has become very important for professionals in the legal industry. Many legal professionals feel compelled to upload their resume online , especially on large staffing websites. Software has become available to assist with the preparation of resumes that are directly uploaded into large databases. This software makes it possible to print your resume in several different document formats. Utilizing these resume enhancement softwares allows the information to be stored in a manner that is easily retrieved by employers conducting open searches on the internet.
