[fatnotlazy]

When I started as a legal secretary in 1973, I was told that the legal profession was recession-proof. Well, not anymore. A lot of firms expanded, hired a ton of lawyers and generally spent money like there was no tomorrow. That all changed when their biggest clients, corporations, began to fail. The money dried up. Today, a number of prestigious firms have downsized. Those with multiple offices have closed the less profitable branches. A number of firms I knew back in the 1970s are no more.

Many of these firms have also reduced support staff. The concept of a legal secretary is vanishing. Once laptops and all the mobile devices came out, law firms decided they didn't need too many secretaries. The younger, computer-savvy lawyers could do much of the work themselves.

And like every other business, once Obamacare really takes hold, there will be fewer and fewer jobs at all levels. What jobs remain may actually become part time.

This is not a good time for any business and that includes law firms.

[EDINVA]

Firm are also getting rid of the older guys who don’t know how to do their own clerical/secretarial work on computers.

[freepertoo]

I began as a legal secretary in 1983, but that title and that job no longer exists. When I switched firms a few years ago, I was in for the shock of my life. All of a sudden I was a “legal assistant,” doing paralegal type work I’d never done before in my career. Legal secretaries are quickly becoming a thing of the past, if they’re not already extinct. On the plus side (for me), the job is more interesting. On the minus side, it is enormously more anxiety ridden.