From Secretary to Legal Executive: Some guidance for Career Advancement

Transitioning from a legal secretary to a legal executive represents a significant step forward in a legal career, marked by increased responsibilities, broader decision-making authority, and deeper engagement with legal matters.

Having prior experience working as a legal secretary assisted significantly in our general understanding of the content being taught through our studies. We went into each course with knowledge of the legal lingo, the software used and the documents we were being asked to prepare.

During our time as legal secretaries, we were exposed to various different areas of law. Being able to meet with clients who come from many different backgrounds and guiding them through important, exciting and sometimes difficult times in their lives can be a challenge yet highly rewarding. Our passion for assisting clients and the desire to enhance our skills, were the primary motivations behind us pursuing studies towards becoming legal executives and advancing our careers.

An aspect of our study we both enjoyed was the diversity of the topics covered. There were 6 main areas of law covered throughout the course and it was interesting to branch into areas of law we do not normally work in. This gave us a greater understanding of the broader scope of our work and other matters to consider on each file rather than just the basics of how to do our jobs effectively.

Studying to become a Legal Executive through the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand provides for several advantages in your career, one of which includes flexibility of working full-time whilst pursuing your studies part-time. This is something that we both achieved throughout our studies and is very attainable for anyone to accomplish. Enhancing your career by becoming a legal executive equips you with deeper knowledge and understanding of the law and its processes. This knowledge enables you to provide a higher quality of service and advice to your clients, ultimately leading to better outcomes for them.  Gaining a legal executive qualification provides you with the skills to communicate effectively with clients in a confident manner and produce legal documentation to a higher standard.  Having a good understanding of your clients’ needs alongside the knowledge of law is crucial for delivering professional and accurate legal services.

Career progression from legal secretary to legal executive can be assisted by seeking mentorship from experienced lawyers and other legal executives, pursuing relevant continuing education courses, and actively seeking opportunities to take on more challenging assignments. Building a reputation for reliability, professionalism, and a solid understanding of legal procedures is essential for success in this transition.

One thing we have found to be effective in easing this transition has been to sit in on client meetings with our supervising partners, learning by example the importance of and how to foster client relationships while completing the required work. A supportive work environment has also greatly assisted throughout our studies and ongoing career development as we have had the opportunity to work on files not in our general area of work, assist on more complex files, ask questions as they arise and learn from people who genuinely want to help us grow our professional careers.

We highly encourage anyone who has thought about pursuing a career as a legal executive to give it a try and seek advice from others who have been through a similar qualification or experience.

This article is current as at the date of publication and is only intended to provide general comments about the law. Harkness Henry accepts no responsibility for reliance by any person or organisation on the content of the article. Please contact the author of the article if you require specific advice about how the law applies to you.