Catching up with Legal Admin grads: where are they now?

Office Administration - Legal Administrative Assistant graduates Barbarah Yee (r) and Janine Lee (l) can easily spot their fellow grads by the speed and quality of their work.

For two Office Administration - Legal Administrative Assistant (LAA) graduates, studying at Douglas College was just the beginning to making contacts that lasted into their careers.

"Making friends and connections was the highlight of college and then seeing people I met there in the work world," says 2006 graduate Janine Lee. Lee met friend and fellow graduate Barbarah Yee, class of 2000, when both were working at law firm Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP. Yee has since moved just across the street to Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, the largest law firm in Vancouver.

They agree that the most skilled legal administrators are Douglas College graduates, noting they can spot a fellow grad by their speed and quality of work. "Everyone jokes that I'm a fast walker, but everything is so time sensitive," says Lee.

The LAA program provides a broad base of knowledge that can be applied at any law firm, says Yee, who came to the program with experience as a receptionist for a notary public. At the time she knew she wanted to work in the legal system but needed the basics to advance. "I didn't know the terminology or procedures. I wouldn't even know how to look at a file. It was like looking at income tax sheets: it made no sense," says Yee.

The program "opened the door to doing other things," says Yee, who is now working in banking law concentrating on corporate financing. She has taken on paralegal duties - she started doing so before certification was required - and is just three credits shy of her paralegal certificate at Vancouver Community College. Yee recently started teaching a night class in residential conveyancing for the Burnaby School District.

Yee notes the industry as a whole has changed since she was in school. In 2000, her class was all young women, most fresh out of high school and unsure of what they wanted professionally.

"Now when I'm teaching there are men and older students, people who are changing careers. I'm teaching a notary and someone going into law school," says Yee.

"Legal administrative assistant is now a highly respected role and there is a high demand," says Lee.

For more information on the Office Administration - Legal Administrative Assistant Program there are information sessions scheduled April 15, July 10 and August 14 at 5pm in room 2201 at the New Westminster Campus, 700 Royal Ave. in New Westminster, one block north of the New Westminster SkyTrain Station. There is an information session scheduled June 17 at 5pm in room A1470 at the David Lam Campus, 1250 Pinetree Way in Coquitlam, 2 km north of Coquitlam Centre Shopping Mall. For more information contact Program Coordinator Wayne Ratcliffe at 604-527-5445 or ratcliffew@douglas.bc.ca.

Related Links

Information sessions
Office Administration - Legal Administrative Assistant
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin
Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang
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