Thinking of training as a legal executive.

[LapsedTwentysomething]

I'm currently an English teacher in a school I loathe. I could wait it out until so,etching else comes up but I'm expensive and don't want to become a TLR holder. Teaching is not a passion for me. The subject is diluted to the point where I might as well just give them dot to dots to do and the admin is tedious. Good pay and long holidays, but the hours more or less even Luton a par with a standard FT job over a year.

What I'd like to do if money were no object is to completely retrain. Law appeals, but there's no way we can afford for me not to earn for two years and then to travel for a training contract. So I'm considering the CILEX route to becoming a legal executive instead.

I have a cousin who's a solicitor and her first reaction was that she knows lots of frustrated legal secretaries, who do the training but never really progress in their careers. However I have spoken to a firm which is keen to recruit those who are interested in CILEX as opposed to simply wanting an alternative route into their training contract.

Can anybody advise me? I want to know what the career prospects are in this role; whether the work is varied and stimulating, or simply the donkey work that the solicitors themselves delegate.

Hi I'm a practice manager at a law firm which specialises in conveyancing, when recruiting ILEX is a definite advantage but not the be all and end all. There is also the Institute of Legal Secretaries route, you could have a look to see if any of these jobs appeal.
jobs.institutelegalsecretaries.com/

The career prospects in this kind of role would be to progress towards a paralegal, or perhaps a licensed conveyancer for example. I would say the job variety is dependent on the capability of the individual, if you're clever and keen then the solicitor may be only too pleased to hand over the more interesting work. hope that helps!

Our firm specilaises in conveyancing and the solicitors are heavily reliant on a good secretary

It does, thank you. What's the difference between a legal exec and a legal secretary if you don't mind me asking?

I'm part qualified ilex as I gave up. I was already doing paralegal work having trained up from being a legal secretary. I started ilex but the firm I was in sort of made it clear it would make no difference to the role/money so I gave up. I moved to two other firms from there (one a top 5 in my city) and it made no difference that I didn't have the papers. I was a paralegal /legal clerk/lawyer. I wasn't delegated duties. I did the role same as solicitors but for less money ie I had a file load and targets to make.

It can be a stressful job. Targets to be met like chargeable hours, monthly billing targets etc. And the administration side completing spreadsheets for this that and the other as now required by most clients in the area of law I was in is endless.

I didn't enjoy it. It was just a job. I left last year to be a stay at home mom

If you are interested in law have you considered HR? I work in HR, specialising in employee relations and you need a good working knowledge of employment law, but you are very much on the coal face advising managers on situations such as how to manage poor performance, long term sickness, conduct issues, redundancy situations etc which can often lead to exiting the employee from the business. An entry level HR job would proabably focus on admin, but if you work your way up you can get to the more interesting stuff. CIPD quals would help but you can work and learn at the same time usually 2 year pt course. I love it and can't imagine doing anything else!

I'm very interested in HR but I live in a rural area where opportunities for just about everything are limited. It's a large county and local gov jobs are centralised miles away.