Legal
The employment outlook for the legal secretary looks good. According to Gini Myers, Certified Professional Legal Secretary (PLS) and former National Association of Legal Secretaries (NALS) president, there is a shortage of qualified legal secretaries who have the knowledge necessary to work in a legal environment. (See Table 12 for distribution of employment by secretarial specialty.)
The role of the legal secretary has changed similar to that of the general secretary. Legal secretaries need to be computer literate, understand the terminology, and have the specialized knowledge required in a legal environment. In the past, shorthand skills were a requirement; today is looked upon very favorably in the higher-level positions and frequently is requested by senior partners. In some firms, legal secretaries conduct the research, schedule depositions, and answer clients' questions.
Legal secretaries prepare legal documents such as summonses, complaints, motions, petitions, subpoenas, answers, living trusts, deeds, affidavits, and briefs. They may also be in charge of the law library, adding parts and other material to update editions as the law and precedent change. In addition to the typical responsibilities of taking and transcribing dictation and performing administrative office functions required in any office, other duties include the following: reviewing law journals, assisting with legal research, taking notes on proceedings, maintaining corporate records, filing papers in the courthouse, taking notes, and maintaining lawyer's papers in order during trial; investigating cases for trial and obtaining information that the lawyer must have to prepare certain documents; advising lawyer of court appearances and due dates for filing pleadings; and maintaining escrow accounts.
Carol Ann Wilson, a certified legal secretary and member of the Certifying Board of the Legal Secretaries International, believes that the legal secretary, in addition to having office skills and personal traits that are far above average, should be an expert at time management, juggling many activities and roles at the same time; must possess psychological skills, dealing daily with many personalities; and must use excellent judgment to make dozens of critical decisions.
Several factors in the legal services field will impact the future of the legal secretary: 1. Clients want more accountability for fees they pay. 2. Paralegal firms exist that offer discounted rates for legal services, such as preparing wills, uncontested divorces, and name changes. These individuals are not lawyers and will affect the industry.
No two jobs in the legal profession are alike, with marked differences between the duties of a legal secretary in a one- or two-lawyer office compared to a large firm employing many lawyers. A special code of conduct is required of legal secretaries, which are spelled out in the Code of Ethics developed by the National Association of Legal Secretaries (International). Every member shall:
- Encourage respect for the law and the administration of justice.
- Observe the rules governing privileged communications and confidential information.
- Promote and exemplify high standards of loyalty, cooperation, and courtesy.
- Perform all duties of the profession with integrity and competence.
- Pursue a high order of professional attainment.
Job opportunities are unlimited for legal secretaries, with choices of specialization in patent, criminal, real estate, malpractice, corporation, matrimonial, probate, or negligence law. In recent years, environmental law and public interest law have also emerged. There is a trend toward increasing specialization in large law firms that employ large numbers of legal secretaries.
If you are interested in diverse activities, the small, private law firm might be for you. It offers the widest variety of work and the greatest opportunity for individual initiative. Large law firms or legal departments of corporations usually provide well-defined work. An advantage of corporate departments, however, is that hours of employment are more regular; in law firms, no matter what size, frequently the legal secretary is called upon to work overtime.
Views From A Secretary And Lawyer
Carol Ann Wilson stated: "I am very proud to be a legal secretary. I am proud of the knowledge and experience I have gained...I have met famous people, worked on important cases, been given important responsibilities, and learned more than I could from any law school. I have been trusted with information that is so confidential that, had I been working for the government, I would have had the highest security clearance...."
Luther J. Avery of Bancroft, Avery and McAlister in San Francisco, California, believes there is a need for qualified legal secretaries who perform a vital role in the delivery of legal services:
The legal profession and the delivery of legal services are involved in massive changes that reflect the changes occurring in society. Along with the changes affecting the law business, there are many changes in how legal services will be delivered.
Despite the changes, certain characteristics of law practice continue; notably, the personal and confidential relationship between lawyer and client; the intellectual stimulation from problem solving and helping people; and the need for quality services and attention to detail.
There is more need than ever for competent legal secretaries today; there is a shortage. There will be a need for competent legal secretaries in the future; and, I predict, a shortage.
The legal secretary may need more skills or more education, but that is part of the challenge that makes the job interesting.
The competent legal secretary is and will continue to be an administrator, a facilitator, the key person on the law office production line who will help maintain the quality of legal products and services.The essential skills, knowledge, and attitudes of the legal secretary are spelled out in the literature of such organizations as the National Association of Legal Secretaries. Where the lawyer-client relationship is dependent upon the integrity and intelligence of the participants and is responsive to personal problems, there is a continuing need for the professionalism that is exhibited by legal secretaries such as those who qualify as a Professional Legal Secretary and those who have the same skills, knowledge, and attitudes.
