Legal Executive

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Legal Executive
Honoré Daumier 018.jpg
19th century painting of lawyers, by French artist Honoré Daumier
Occupation
Type Profession
Activity sectors Law
Description
Competencies Interpersonal skills, analytical mind, critical thinking, commercial sense
Education required Institute of Legal Executives, Legal Practice Course
Fields of employment Law firm, government, in-house
Related jobs Solicitor, trainee solicitor, paralegal

Legal executives are trained legal professionals in England & Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong who often specialise in a particular area of law. There is, however, no direct equivalent to a Legal Executive in Scotland. In Ontario,Canada there is a similar role Law Clerk which conduct a similar role, and in the USA the term Paralegal is used for a similar role to that of the legal executive.

Contents

[edit] England & Wales

[edit] ILEX

The Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) was founded in 1892 and became a company limited by guarantee in 1963 with the support of the Law Society of England and Wales. ILEX is a professional body which represents legal executives and trainee legal executives. Legal executives in England and Wales are akin to fully qualified lawyers and have similar workloads to solicitors. They can also take an extra ILEX qualification to qualify as advocates, similar to barristers. [1]

Legal executives in England and Wales are fee earners, and are now eligible to become Partners in Legal Disciplinary Partnership Law Firms, as well as Advocates or Judges. They will also be eligible to be partners in Alternative Business Structures (ABS) when they come into force. The work of Legal executives requires them to have the same high ethical standards as barristers and solicitors, and all Legal Executives are regulated by ILEX Professional Standards.

Legal Executives attend to a wide range of legal work, generally specialising in one or more of the following:

Legal executives undertake a series of training courses and are required to pass qualifications in Law in the area of legal practice that they intend to specialise. The final qualifications are equivalent to an honours degree course. Trainees will often work at the same time as studying in order to acquire practical skills. The courses can be undertaken at a college, university or through an open learning program. The courses are open to graduates and non-graduates.

[edit] Fellows of ILEX

A Fellow of ILEX is a qualified lawyer.

Only Fellows of ILEX (F.Inst.L.Ex) can lawfully describe themselves as a "Legal Executive" and Fellows are also qualified by the Crown (by way of ILEX) to be "Commissioners of Oaths"[1], able to take depositions and affidavits. Fellows also can bring action in court and appear for clients in some, but not all courts. Appearance in higher courts requires a separate ILEX qualification to become a Legal Executive Advocate.

[edit] Membership Levels

In September 2009 the training to become a Legal Executive in England and Wales changed. The ILEX qualification now emphasises and examines the practical work of the law as well as continuing with the necessary academic examinations. At the same time, a number of new membership grades were introduced by ILEX. ILEX now offers the following membership categories, which can be joined according to experience and qualifications held:

Student member - for those wishing to enter the legal profession; those who have no relevant legal qualification; or those with less than three years’ work experience of a predominantly legal nature.

Affiliate member - for those with at least one ILEX level 3 unit qualification, or who have completed a relevant legal qualification at level 2, or gained at least three years’ work of a predominantly legal nature.

Associate member – for those who have completed their ILEX Level 3 Professional Diploma in Law and Practice (the first stage of ILEX qualifications have been passed), or who are graduates with Qualifying Law Degrees. Associate members will be entitled to use the designatory letters A.Inst.L.Ex after their name, and be required to undertake 8 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

Graduate Member - for those who have completed both their ILEX Level 3 Professional Diploma in Law and Practice and their ILEX Level 6 Professional Higher Diploma in Law and Practice (including the ILEX Graduate ‘Fast-Track’ Diploma), or who are Legal Practice Course (LPC) or Bar Vocational Course (BVC) graduates. Graduate members will be entitled to use the designatory letters G.Inst.L.Ex after their name, and be required to undertake 12 hours of CPD.

If you already hold a Legal Practice Course (LPC) or Bar Vocational Course (BVC) qualification then you are exempt from the ILEX academic qualifications, and can immediately apply to become a Graduate Member.

