About ILSPA

As the professional body for Legal Secretaries and PAs, we enable people to have successful careers in law throughout the UK and overseas. Whether you would like to become a Legal Secretary or want to advance your Legal Secretary career, we are dedicated to your career every step of the way.

We provide qualifications, professional status, career advice, professional development and guidance to secure employment. Our Legal Secretary courses are widely recognised by law firms and legal recruiters. ILSPA's Legal Secretary Jobs Board is a hub for Legal Secretary vacancies in London and throughout the UK. We also offer excellent benefits to our Members.

The Institute has Members and Students of all ages, nationalities and varying levels of experience around the world. Our team is here to support you we and are passionate about our roles. We have a strong ethos where we work together effectively and have our Members' and Students' best interests at heart.

The Professional Body for Legal Secretaries and PAs

ILSPA's Aims

The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs was formed in 1990 by a group of like-minded legal professionals with the mission of promoting the excellence and professional recognition of Legal Secretaries and PAs. Our aims are:

To specifically provide for the needs of both trainee and experienced Legal Secretaries and PAs
To offer specialist training and career advice to people from a wide range of backgrounds and varying levels of experience
To award recognised qualifications which enable people to start or advance their careers
To provide affordable training to Students
To help people gain Legal Secretary employment
To encourage Members to advance their knowledge and skills through professional development
To keep our Members up to date with new laws and procedures
To create awareness of the standards that are expected of Legal Secretaries and PAs
To unite Legal Secretaries and PAs at all levels and make them feel like they are part of a community

I picked ILSPA in particular because it encompassed a very solid foundation of legal subjects, unlike other courses I have found, and secondly, because of its focus and support in securing employment. ILSPA made me feel very secure that I would have a very good chance at becoming employed after finishing the diploma and investing my time and effort, which was the end goal for me. A lot of the other companies promise good courses but seem to be missing that element of support. I really liked the aspect of membership offered by ILSPA, because it opened up access to a new supportive community.Evelina Tarabuta, Brighton

Once I had completed the Legal Secretaries Diploma, it gave me the confidence to start looking for Legal Secretarial roles. I started working as a Legal Secretary for the law firm Blaser Mills, in the family law/child law department, and I loved it. I was able to put all that I had learned from the course into practice and utilise my skills to the fullest. The Legal Secretaries Diploma opened a whole window of new opportunities for me to learn, so my studies didn’t stop there. I went on to study a Level 4 Diploma in Paralegal Studies with The National Association of Licenced Paralegals (NALP) and after that I studied a Level 5 Diploma in Business Management. I decided to start my own legal transcription company.Jemina Blake, London