Without legal secretaries involved in the delivery of legal services, lawyers and the legal system would have difficulty functioning. If you are interested in employment as a legal secretary, try to obtain a broad education and learn management skills and computer skills as well as the skills of personnel relations, human relations, and skills as a technician. Most of all, in seeking employment as a legal secretary, is careful to select your employer wisely because whether or not you will enjoy the legal secretarial profession will probably depend upon the environment in which you function.
Medical
Professional specialty and service occupations in the health services industry cover nearly three out of five jobs, according to the Department of Labor statistics. The next largest share of jobs is in administrative support occupations.
The health-care industry has experienced unprecedented growth. The proliferation of medical centers, family practice clinics, extended health care facilities, private group practices, and long-term care facilities has created a need for secretaries with good office skills, knowledge of medical terminology, training in administrative and clinical procedures, and a "caring" attitude.
Secretarial jobs and responsibilities in medical offices vary. For example, you might be responsible for business activities in the office, you might be the receptionist who greets patients when they walk into a doctor's office or hospital, or you might be an assistant who helps patients in preparing for examinations or for certain medical procedures such as taking blood pressure and temperature. As a medical secretary, you will have many opportunities for challenges of this nature.
Whether you choose to work in a small doctor's office or in a large medical center, you will undoubtedly perform diverse duties each day. In addition to handling the general office routines, you may prepare papers for hospital admissions, obtain patient information, maintain the appointment book, prepare information for referrals, complete insurance forms, arrange for payment of fees, keep reminders for renewals of licenses and memberships in organizations, order supplies and drugs, transcribe and maintain records of the patients' medical histories, and deal with pharmaceutical representatives who visit the office to discuss new products with the doctor.
As you become more familiar with the medical secretarial career, you will realize that in addition to hospitals, clinics, and private doctors' offices, you could find employment with a medical research foundation, in companies that manufacture drugs, in health-related organizations such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and in medical departments of large corporations that provide employees with health services.
In addition to promotional opportunities as a supervisor or manager, you may wish to become a medical assistant. In this position, you would continue to perform the typical secretarial and administrative tasks and would also perform clinical duties and procedures. The employment outlook for both types of medical secretarial careers is excellent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 32 percent increase in employment from 1996 to the year 2006 for medical secretaries.
Have you ever thought of becoming a medical transcriptionist, another allied health career? Medical transcriptionists work with physicians, pharmacists, radiologists, nurses, and dieticians. A medical transcriptionist must know the language of medical and surgical special-ties. They transcribe medical histories and physicals, operative reports, consultations, discharge summaries, and a long list of other subspecialty documentations. They need a command of medical terminology, very good keyboarding and editing skills, excellent auditory skills, and highly developed analytical skills. An individual who is interested in a career as a medical transcriptionist is assured of flexible work schedules and an intellectually challenging position.
A Medical Secretary's Point Of View
Janice Nicosia, an administrative assistant for a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, functions in a private setting on a one-to-one basis with the physician for whom she works. From her perspective as an employee in a hospital environment, she believes it is a very good, interesting, and rewarding field in which to be employed.
The medical field is changing in the way medical services are delivered and the type of insurance coverage for patients. Every secretary's role differs, based on whether you work in a hospital, private setting, or in a clinic in a hospital. In my position I handle practically everything for my boss. Some of my responsibilities are the following:
- Handle patient care by making appointments for the patients, which include their admissions for cardiac cauterization and surgery; also coordinate other appointments such as tests that include exercise or vascular studies and neurology, depending on circumstances at the time.
- Transcribe 75 percent of the recorded dictation for my boss. Since the load of documents is excessive and it must be completed expeditiously, approximately 25 percent of it is sent to a transcription service.
- An aide does the Xeroxing and filing, which is still traditional in setup.
- Access from the computer test results on patient's chest.
- Prepare preliminary report of tests taken, such as a stress test, a few hours after it has been performed for placement on physician's desk for review.
- For our foreign patients, coordinate their appointments with other physicians (e.g., eye, dental, and echo cardiogram).
- May have to pick up a medical record for signature and then return to appropriate station.
- Maintain a copy of lectures presented by my boss and then update periodically with changes in outline.
- Keep physician's CV up to date.
- Coordinate meetings for my boss that he has to attend as well as those where he is a member of the committee.
- Arrange for weekend coverage if my boss is not available.
If you are interested in a profession in the medical environment, I advise you to continue your education and enroll in a medical secretarial/administrative curriculum for at least a two-year degree and more, if possible. In this type of program, you will learn medical terminology, which would be very beneficial and clinical procedures, too.
Technical
A technical secretary works for a scientist or an engineer, employers who are generally found in the laboratory rather than in the office. Therefore, the secretary is more of an administrative assistant who is in charge of organizing and implementing most of the office routines. In addition to the usual secretarial duties, the technical secretary prepares most of the correspondence from composing to mailing; maintains the technical library, and gathers, types, and edits materials for scientific papers. The engineering secretary checks specifications in contracts against standards and orders the materials that meet the specifications.
