Stellar training for legal secretaries

Article Type: Notes and news From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 42, Issue 6

A city law firm has trained its secretaries in the skills needed to succeed in the modern business world.

Bosses at Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) understand that the role of secretary in a law firm is changing rapidly, as a position that was once dominated by typing has become more managerial and complex.

To equip its secretaries with the necessary skills, BLP created initiatives ranging from a career-development framework to a secretarial confaerence. At the center of these was the Stellar secretarial-training program – a five-part course on personal effectiveness, problem solving, teamwork, written accuracy and personal impact.

Stellar targeted all 250 secretaries working at the firm, from trainees to experienced executives. Before the program was launched in March 2008,secretarial staff tended to see their role as a job rather than a career, and attitudes to training were often negative.

Stellar was made up of five 90-minute workshops, combining problem-solving DVDs, team-building exercises, questionnaires, quizzes and post-course action plans. To measure Stellar’s impact, BLP came up with a monitoring scheme named Track 20, which reviewed the progress of 20 trainees via one-to-one feedback.

All training took place in the office, cutting out venue costs. Materials were minimal and the fees for external consultants came to £10,500. Overall, Stellar cost BLP approximately £103 per secretary, a price it says represents excellent value for money.

This is borne out by figures and feedback. Retention of secretaries at the firm is now 89 percent (100 percent for trainee legal secretaries). BLP was ranked in the Sunday Times list of Best 100 Companies to Work For, and named UK Law Firm of the Year in the Chambers Europe Awards for Excellence.

Attitudes towards training in the secretarial staff have improved: the number taking voluntary development courses rose by 50 percent in the first quarter of 2009. “Secretaries now automatically tend to ask lawyers, ‘What can I do to help?’ if they are struggling, rather than waiting for tasks,”said one member of staff at the firm.

“My secretary is more assertive, makes more effort to be proactive around the office and displays increased confidence,” said a line manager.

The Stellar program, which won a “large employer” prize in the latest National Training Awards, has now been extended to BLP’s central secretarial-services team, and to secretaries in Brussels and Paris. The Moscow office is next on the list.

“We have seen a big increase in the attendance of secretaries at training events and a new approach and attitude to personal development,”says BLP director Geoff Griffin. “In particular, it has been pleasing to see many of our most experienced secretaries embracing the program and mentoring the more junior members of the team. It is great to see secretaries engaged in the business and making further contributions to the success of the firm.”