A legal assistant has a very important role in the world of law and can in previous employment have been an administrative assistant or have assisted in another kind of organised role. A legal assistant supports a lawyer, solicitor or barrister to ensure that they are fully prepared for the cases they are undertaking.
In the role of a Legal Assistant it is their responsibility to:
- Keep individual cases organised, meeting deadlines, documenting actions
- Researches and helps develop cases by being the primary contact with the clients
- Preparation for court cases
- The ideal person would be thorough, have some background of reporting so that they can document the cases and summarise where necessary, they must have excellent researching skills along with strong administration skills to ensure that the cases are as accurate as possible that they are preparing to go to court.
A legal assistant must be very confidential; they will be party to most of the case conversation and know some very serious information.
Although no formal qualifications for this role it would be helpful to get a good grounding in law terms and the workings of a law practice. You will almost certainly be required to have a good level of English and Maths and have great attention to detail.
The world of law is very formal therefore your dress needs to be formal too, very smart appearance required for this role.
If this is your first experience in the world of law, why are you interested? Do you know someone who does a similar role, or someone you could do some work experience with? All would be very valuable and gain you great insight into this busy and demanding role.