What does a legal assistant do?
As you might guess, a legal assistant helps accomplish a variety of tasks in the law profession. The end goal is to help lawyers and others facilitate a solid relationship with clients and process vital documents efficiently. Some duties of a legal assistant include the following:
- Creating rough drafts of legal or court documents
- Maintaining document confidentiality and client privacy
- Communicating with and providing services for clients
- Assisting in the discovery process by way of researching documents and client history
- Document organization
- Clerical tasks - manage appointments, communicate with and maintain records on witnesses, draft contracts, send emails, file, and make copies
- Court assistance
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What is the average salary of a legal assistant?
Your salary as a legal assistant will, on average, range from $44,847 to $59,808 per year. Extremes are $23,000 annually at the low end and over $87,000 yearly at the upper range. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BSL), which lumps paralegals and legal assistants together, the median salary for a legal assistant is $56,230 or about $27 an hour. The mean salary for legal assistants is $58,330. Your salary will vary according to your experience, education level, region, and type of law. Salaries run higher in large cities and the Northeast and on the West Coast. According to Payscale.com, which accounts for the fact that legal assistants make less than paralegals, you can expect an average wage of $17.26 per hour.
How does experience affect a legal assistant's salary?
Where you live has an important influence on how much you will make as a legal assistant, but your experience is even more crucial. At the entry level, you will earn up to 12% less than the national average salary. However, as you get 15 to 20 years of legal assistant experience under your belt, you have the potential to earn 20% to 40% more than your counterparts in the field.
What benefits to expect
Your salary as a legal assistant will often include a benefits package. According to the BSL, a bonus incentive can add up to $23,000 to your base pay. There are several ways in which your employer can present a package. You'll often find paid vacations included in the benefits, along with some sort of sign-on bonus. Extra incentives often come in the form of commissions, profit-sharing, health benefits, or bonus overtime.
Industries that hire legal assistants
As a legal assistant, you greatly expand your versatility. Many industries utilize legal assistants, so don't think that you are confined to a law firm. Legal assistants work in or with:
- Insurance
- Real estate
- Retail
- Government - social security
- Corporate legal departments
- Talent seekers and agents
- Business executives
Working as a legal assistant
What are the responsibilities of a legal assistant?
Your responsibilities as a legal assistant are similar to those of a paralegal. Your primary role is to provide legal assistance to a lawyer or other individual. One of your primary duties is to track documents and make sure they are easily accessible, informative, and secure. Often, you have to draft reports into a more readable version, or interpret and translate witness and police statements. Your filing system must include cybersecurity and encryption. Your care of documents will frequently extend to the courtroom and interview rooms. Beyond the paperwork, client communication is among your most vital roles as a legal assistant. You will find many occasions where you provide the link between a client and the lawyer or a witness and law enforcement. Communications take place via text messages, telephone calls, emails, and interviews. You also:
- Greet clients and other visitors to the facility
- Answer telephone calls
- Schedule appointments and track court dates
- Assist lawyers with witness interviews and statements
- Edit and redraft affidavits, witness reports, and other documents
- Assist paralegals with their administrative and organizational duties
What type of equipment does a legal assistant use?
You do not need heavy-duty tools as a legal assistant. There are several pieces of equipment, though, that will make your job efficient.
- You need a copy machine to reproduce important documents and ensure the necessary access.
- A computer is among the most important types of equipment you need, as it is vital for storing information such as spreadsheets, billable hours, and client files.
- A shredder is a safe means to dispose of sensitive materials.
- Typical office supplies are necessary but easy to overlook - pens, notepads, calculators, scissors, hole punches, sticky pads, envelopes, stamps, file folders, and receipts.
- Along with the computer, software is essential, such as document management, calendars, and accounting programs.
What is the work environment of a legal assistant?
You will most often work in an office setting for most of your day as a legal assistant. However, you will also find yourself working in courtrooms, restaurants, conference rooms, and hotel lobbies depending on the law practice or business. A legal assistant work is well-suited to a hybridized remote work environment because of the huge amounts of research and file organization you must accomplish. However, you can also work completely from home while providing remote assistance to a law firm or other entity.
Who are your colleagues as a legal assistant?
As a legal assistant, you will work closely with lawyers, court judges, talent agents, insurance underwriters, adjusters, executives, retailers, government officials, or realtors. In larger firms, you will often team up with a paralegal. As the roles of legal assistants grow, you will frequently find that your tasks overlap with those of a legal secretary.
