Legal Executive

A legal executive will undertake similar work to solicitors. A legal executive will specialise in particular areas of the law and spend at least five years working under a solicitor or senior legal executive before qualifying. A legal executive may work with firms of solicitors, local authorities, the Civil Service, the Crown Prosecution Service and within industry and commerce.

Common areas that a legal executive would specialise in are conveyancing - the legal side of buying and selling property, company and business law, litigation, probate - dealing with wills, trusts and inheritance tax and personal injury - handling accident claims.

A legal executive may be involved in explaining complex legal matters to clients and preparing documents such as contracts.

A legal executive usually works 37 hours a week and would be office based.

Salaries for a legal executive range from around £12,000 a year to over £50,000 a year for experienced legal executives.

A legal executive should be able to explain legal matters clearly, be good at communicating with a wide range of people, both verbally and in writing, and have an interest in the law and research work.

Many entrants into the legal executive posts have more than the minimum requirements and some have degrees.

To become fully qualified as a legal executive it is necessary to be a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX). This requires legal executive applicants to be at least 25 years of age, have passed ILEX membership exams - these are in two parts, a Diploma and Higher Diploma and have worked for five years in a qualifying legal environment.

There are around 23,000 legal executive staff registered with ILEX. Once qualified as a legal executive there are good opportunities to work across the UK.

Opportunities exist for legal executives to run their own departments and a qualified legal executive can also become a solicitor.

Jobs of this type currently available

There are currently no jobs of this type available.