Happy New Year from everyone at ILSPA! We would like you to know that the January edition of our Legal Secretary Journal has just been published.

As it's a new year, we are focusing on your personal and professional development goals, whether you are a Student or experienced Legal Secretary. It's the perfect time to think about what you want to achieve this year.

There are a couple of excellent articles which will help you develop the right attitude and organisational skills to make those much needed improvements to your life. Advice is provided on working on your weaker areas and …

If you have qualified with ILSPA's Legal Secretaries Diploma, you are entitled to 20% off our Single Subject Legal courses.

Many of our Students enjoy their studies with us so much that they decide to advance their studies by taking one of our Advanced Diploma courses. You can deepen your knowledge of the key practice areas in the Legal Secretaries Diploma course or study a completely different area of law such as Criminal Law or Corporate & Commercial Law.

As you slow down after Christmas, it's a great time to enrol and set yourself up for advancing your career in …

Vacancies are not always advertised with recruitment agencies as it can be expensive for law firms to do so. Due to this, some firms advertise positions directly on their websites or invite speculative applications.

ILSPA has found that writing to law firms directly, sending a copy of your CV and a covering letter, is a very successful way for our Members to secure employment. It shows that you are assertive, proactive and confident. Through the documents you send, you can really show how competent you are with Legal Secretary work. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like help with this. …

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 not you have the …

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 to get …

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 the reasons she won the …

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 Corporate​ at Bird & Bird LLP …

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 new generation …

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, neglect or who …

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.  

As time goes on …