Opportunities are available for the technical secretary who has the following qualifications: knowledge of technology and vocabulary relevant to a specific field, familiarity with mathematical and/or engineering symbols, skills in formatting and keyboarding statistical tables, and high standards of performance in production of technical reports. A good knowledge of and interest in mathematics and science contribute to job satisfaction and success. Besides work in professional offices, jobs are available in industry. Some of the fields for which you can prepare as a technical secretary are in electronics, communications, aerospace, nuclear energy, and ecology.
Educational
Educational secretaries may work in a variety of institutions: private or public elementary, intermediate, or high school; two- or four-year college; and university. If you like working in an educational environment, then you also may have a choice of location. Do you prefer a small town, a large city, or a college town?
School secretaries may work directly with administrators and teachers. They meet and talk with parents, business leaders, visitors, community representatives, and board members. Duties of the position may range from taking dictation and keyboarding correspondence and documents to taking minutes of meetings, preparing governmental reports, and ordering and distributing supplies.
Public schools in some cities require applicants for positions to pass an examination. Therefore, you should investigate this requirement in the area where you wish to find a job.
Jan Barr, secretary to the supervisor of maintenance for the Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland, believes that secretaries need to develop exceptional interpersonal skills, keep up with technology, attend workshops and seminars, and network with professional colleagues.
Private Secretarial Service
For secretaries who wish to operate their own businesses, secretarial services might be the answer. These firms perform a wide range of services for the public such as keyboarding correspondence, reports, proposals, manuals, repetitive letters, database input, and graphs on a microcomputer; composing, formatting, and typing resumes; taking telephone and tape transcription; handling mail (folding, stuffing, sealing, affixing postage); printing labels; notarizing documents; and handling facsimile transmission. To run a business successfully, you need good marketing and managing skills, as well as the ability to determine charges for different types of projects.
Pricing jobs is not uniform in all districts; therefore, you need to be able to determine overhead, expenses, cost of equipment, insurance, and supplies. In addition, you need to be knowledgeable about the geographical area in which you are rendering these services. Such a business can be home-based-known as electronic cottages-can be conducted in a storefront, or can be located in a professional building. This is an excellent small business venture for individuals who were secretaries at one time, for they have the right mix of technical, administrative, and interpersonal skills.
What are some of the advantages for the user of these services? The owner of a newly established business who doesn't have the cash flow yet can use these services when needed; it is less expensive than increasing clerical staff; and the customer is charged only for productive time.
Secretarial services as a business has grown so tremendously in the past few years that companies performing these services have organized a professional association as a forum for exchanging ideas and keeping updated on trends in business and technology.
Public Stenographer
The public stenographer is another kind of service rendered to the public by secretaries who wish to run their own business. The offices usually are located in a hotel near prospective employers who need special services in a hurry. Public stenographers serve only those who bring work to them; and because they usually do only small jobs for a traveling population of employers, they can charge rather high rates for piecework. Public stenographers are usually also notary publics, those authorized by the state to witness signatures. For this service they receive a small fee. Much of their work is of a legal nature, and secretaries contemplating careers as public stenographers should be experienced in legal work.
The major advantages of becoming a public stenographer are freedom from supervision and a wide variety of work assignments. One never knows what type of job will be brought in. You can make a very good salary if you are located in a high-paying area. The disadvantages of becoming a public stenographer are the instability of employment and the possibility of low income during holiday periods and slack seasons, or of working in a poor location. Public stenography demands a high degree of skill and flexibility, for each new dictator is different, with unique demands and requirements.
Court Reporter
The opportunities in court reporting are varied and plentiful. It is a highly challenging profession for a person with knowledge of specialized terminology in the legal, medical, insurance, and engineering fields. The court reporter must also be a good communicator, computer literate, well organized, to meet deadlines, and work well under pressure.
In this position, the reporter records verbatim statements made at legal proceedings at the city, state, and federal levels and present their record in the official transcript. There are also freelance reporters who record depositions, or out-of-court testimony for attorneys, as well as take proceedings of meetings and conventions. With modern technology, most reporters now dictate notes on magnetic tapes that a typist can transcribe later. An increasing number of reporters have begun to use Computer-Aided Transcription (CAT). This simply means that a computer is used to transcribe the reporter's stenotype notes that were captured electronically in digital form. The transcript is edited on the computer, which also functions at this level as a word processor.
Business-oriented individuals have been establishing court-reporting firms, a growing industry to serve the legal community. They hire certified reporters, transcribers, and support personnel. Governmental court reporters qualify by examination. However, if your preference is private industry, then you may wish to apply for a position with a reporting corporation.
You may wish to note the trends in court reporting that reflect a compositional change toward increased feminization. Almost 86 percent are women. Of the two-thirds of the court reporters who are freelance workers, 88 percent are women.
Set your goals if you want to become a court reporter. It requires two to four years of technical training and state certification in some jurisdictions. For more details, you may contact Central Michigan University where they have a B.A.A. degree major in court and conference reporting.
