What Skills Are Taught in a Legal Secretary Certificate Program?
A Legal Secretary Certificate program teaches the competencies necessary to gain employment as a Legal Secretary. A Legal Secretary Certificate enhances employability and helps the Legal Secretary earn a higher wage. This article discusses skills taught in a Legal Secretary Certificate program. Schools offering Legal Administrative Assistant degrees can also be found in these popular choices.
Skills Taught in a Legal Secretary Certificate Program
A Legal Secretary Certificate is designed for students that already possess good secretarial skills. The program teaches the competencies that are necessary to gain employment as Legal Secretary or legal word processing specialists. A certificate program is the first step for the student wishing to pursue an Associate of Applied Science degree.
Skills Taught
A student participating in a typical Legal Secretary Certificate program should possess common secretarial skills. The certificate program provides proficiency in accounting and billing, communications, ethics, legal research, legal terminology, research, the theory of law, word processing and computer programs.
Typical Program of Study
Many Legal Secretary Certificate programs can be completed in four to six months. Although courses will vary by school, a typical certificate program would include courses in word processing in the legal field, Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Power Point, legal research and writing methods. A student pursuing a career as a Legal Secretary should have strong computer skills and basic knowledge of computer programs, such as word processing, database and presentation programs.
Changes in the Field
According to the ABA Journal, www.abajournal.com, a news service of the American Bar Association, today's legal office depends heavily on modern technology to run a legal office efficiently. Young lawyers are much more computer literate than their older counterparts. They often draft documents themselves instead of depending on the Legal Secretary to perform the task. Legal Secretaries are now performing additional work, such as Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw searches, which had previously been performed by paralegals.
To continue researching, browse degree options below for course curriculum, prerequisites and financial aid information. Or, learn more about the subject by reading the related articles below:
Subscribe to RSS feed for
Legal Administration FAQs