What is the work schedule of a legal assistant?
If you work as a legal assistant in a retail outlet or executive corporation, you are likely to enjoy regular business hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. You will get requisite breaks and a lengthy lunch period. Working for a lawyer will usually be much more demanding. You typically work the same long hours as the lawyer you are assisting, often even longer. You probably will serve as a legal assistant to more than one lawyer, and your workload is likely to be formidable. However, high job satisfaction usually results from the challenges you overcome. You can accomplish many of your tasks at home after the traditional workday is over if your practice allows it.
What is the career outlook for a legal assistant?
Among savvy law firms and progressive companies, the demand is high for legal assistants. Despite the movement toward automation of many processes, legal assistants provide services that are beyond the scope of artificial intelligence systems. Moreover, your legal background as a legal assistant opens career pathways for you as a paralegal or even a lawyer with further education. The BLS projects that your employment prospects as a legal assistant will grow about 12% during the coming decade, which is higher than the national average for most occupations.
What are the advantages of working with Spherion as a legal assistant?
If you aspire to a career as a legal assistant, then turn to Spherion to provide assistance and some life-changing advantages. You can take comfort in the fact that Spherion will match your unique skills with a customized legal assistant job.
Everyone has their signature work style. Allow the Spherion team to access its network partners to provide you with an office that fits you. You have options to work in the private or public sector or for a small and cozy or large and innovative company.
You can expect the following benefits from a leading staffing organization such as Spherion:
- Wide selection of jobs near where you live.
- Weekly pay.
- Stress-free and efficient interviewing process.
- Personal assistant that you can contact to help your job search.
- Training opportunities to help you succeed in your efforts to secure certifications, well-paying jobs, and salary increases.
- Flexible scheduling available.
What education do you need as a legal assistant?
You do not have to undergo formal education beyond high school or a GED to become a legal assistant. However, if you want to be competitive in the job market, most companies that are hiring legal assistants look for candidates with at least a two-year associate's degree. Such a degree is ideally for paralegal studies. Since paralegal academic courses are limited in some locales, you can also pursue a related field like criminology or legal studies. Another option that some law offices consider is a paralegal certificate. Although you may not necessarily have an associate's degree, a paralegal certificate indicates education and experience conducive to a legal assistant or paralegal occupation.
Can you substitute experience for a degree?
Depending upon where you apply, a firm may take experience in the legal field instead of an associate's or bachelor's degree. You are most likely to find these types of legal assistant jobs in suburbs rather than large metropolitans. The easiest way to gain experience is to work as a volunteer or paid employee in a law firm. Relevant positions include the following:
- Messenger (delivering legal documents)
- File clerk
- Bank personnel
- Externship - you receive on-the-job education at an insurance company, bank, law office, or government facility
- Serve on a litigation support team - help with e-discovery
- Legal receptionist
- Mailroom clerk
Most aspiring legal assistants need a bachelor's degree
Although a legal assistant job is an entry-level position, law firms commonly will only consider you for the position if you have a bachelor's degree. Your degree can be in anything, but common fields are business, social science, legal studies, and security. Quite often, aspiring legal assistants acquire paralegal studies certification in addition to their BS or BA.
Skills and competencies
As a legal assistant, you need to have impeccable time management and organizational skills. Whether you work in a law firm or for a large government agency, you need to be able to keep up with the hustle and bustle and yet keep everything running efficiently. Having competencies in the following areas is also paramount to excelling as a legal assistant.
- Writing - Editing and drafting of documents requires you to be a proficient writer and have a firm grasp of the English language.
- Detail-oriented - Paying attention to details helps with research and accuracy in your documentation and organization.
- Interpersonal skills are paramount to effective client communication and rapport.
- Multi-tasking - You must keep an agile mind and be able to take in information from different sources simultaneously.
- Technical skills - You need technical skills to work on computers and create videos and PowerPoint presentations your client or employer may desire.
Should you get certified in paralegal studies?
Many employers prefer to hire legal assistants with a paralegal certification. Certification indicates that you have received formal education in paralegal studies, have passed a certification exam, and have some experience in the field of law. You would conduct your formal education in a university or through an organization that is approved by the American Bar Association. Employers also often take individuals with paralegal certificates. These certificates show that a candidate has furthered their education and accomplished a certain mastery of paralegal issues.
FAQs
Legal assistants are an important part of the stable, growing legal industry. Find out answers to these commonly asked questions about legal assistant roles.