Graduate Members must then work under the supervision of a qualified legal executive or a solicitor at a firm, in-house at a private company or in government (provided always that their work is substantially of a legal nature rather than administrative). After two years at Membership level, they may apply to become a Fellow of the Institute. They must have, at this point, a minimum of five years' practical legal experience.

Fellows - when you have successfully completed a period of qualifying employment, you will become a Fellow of ILEX, a qualified lawyer and will be eligible to use the term Legal Executive and use the designatory letters F.Inst.L.Ex. You will be invited to attend the ILEX Graduation ceremony. Fellows are required to maintain and improve their knowledge by undertaking at least 16 hours of training each year (CPD - Continuing Professional Development). A proportion of those hours must relate to their area of specialism.[2]. Fellows are issued with an annual practising certificate.

A Fellow of ILEX who wishes to go on to qualify as a solicitor is usually exempt from the requirement of a training contract. For this exemption to apply, they must have attained Fellowship level by the time of completion of their Legal Practice Course. There is no Training Contract or Pupilage required by ILEX. They must also have completed the academic stage of training; having come through the ILEX route to qualification, this usually means taking a few extra modules of the ILEX level 6 qualification.

[edit] History in England & Wales

The modern profession of Legal Executive evolved out of the managing clerk of the 19th century. When solicitors' firms started to grow in the 19th century, they increasingly relied upon an ever-expanding number of clerks to help with drafting and organizing documents. Some of these clerks in turn became quite knowledgeable about the law and were allowed to manage their fellow clerks; hence, they were called "managing clerks."

In the 1950s and 1960s, England was hit with a severe shortage of solicitors when population growth unexpectedly raced far ahead of the number of entrants into the profession. To improve the availability of legal services, the Law Society of England and Wales began aggressive recruitment efforts to convince more young people to choose law as a career. As part of this effort, the Law Society decided to turn the managing clerk into a true legal professional area, and sponsored the creation of ILEX at the beginning of 1963 as well as the change in title to "Legal Executive." In the Law Society's own words, ILEX was intended "to stimulate recruitment to the unadmitted ranks of the professional status ... and would offer ... a career with proper incentives."[3]

[edit] Australia

The Institute of Legal Executives (Victoria) was set up in 1966 and represents legal executives in the state of Victoria, it works with the Institute of Legal Executives (Australia) which was formed in 1994 and represents legal executives in the rest of Australia. Both Legal Executives organisations in Australia work to formalise legal training and promote education for the position of Legal Executive. [4]They award Diplomas, Certificates in Professional Legal studies, as well as prizes and busaries for students. In south Australia the law society provides an equivalent association for paralegals.[5]

[edit] Ireland

The Irish Institute of Legal Executives IILEX is the professional body representing Legal Executives in Ireland and with the stated aim to provide a system of training and examination and to obtain a recognised professional qualification for those engaged in legal work in Ireland.

[edit] Categories of ILEX Membership

  • Senior Legal Executive Member S.I.I.L.Ex.
  • Legal Executive Member M.I.I.L.Ex.
  • Associate Member A.I.I.L.Ex.
  • Student Legal Executive Member [6]

[edit] New Zealand

The New Zealand Institute of Legal Executives[2] is an incorporated society which advances protects the status and interests of Legal Executives. At present it has approximately 650 Members.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "What Legal Executives Do". ILEX. http://www.ilex.org.uk/about_legal_executives/what_legal_executives_do.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-10. 
  2. ^ www.ilex.org.uk
  3. ^ Brian Abel-Smith and Robert Stevens, Lawyers and the Courts: A Sociological Study of the English Legal System, 1750-1965 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967), 397.
  4. ^ About the Institute of Legal Executives Australia
  5. ^ Law Society of South Australia
  6. ^ Categories of IILEX Membership

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_Executive"