A March 25, 2013 report from Law360, a Lexis-Nexis company, reported that a large global law firm asked its Los Angeles secretaries to resign in the face of impending layoffs.
According to legal blog Above The Law, which cited an unnamed source, the firm told secretaries they would receive a smaller severance package in a layoff if they refused to leave. Between seven and 11 secretaries handed in their resignation.
Citing the firm’s monthly newsletter by its global human resources manager, the legal blog said similar problems have cropped up in its New York office, where the firm has taken to hiring only fresh college graduates. A candidate’s degree is purportedly more important in the firm’s hiring decisions than experience, and the firm has not hired a legal secretary over 40 for more than two years, Above the Law said.
As a member of the legal field for more than 35 years as a legal secretary, legal secretarial trainer and law office administrator, I found this report interesting. Having hired legal secretaries for the past seven years, I would have been more concerned with their experience than their education. What college major would best prepare a legal secretary to effectively work in a law firm? And as a woman who earned her Bachelor of Science in Business & Management at 39 years old, are re-entry women treated differently than 25 year olds?
Perhaps the theory is that a 25-year-old college graduate will cost a firm less than a 20-year-experienced legal secretary over 40? Probably. From a strictly economic viewpoint, a 25-year-old college graduate may cost the firm less – less salary, less insurance, less time off for family emergencies. But what does the lack of experience cost the firm in productivity? How is the law firm’s clients best served?
Perhaps the theory is that a 25-year-old college graduate will have better technological skills than a 20-year-experienced legal secretary over 40? Most experienced legal secretaries understand that they have to keep up with technology to be competitive, even if that means attending classes on their own time.
The size of the law firm probably helped with acclimating “fresh” college graduates. There may be overflow typing pool that will allow them to get some experience before assigning them to work directly for their attorneys.
Perhaps the next step is that legal secretaries will no longer be needed by any attorney, as technology allows the attorney to dictate to a computer, to file documents with the court
electronically, to make his/her own travel arrangements.
Is this the way of the future? Can “seasoned” legal secretaries expect that they can easily be replaced by a younger, less expensive work force and then eventually eliminated altogether?