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How do legal assistants help lawyers?
Legal assistants typically perform many administrative duties for lawyers. This includes, but is not limited to, responding to clients via email or live chat, billing hours, and managing documents. Experienced legal assistants begin taking on more paralegal duties such as research and document editing. Legal assistants remove administrative and coordination duties from lawyers to enable them to accumulate more billable hours.
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What is the difference between a legal assistant and a paralegal?
Although their duties frequently overlap, properly utilized legal assistants and paralegals are indispensable. Only in the last couple of decades, however, has the American Bar Association sought to make legal assistants and paralegals distinct from one another. A legal assistant focuses more on an administrative and secretarial support role whereas a paralegal performs substantial legal work under a lawyer. Legal assistants improve office efficiency and client interactions while paralegals take on extensive research, draft documents, and help with trial matters. A legal assistant fits a role between that of a legal secretary and a paralegal, usually able to take on neighboring responsibilities if needed.
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What are some jobs that want a legal assistant?
You may wonder who would hire a legal assistant. As a legal assistant, you will encounter plenty of lawyer specialties that demand your skills.
- Bill recovery
- Copyright
- Accident assessment
- Criminal
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How do I apply for a job as a legal assistant?
Applying for a job as a legal assistant is easy with Spherion. You can search for legal assistant jobs on Spherion.com by job title and location. If you don’t see the perfect role, you can submit an open application. Once you submit your contact information and resume through Spherion’s open application, a recruiter from the office closest to you will reach out with details about potential legal assistant roles that fit your skill set and professional goals.
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Spherion Naples is seeking a Temporary legal assistant to join our Trust & Estates group in the Naples office. This position works with a team of estate planning lawyers and other staff to ensure documents such as wills, trusts, and powers of attorney are modified and finalized for execution by clients. This is a project that will last until 5/2025.Responsibilities:Drafting cover letters, composing and distributing documents and correspondence on a discretionary basis to respond to client inquiries or to obtain information.Performing client work as directed by assigned attorney(s) organizing and coordinating, on an independent basis, administrative and other resources to ensure timely project completion.Drafting, transcribing, typing, formatting, proofreading and/or finalizing legal documents, from dictation, handwriting or existing documents as directed by assigned attorney(s).Working with merge documents at the direction of the attorneys; mailing/emailing documents to clients; maintaining updated contact lists.Maintaining electronic and paper files of legal documents.Working hours: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PMSkills:Screening, taking and relaying accurate telephone messages and responding, as appropriate, when the matter does not require the attention of the assigned attorney(s).Maintaining calendars of assigned attorney(s) and organizing meetings, for clients to make modifications/substitutions and/or sign final documents.Serve as witness and/or notary when documents are signed. May include occasional signings outside of office.Binding documents and preparing documents for the clients.Education:High SchoolExperience:1-4 yearsQualifications:High School Diploma1-2 years legal secretarial experience in the trust and estates field is needed.Ability to work in a collegial manner with a number of team members, provide extensive administrative assistance to assigned legal staff while also serving as a positive role model for others.Exceptional technical skills required, as well as strong organizational, communication and client service skills.Working knowledge of MS Word, particularly with Styles, Outlook, and electronic document management systems (experience with FileSite a plus).Excellent time management, prioritizing skills, and ability to adjust to a changing work flow.Must be detail oriented, with excellent proofreading, grammar and spelling skills, as well as the ability to multi-task and interface with clients professionally and effectively.Position requires high level of discretion and ability to maintain confidentiality Apply Now on this post!!We offer weekly open interviews Mondays thru Fridays 9:30am-1:30pmWalk-ins welcome, want to skip the wait....Call us at 239-494-3044 or send us a text today at 239-263-2998 to schedule an interview!We are located at:4964 Tamiami Trail NorthNaples, FL 34103 Spherion has helped thousands of people just like you find work happiness! Our experienced staff will listen carefully to your employment needs and then work diligently to match your skills and qualifications to the right job and company. Whether you're looking for temporary, temp-to-perm or direct hire opportunities, no one works harder for you than Spherion. Equal Opportunity Employer: Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, National Origin, Age, Genetic Information, Disability, Protected Veteran Status, or any other legally protected group status. At Spherion, we welcome people of all abilities and want to ensure that our hiring and interview process meets the needs of all applicants. If you require a reasonable accommodation to make your application or interview experience a great one, please contact Callcenter@spherion.com. Pay offered to a successful candidate will be based on several factors including the candidate's education, work experience, work location, specific job duties, certifications, etc. In addition, Spherion offers a comprehensive benefits package, including health, and an incentive and recognition program (all benefits are based on eligibility).
