Support Staff Case Studies
Lesley Graham
F.Inst.L.Ex
Lesley was inaugurated as the 44th President of ILEX in
July 2007. Her term of office runs for one year. She now
works for the Manchester law firm, Sheldon Davidson, specialising
in personal injury claims, but started her law career in a support
role.
Her career path has been a varied and interesting one. After
leaving school, she had a number of secretarial and admin jobs, and
various part time jobs. The job that quite literally changed her
life was an evening position typing up urgent work for a
Barrister’s chambers. She found the work really interesting and
looked around for a legal course to learn more about the law, but
one that could be fitted around the commitments of a growing
family. And this is when she discovered ILEX.
“ILEX offered an alternative to the traditional route for anyone
wanting a career in law. It was the only organisation that could
offer me the opportunity to ‘earn and learn’ while obtaining the
qualifications I needed to become a lawyer without having to go to
university, which was not an option open to me, as I needed to stay
at home with my family.
“Make no mistake,” says Lesley, “The ILEX route is not the soft
option that some would have you believe. While I locked myself in
the bedroom to study or went on one of my courses, my husband had
to look after the family. I can’t really believe that we did that
for over four years, but when you really want to do something, you
just find the time and energy from somewhere.”
Rachel Leadbeater
Rachel Leadbeater had worked as a Legal Secretary for eight
years when she decided to study for the ILEX Level 3 Professional
Diploma in Law at Bedford College.
“I have found the ILEX route
extremely flexible, said Rachel, as it is part-time and I can study
when my daughter is at school. It has enabled me to enjoy being a
mother as well as having a fulfiling career.”
A classmate of Rachel's,
Katie was encouraged to train to become a Legal Executive
while she was working in a Legal Office, initially as a
receptionist and then as a Legal Secretary.
Katie said: “I have found the
ILEX route a really practical way to get into the Legal profession
whilst working at the same time. I hope it will open up a variety
of further career opportunities.”
Abbie Smith
I work as a Legal Executive
for the Environment Agency. I first started as a legal
secretary, but was encouraged by my manager at the time to start
the ILEX course. Once I had started the course, my job
progressed from secretary to trainee legal executive. When I
qualified, I relocated and got my current job that way.
I didn’t do a degree. I got A Levels at
college, followed by a qualification for secretarial skills.
After starting my job as a legal secretary I did the ILEX course
and qualified as a Fellow. On top of these qualifications I also
trained on the job and learned from colleagues. I then
did some further ILEX exams and partial CPE to gain exemptions to
convert my qualification to a solicitor. I am currently in
the middle of the Legal Practice Course (LPC). Once
completed, the LPC will allow me to qualify as a solicitor.
In my current job I deal with commercial
property, which involves leases of land, easements, deeds of
surrender and lease documents / sale and purchase of land.
I am also involved with national projects relating to
registration of land. My job has developed now in that I
teach other people who are in my team about things, and even teach
trainee solicitors.
The aspects of the job I enjoy are the
challenges I face, and researching and learning about new things
when presented with a matter I’m not familiar with. I also
enjoy the people I work with. However, sometimes the
work is very pressurised, with tight deadlines to meet so that can
be challenging.
If you want to become a Legal Executive, you have to be
commercially minded and have good people skills. A firm of
solicitors will look for people who can deal with clients and have
commercial awareness.
Our thanks to Anita Sundra - Freelance
Journalist for allowing ILEX to reproduce this case
study.