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  3. Chartered Legal Executive

Chartered Legal Executive

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Do you love working with clients? Are you interested in a career with the law at the heart of it? If you want to use your great analytical skills, a career as a chartered legal executive could be perfect for you.

Are you interested in a career as a chartered legal executive? Explore the criminal and human rights law jobs and commercial law jobs currently available to you.

What do chartered legal executives do?

Chartered legal executives have a similar role to solicitors. In the role, you work with clients, providing them with legal advice about an area of law that they’re dealing with. You could specialise in criminal law which deals with clients breaking a country’s laws or civil law which deals with damages to an individual or business. There are many areas of these two types of law that you could specialise in depending on your experience and interests. Here are the tasks that you have as a chartered legal executive:

  • Meet with clients and discuss their individual cases.
  • Give legal advice to clients based on their requirements.
  • Draft, write up and proof legal documents for you clients.
  • Bill clients for their time.

Chartered legal executive career path

As a chartered legal executive, you typically work for a legal firm and work with clients who request legal advice. You could work as part of a legal department for a single company, working with all areas of law that could be relevant to that organisation. Here are the steps in the chartered legal executive career path that you could follow:

Entry-level

You begin your career as a trainee legal executive. This is qualifying employment which is work that you do under the supervision of a more senior colleague. It is intended as a training role where you learn the necessary skills that you need for your future career. Your work might include conducting research for your colleagues plus writing up legal documents which your colleagues proofread.

Career progression

With the necessary experience, you become a chartered legal executive. In this role, you’re given your own clients to work with, providing legal advice to them. You write up legal documents. 

Future career

At the pinnacle of your career, you can become a partner in a law firm. This role requires moving away from the legal area of your career and over to a more managerial position. You make sure your colleagues in the department are satisfied in their work and are providing the standard of work that you expect. Part of your work is with clients. You meet with them to make sure they’re happy with the work that your colleagues are providing. You may also have a networking role where you build up the client base for the legal firm.

Do you want to get better at networking? Complete this module on how to network effectively.

Chartered legal executive salaries

Working as a chartered legal executive gives you the option to work your way up in a law firm. The salaries that you earn as a chartered legal executive depends on the firm you work for and your experience level. Here are the salaries that you could earn as a chartered legal executive:

  • In an entry-level role like a trainee legal executive, you earn between £15,000 and £28,000 per year.
  • As a chartered legal executive, you earn an average of £35,000 per year which can extend to £50,000 per year.
  • As a partner in a law firm, you earn £70,000 per year which can extend to over £100,000 per year.

Qualifications and training

Having the right education and experience is necessary to get on the chartered legal executive career path. Here’s what you need to enter the role:

Education

To become a chartered legal executive, you don’t need a degree. You need a diploma in law. This gives you the contextual information and skills that you need to work in the sector. Becoming a chartered legal executive means having relevant training from the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives and you can learn more about the training providers for chartered legal executives.

Work experience

To qualify as a chartered legal executive, you need three years of experience working in the field. This can be in a trainee legal executive position. Getting into the position where your application is strong enough to get a trainee role, having some additional work experience is important. You can get some work experience through an internship. Internships teach you the skills you need to work in the sector, including how to work well in an office setting. It’s also a great way to network and make connections in a company which could lead to a permanent job. If you’re interested in internships, you can explore the criminal and human rights law internships and the commercial law internships available right now.

Chartered legal executive skills

Combining your experience and education with your skill set is a great way to secure a role as a chartered legal executive. To strengthen your application, you should think of some instances where you’ve gained these skills throughout your career or during your education. Here are the skills that you need to succeed as a chartered legal executive:

Hard skills

  • Legal knowledge. Part of your job is giving out legal advice to your clients. Having a good all-round understanding of the law plus more detailed knowledge of the area of law you work in is a crucial part of working as a chartered legal executive so you can provide your clients with relevant and useful information.

Soft skills

  • Analytical skills. Having great analytical skills helps you investigate existing legal cases and find relevant parts that could be used to argue on behalf of your client. This could mean going through many legal cases and picking out minute details which apply to the case.
  • Communication. You need great communication skills to work as a chartered legal executive. This is because you’re providing advice to clients, and you need to be clear and concise so there is no confusion. You also need to adapt the way you speak to your audience. For example, using complex legal jargon with a client might not be appropriate but you would need to when speaking to your colleagues and other members of the legal sector. 

If you want to brush up on your communication skills, complete this module on adapting your communication style.

Pros and cons of being a chartered legal executive

Working as a chartered legal secretary has its good and bad points. Making sure you understand the positive and negative factors of a job gives you more insight into the role and can help you decide if it’s the right career path for you. Here are the pros and cons of being a chartered legal executive:

Pros

  • You can earn a lot of money in senior positions
  • The job has good career progression
  • It’s a great option for people who don’t enjoy university study and are looking for a legal position with a more vocational education approach
  • In the early years of your career, you might make more than your colleagues who are training to be a solicitor

Cons

  • For roles beyond trainee positions, your earnings most likely won’t reach the same level as similarly positioned solicitors
  • You have long working weeks and are expected to do a great deal of work in the role
  • It’s a competitive field and securing a training scheme could be difficult if you don’t have the necessary experience
  • Chartered legal executive work-life balance
  • Working as a chartered legal executive requires long working weeks, particularly in your first few years at a law firm. This can be challenging. Maintaining a good work-life balance can be difficult when you’re working days and weeks which can make the job stressful. Having a healthy stress management system in place to deal with the work is important for getting the most out of your working life and not feeling overwhelmed when at work.
  • Most of your work as a chartered legal executive is office-based. Despite working with many clients, the clients will most likely meet with you in your office rather than you going to their workplaces. This limits the amount of travelling potential for the job but means you can easily plan your routes home and live in a convenient place for your job. One of the only instances of you working outside of the office is when you occasionally represent clients in court.

Chartered legal executive work-life balance

Working as a chartered legal executive requires long working weeks, particularly in your first few years at a law firm. This can be challenging. Maintaining a good work-life balance can be difficult when you’re working days and weeks which can make the job stressful. Most of your work as a chartered legal executive is office-based. Despite working with many clients, the clients will most likely meet with you in your office rather than you going to their workplaces. This limits the amount of travelling potential for the job but means you can easily plan your routes home and live in a convenient place for your job. One of the only instances of you working outside of the office is when you occasionally represent clients in court.

Typical employers

Here are employers that you could work for as a chartered legal executive:

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