Male legal secretary?

vector

Background:
I (male) been considering career options recently as my current employer has been having trouble paying wages since before xmas

Question: Will any Solicitors firm in Ireland hire a MALE legal secretary (I am speaking about reality, lets not be too PC here)?

I have been looking at the websites of many, and LinkedIn, and the only males you tend to find are people who are over 55+ and have been grandfathered in somehow into a role back from years ago, or people who share the same surname as a partner (a son in future training to be a solr)

Some firms are even 100% female among all their staff.

Advice welcome please.

Denny_Crane

Any that won't I would suggest aren't worth working for.

As a man in his 'late prime' whose finances are perhaps not going to let him bum around for very much longer I've no qualms in approaching firms for paralegal work. I'm not sure what the difference between a legal secretary,exec and paralegal are but I've certainly never had any issue getting casual work, albeit feeling a little out of place but these were small firms. I'm reliably informed there are some very senior 'paralegals' earning very reasonable salaries in larger firms.

Exclamation Marc

Denny_Crane wrote: »

Any that won't I would suggest aren't worth working for.

As a man in his 'late prime' whose finances are perhaps not going to let him bum around for very much longer I've no qualms in approaching firms for paralegal work. I'm not sure what the difference between a legal secretary,exec and paralegal are but I've certainly never had any issue getting casual work, albeit feeling a little out of place but these were small firms. I'm reliably informed there are some very senior 'paralegals' earning very reasonable salaries in larger firms.

Legal secretaries and paralegals are very different jobs and paralegals are generally a mix of male and female.

In my last job which is a major Irish law firm, it was 100% female legal secretaries (approx 25) and there was only ever one male legal secretary in my time there who was brought in as temporary cover as work had built up in one department but he was gone after a month. Otherwise, I'd say the 40 or so secretaries that passed through the firm were all female.

I know from a friend who works in another large firm that all secretaries there are female too.

It does seem to be a female-oriented job and I've no idea why, other than it historically has been that way. In terms of getting a job as a male legal secretary, old habits may die hard on that front?

Denny_Crane

Thanks MM, much obliged for the info, apologies OP if it took things OT.

TheBigDay

Hi OP, the firm that I work for (top 5) employs a male legal secretary. He has been there for years and is highly respected. The large firms tend not to care who or what you are - so long as you can do the job well. Traditionally many more women than men work as legal secretaries which explains the discrepancy in numbers. If you are interested in the job then go for it!

vector

TheBigDay wrote: »

.... He has been there for years and is highly respected. ...

Thanks for the replies (I am the OP)

re: the above, yes I think that's the way. A male could be grandfathered in, as it were, by virtue of being there so long, but it's rare to hire a male legal sec in recent years. Indeed, has anyone commented on the number of solicitors firms that are all female.... I mean all the Solicitors... there are numerous examples of websites, I would mention one, but then this thread could end up in a RateMySolicitors type slagging match, if there was a firm that employed only men there would be comments!

Jentle Grenade

I've noticed a few male legal secretaries pop up in Cork-based firms in the last year. If you've got the skills then go for it.

johnnyskeleton

vector wrote: »

Indeed, has anyone commented on the number of solicitors firms that are all female.... I mean all the Solicitors... there are numerous examples of websites, I would mention one

You put one throwaway comment in the constitution about equality and suddenly they start becoming solicitors and setting up their own firms! They'll be filling senior positions in the criminal justice and courts spheres next if we're not careful.

If you seriously believe that you have been overlooked for a job based on your gender feel free to make an equal status complaint. Otherwise don't worry about it and just get your CV out there.