This year is drawing to an end and it is a good time to take note of the professional development you may have achieved in your working life.

We encourage our Members to advance their knowledge and skills through Continuing Professional Development. CPD can consist of many different areas such as studying a course relevant to your career or attending a job-related training programme, in-house or otherwise. For example, you could deepen your understanding of a specific area of law or improve your communication skills.

You may already be aware of ILSPA's Continuing Professional Development Programme, but if …

Please note that we will be closed for Christmas and the New Year from Wednesday 19 December until Wednesday 2 January. If you are a Student and would like help with your coursework, you will still be able to contact your Course Assessor by email during this period. For those of you who haven't contacted her before, you can find her details in the Help and Support section of your online course material.

We are really looking forward to celebrating the end of a great year at our Christmas party next week. It's a great chance for the staff …

The December edition of our Legal Secretary Journal has just been published. This is the last publication for our journal for this year and we would like to thank our readership for keeping in touch with the Legal Secretary world. Similarly to our blog, our aim is to inform you about what's going on and to help you advance your career.

In this month's journal, you can read about Joyce Dadzie who won SecsintheCity's Outstanding PA of the Year Award. Joyce is a Legal PA at Axiom Law and loves her work. The SecsintheCity judges said that one of …

SecsintheCity have announced their winners for this year's PA of the Year Awards. SecsintheCity is a job site dedicated to Personal and Executive Assistants. Every year they hold an awards ceremony to recognise the most talented and hard working people in the profession.

12 finalists were shortlisted from 500 nominations. This was no easy feat for the judges who found so much talent among the nominees. After a series of interviews, 4 winners were finally chosen.

The winner of the Legal PA of the year category was Amy Franklyn who is the Executive Assistant to the Head of …

Following on from our gender equality post last week, it is apt that 100s of women went to parliament to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Qualification of Women Act yesterday. The act gave women over 21 the right to stand for election as an MP, although since its affect there have only been 491 women MPs compared to 4503 men.

Due to this imbalance, MPs invited female constituents to Westminster to show that they are welcome there and encourage them to stand for elected office. It was hashtagged #askhertostandday. Parliament's 50:50 campaign aims to inspire a …

Wasn't it great to watch Children in Need on the BBC last Friday! For those of you who missed it, over £50 million was raised to change children's lives across the UK. This was a record amount for one night and brings the total amount raised to over £1 billion since it began.

BBC Children in Need's vision is to ensure that everyone has a childhood that is safe, happy and secure, and allows them the chance to reach their full potential. They provide funds to charities across the UK who help disadvantaged children in situations like poverty, abuse, …

It is great to hear that there is a rise in women gaining positions at the top end of the legal profession. Many of the large law firms have implemented a gender target and are ensuring that a good percentage of women are promoted to partnership positions each year.

Travers Smith LLP is the latest firm to appoint a woman as a senior partner. Kathleen Russ will actually be their first ever female senior partner! Travers Smith was founded over two centuries ago so it shows how women really do need to start being recognised for their worth.  

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If you are currently looking for a Legal Secretary job, there are many avenues you can go down to secure employment. You may just be starting out in your Legal Secretary career or be an experienced Legal Secretary who wants to achieve a higher salary.

ILSPA's Legal Secretary Jobs Board holds a wealth of positions for trainee and experienced Legal Secretaries from law firms, recruitment agencies and other jobs boards such as Simply Law Jobs, Totally Legal and Secs in the City. Our jobs board is a hub for Legal Secretary vacancies in London and throughout the …

The next evening class for our Legal Secretaries Diploma course starts on Tuesday 29 January. The class will take place every Tuesday evening at the Regents University in the beautiful setting of Regent's Park, London.

If you are interested in enrolling for this course, you can save £100 if you enrol before the end of November. Our early bird discount reduces the course fee to £700 whereas it is usually £800. You have the option to pay by interest free instalments if you wish, which entails an initial deposit of £70 followed by 6 monthly instalments of £105.

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This month's edition of our Legal Secretary Journal has been published.

Michelle Clarke talks about how she worked her way up the ladder from an Administrative Assistant to being a fee earner! Studying ILSPA's Single Subject Advanced Diploma course in Civil Litigation enabled Michelle to gain the legal knowledge and Paralegal skills she needed to progress within her firm. We are so proud of her.

There is some great advice for trainee Legal Secretaries in our journal. Learn how to make the best of your transferable skills as well as use social media to gain employment. There is …