Legal secretaries, also called legal administrative assistants, perform vital functions in law offices. It's their responsibility to manage communications for the office, plan and schedule meeting or appointments, and organize and maintain paper and electronic information for various cases. In many situations, legal secretaries are also asked to conduct legal research and disseminate information to clients or other legal professionals. They may even book travel arrangements. Although many legal secretaries are hired right out of high school, or with very little training, because of their wide range of duties, many potential employers find those who have taken legal secretary courses particularly attractive.

Training to become a legal secretary may range from vocational education programs in high school to one- or two-year programs in a business school, vocational/technical institute, community college, or online degree or certificate program. Such courses provide instruction in legal terminology; office management; court procedures; various software programs; effective speaking and writing; and legal transcription, or turning an audio recording into an official document. Many employers may also require you to take legal secretary courses as continuing education, in order to strengthen or expand your skills in new office technologies or database management. In these cases, online courses make it convenient to stay employed full-time while enhancing your skills. Because legal secretaries may have such a wide variety of important duties, they're often natural candidates for paralegal or legal assistant positions, or even for law school, in preparation for a career as an attorney. So enrolling in legal secretary courses now may put you on the fast track to an exciting legal career.