Mini Series: Legal Secretary, More Than Admin

From The Inside

From The Inside is our Sunday long read, sharing first-hand perspectives from inside high street law firms. These pieces are about lived experience, quiet lessons, and the realities you only notice once you are close to the work.

Most people imagine a legal career as a straight line: study, qualify, and start advising.

At some point, it all gets “serious”, real responsibility, real pressure. Everything before that? Just prep.

Legal secretaries don’t really fit that story.

They get labelled “support staff” or “admin,” like it’s low-stakes, low-pressure, just a stopgap before the “real” career kicks in. Something you pass through, not something that shapes you.

But spend five minutes in a busy high street firm, and that idea falls apart.

To get a proper sense of it, we chatted Adelaide Taylor, a legal secretary at a high street firm. She didn’t plan on ending up there, and didn’t expect the level of responsibility that came with it, often without anyone spelling it out.

This is what the job looks like.