Not much appears in the press about secretaries in legal departments. I do not mean Corporate Secretaries, I mean admins, executive assistants, traditional file-copy-type-answer phones-and-schedule secretaries (See my post of May 17, 2006: whither the term “secretary”; and Nov. 22, 2006: the new title, “Legal Administrative Assistant”.). Everyone knows that secretaries can contribute hugely to the success of lawyers and departments (See my post of Jan. 15, 2009: isolated lawyers often rely on local secretaries; and Sept. 5, 2007: with every successful lawyer, a secretary.). Some secretaries rise a long way (See my post of May 26, 2007: Mellon GC hired as attorneys three former secretaries.).
A few posts address secretarial metrics (See my post of June 28, 2005: ratios of paralegals and secretaries; April 23, 2006: four lawyers per secretary; Dec. 17, 2007: less support staff inside than at law firm; July 31, 2006: secretaries counted in terms of lawyer-equivalents; and May 11, 2008: secretarial numbers declining as lawyers type more.). Other posts on this blog consider their reporting structures (See my post of June 28, 2005: reporting lines of secretaries; Sept. 10, 2005: administrators supervise secretaries; and Aug. 3, 2005: secretarial pools have dried up.).
Competent legal secretaries are expensive (See my post of Dec. 22, 2006: high cost of experienced legal secretaries; March 17, 2006: higher pay for secretaries who use shorthand; Nov. 30, 2007: secretaries are typically non-exempt; and June 24, 2009: a proposal for an internal market for secretarial services.).