How to become a Legal Secretary?!

It is not bad if you have the patience and energy. I used to stay sometimes until 11pm in the office to finish work, so yes it is a good salary but it is too much work and stress.

thanks for the comprehensive info JS, I suppose it's not bad work if you can get it.

A legal secretary with no experience can start in a small law firm or a local faw firm between 5000 to 7000. English and American law firms pay for a Legal Secretary between 12,000 to 18,000, it depends on their budget and how much experience the secretary has. Apart from law firms, in the international companies, salaries for legal secretary or Paralegal who work in the legal department, start from 15,000 (rarely) but usually it should be between 18,000 and it can reach up to 24,000, depends on the experience, how much work she can accomplish and how many languages she speaks. The Junior lawyers who start in small local law firm (with a law degree) sometimes start with a very low salary such as 10,000 and Paralegals also start in that range up to 15,000 max. Lawyers with experience in international law firms or international companies (in UAE) start wih 30,000 up to 65,000 and I prefer not to tell you how much the salary might reach after the 65,000 in order not to depress the ladies on EW :) Of course this salary is per month without adding the other benefits such as medical insurance for self and family, tickets, children's education allowance and if lucky enough bonuses :D Ladies, if one of you is thinking in completing her education or adding a degree, go for the law degree!!

slightly off topic but what is the pay for Legal Secretaries out here?

I have worked as a PA for a few years but keep seeing higher demand in legal secretaries. Also looks like they make much higher salaries... :-) How to go about this? Is there an online certification or something available here? anybody have any advice? Are you sure you want to do this? It can be very demanding. I worked as one after university. I have a degree in business administration. I quit later on as I am not really an office person.

Hi Jess14 I currently work as a Senior Paralegal Assistant and I hold this position since 3 years now and here is how I started. I have only High School since I studied 2 years in the University but I didnt complete it for family reasons. Anyway I took a lot of English courses at the British Coucil in Dubai in addition to typing courses (you can also get a CD from Magrudys for additional help). As my native language is Arabic and second is French so I had to work hard on improving my English communications skills. I started as a Secretary to the Sales Manager in a small company in Dubai Media City who was Irish and I learned a lot from him (like writing letters, how to write professional emails). After 2 years and that was in 2003, a recruitment company offered me a job as a Legal Secretary at the biggest LOCAL law firm in UAE, they gave me a test for 3 hours which included audio typing, translations, typing skills (how fast you are in typing..).. I passed and got the job.. Let me tell you that I worked really hard with this law firm and I tried to learn as much as possible, I stayed long hours without getting overtime, worked on weekends but my hardwork was paid after and I was promoted to Team Leader of the Secretaries in the department. I completed there 2 and half years and I got an offer from a UK law firm in 2006 for a double salary :D Of course I took the job as Executive Legal Secretary and I enjoyed working with them for 2 years and actually I did not want to leave them but the position I got from the company that I currently work with was so attractive to me and the job description had a lot of challenge. I always tell my friends that I was just lucky by 1st working with that local law firm but bottom line, I didn't choose to be a Legal Secretary, it was just my destiny :) Now honestly, all the British and American law firms in Dubai will ask for an experience as a Legal Secretary and their test of audio typing and writing skills is not an easy one. Now what the recruitment companies will not tell you but I can is: The Legal Secretary should have the ability in reading what I call "chicken handwriting" of lawyers so you can amend the long agreements which they give you to amend, some of the agreements are more than 100 pages, your audiotyping should be excellent, I worked with some lawyers who gave me a lot of audiotyping which I didn't like but didn't have the option, you must understand the legal terms, and the MOST important is that you must have the PATIENCE to work with LAWYERS, at times I had 2 or 3 of them giving me work at the same time and all for them is urgent and important. Lawyers in their nature are very very bossy and if you don't have the patience to deal with them, then don't try. If you try to interfere even in innocent way or ask questions you might hear "why you are aksing, you are not a lawyer, just do what I asked you to do" :) As for salaries, before 2008 the legal secretaries used to take more but I am not sure if this is still the same after the cricis.

Jess14 I worked for the Head of Property in a law firm back in the UK, no previous legal PA experience but had worked in Property. Not everyone will insist on it, but the majority do! Sometimes if your other experience is relevant to the type of legal work you may stand a chance, but I fear in Dubai/Abu Dhabi you will find it every difficult. Oh as for the money I earn more here as a PA to non legal than I would in legal :) Good luck!

When I arrived in the UAE the first job I was offered was a PA to Partner at an international practice - actual legal secretarial experience was not that important (as I had none!) Take any admin job within a legal firm and work your way up from there. I worked for a law firm in the UK (marketing) where the legal secretaries all had formal colleage training approx. 2 years and oddly enough, most of them came from Essex. (nothing against people from Essex, but perhaps the colleges were there?)

International companies prefer someone who has legal experience. There is a lot involved with regard to legal programs, documentation, terminology, etc. I was a legal secretary in the states where I worked for large firms where there was ongoing training when new programs/procedures were introduced. When I arrived here (quite a few years ago) I could pick and chose because of my extensive experience. Law firms setting up in Dubai have trainers come in to basically show newly hired legal secretaries firm style/procedures/operation as opposed to giving them legal secretarial training. Established law firms have ongoing training via video conference. You may try to get a receptionist position in a law firm with the understanding (with HR or Office Manager) that you can assist secretaries with overflow work to enable you to advance to a legal secretary position (if not within the firm, at another firm). You won't receive the salary that an experienced secretary makes, but sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward. Good luck to you.

In my past life, I was a legal secretary for many years and then went on to get my paralegal certification. Generally, legal secretary is a specialized field and takes a couple of years study. You won't find any sort of training here, however, if you look online you might find some on line studies. You only other option is to try and get in as a receptionist and hope someone would train you -- however, I wouldn't hold my breath. Dubai is a whole other world.

If you are young, attractive and slim you can get away with anything here. lol.:) I'm afraid this probably is the best advice to your question that you will ever get. However, I've seen something online from the UK - sorry, don't know the details but maybe if you google 'legal secretary' + qualifications or course. <em>edited by Marydots on 20/01/2011</em>

If you are young, attractive and slim you can get away with anything here. lol.:)