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Support for a group of attorniesResponsibilities:Administrative Support: Provide administrative support to attorneys and legal staff, including managing calendars, scheduling appointments, and coordinating meetings.? Document Management: Draft, review, and edit legal documents such as briefs, pleadings, and correspondence. Ensure accuracy and compliance with legal procedures and deadlines.? Client Interaction: Communicate with clients, witnesses, and experts to gather information, schedule appointments, and provide updates on case progress.? File Management: Organize and maintain case files, ensuring all documents are filed correctly and are easily accessible. Implement and manage electronic filing systems.? Court Filings: Prepare and file legal documents with the court and handle service of process as required.Working hours: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PMSkills:Experience in Transactional Real Estate and/or Mediations is a plusCertification as a legal assistant is a plus.Education:AssociateExperience:4-7 yearsQualifications:Experience: Must have at least 4 -5 years of Legal Assistant experience in General Civil Litigation and Business Services & Commercial litigation practice areas. .? Education: Associate degree or equivalent experience in legal administration, or a related field. ? Skills: Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple tasks and prioritize effectively. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and familiarity with legal research tools.? Knowledge: Basic understanding of legal terminology, procedures, and court rules. Ability to handle confidential information with discretion.? Attributes: Detail-oriented, proactive, and capable of working both independently and as part of a team. Strong problem-solving abilities and a willingness to learn and adapt. Direct Hire in Bham Spherion has helped thousands of people just like you find work happiness! Our experienced staff will listen carefully to your employment needs and then work diligently to match your skills and qualifications to the right job and company. Whether you're looking for temporary, temp-to-perm or direct hire opportunities, no one works harder for you than Spherion. Equal Opportunity Employer: Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, National Origin, Age, Genetic Information, Disability, Protected Veteran Status, or any other legally protected group status. At Spherion, we welcome people of all abilities and want to ensure that our hiring and interview process meets the needs of all applicants. If you require a reasonable accommodation to make your application or interview experience a great one, please contact Callcenter@spherion.com. Pay offered to a successful candidate will be based on several factors including the candidate's education, work experience, work location, specific job duties, certifications, etc. In addition, Spherion offers a comprehensive benefits package, including health, and an incentive and recognition program (all benefits are based on eligibility).
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Spherion is seeking a detail-oriented Sr. Legal Assistant to provide expert legal support to attorneys and ensure the efficient handling of legal matters with our client's firm. The ideal candidate has excellent research, organizational, and document management skills and is well-versed in legal terminology, processes, and technology.Responsibilities:Conduct legal research and draft documents, including contracts, agreements, and briefs.Assist attorneys in preparing for meetings, trials, and hearings.Organize and manage legal files, ensuring accuracy and accessibility.Review and summarize legal documents and identify key issues.Coordinate communication with clients, witnesses, and opposing counsel.File documents with courts and government agencies as required.Maintain confidentiality and ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards.Working hours: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PMSkills:Experience in a specific legal practice area (e.g., corporate, real estate, litigation).Knowledge of e-filing and court procedures.Education:AssociateExperience:1-4 yearsQualifications:Proven experience as a paralegal or legal assistant.Proficiency in legal research tools and document management systems.Strong written and verbal communication skills.Excellent organizational and time-management abilities.Familiarity with legal terminology and procedures.Paralegal certification or degree in Legal Studies.Associate's or Bachelor's degree. Apply today! #wka123 Spherion has helped thousands of people just like you find work happiness! Our experienced staff will listen carefully to your employment needs and then work diligently to match your skills and qualifications to the right job and company. Whether you're looking for temporary, temp-to-perm or direct hire opportunities, no one works harder for you than Spherion. Equal Opportunity Employer: Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, National Origin, Age, Genetic Information, Disability, Protected Veteran Status, or any other legally protected group status. At Spherion, we welcome people of all abilities and want to ensure that our hiring and interview process meets the needs of all applicants. If you require a reasonable accommodation to make your application or interview experience a great one, please contact Callcenter@spherion.com. Pay offered to a successful candidate will be based on several factors including the candidate's education, work experience, work location, specific job duties, certifications, etc. In addition, Spherion offers a comprehensive benefits package, including health, and an incentive and recognition program (all benefits are based on eligibility).