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Associate partner vs legal consultant

The differences between associate partners and legal consultants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both an associate partner and a legal consultant. Additionally, an associate partner has an average salary of $145,385, which is higher than the $75,024 average annual salary of a legal consultant.

The top three skills for an associate partner include digital transformation, analytics and cloud. The most important skills for a legal consultant are litigation, regulatory compliance, and legal research.

Associate partner vs legal consultant overview

Associate PartnerLegal Consultant
Yearly salary$145,385$75,024
Hourly rate$69.90$36.07
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs32,40516,118
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 63%Bachelor's Degree, 46%
Average age4646
Years of experience44

What does an associate partner do?

The job of an associate partner is similar to that of a partner. An associate partner will report to the partner and work to build strong client relationships and understand their concerns. You will typically perform various duties that include handling the partner's daily activities, monitoring the accounting procedures, and maintaining the confidentiality of the client's information. As an associate partner, you also have to advise on corporate governance and business reorganization and conducting assessments of in-house platforms that include evaluating portfolio accounting systems and client delivery.

What does a legal consultant do?

A legal consultant uses legal practice knowledge to enhance a law company's efficiency and profitability. Besides advising on the right solutions for customer productivity, marketing and development strategies, legal consultants also actively manage risks by consulting on program and legal-related issues. They help the parent law firm meet its objectives by analyzing problems and developing solutions. Other than negotiating, drafting, and reviewing legal documents, legal consultants also conduct legal research and analyze the right securities, insurance, and retirement plans.

Associate partner vs legal consultant salary

Associate partners and legal consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

Associate PartnerLegal Consultant
Average salary$145,385$75,024
Salary rangeBetween $84,000 And $250,000Between $40,000 And $139,000
Highest paying CityCambridge, MAWashington, DC
Highest paying stateMassachusettsNew York
Best paying companyMcKinsey & Company IncAlston & Bird
Best paying industryProfessionalProfessional

Differences between associate partner and legal consultant education

There are a few differences between an associate partner and a legal consultant in terms of educational background:

Associate PartnerLegal Consultant
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 63%Bachelor's Degree, 46%
Most common majorBusinessLaw
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaStanford University

Associate partner vs legal consultant demographics

Here are the differences between associate partners' and legal consultants' demographics:

Associate PartnerLegal Consultant
Average age4646
Gender ratioMale, 66.4% Female, 33.6%Male, 49.0% Female, 51.0%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 5.6% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 6.4% White, 75.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%Black or African American, 5.6% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 6.4% White, 75.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage10%10%

Differences between associate partner and legal consultant duties and responsibilities

Associate partner example responsibilities.

  • Lead services solution design for a medical image cloud computing solution to manage volume and improve disaster recovery.
  • Plan and manage the logistics around bi weekly team meetings, and bi annual team retreats.
  • Work closely with the CIO and business leads on timelines, documentation standards, and rollout processes.
  • Manage portfolio of projects for a financial institution, including archive messaging, cloud migration, reference data, compliance appl.
  • Lead development of security architecture policies and procedures for IBM security practice.
  • Develop a state-of-the-art content management architecture to manage and share content across multiple departments.
  • Show more

Legal consultant example responsibilities.

  • Manage day-to-day legal affairs of NYSE list airline.
  • Experience includes analysis and advice regarding claims relate to exotic securities agreements.
  • Represent individual and institutional clients in all aspects of commercial and residential real estate acquisition, financing and leasing and foreclosure.
  • Audit key financial and claim-relate regulatory processes including Medicare fraud.
  • Conduct discovery: documents productions, interrogatories, witness depositions.
  • Demonstrate expertise in preparing documents and discovery responses relate to interrogatories, request for admissions, and request for production.

Associate partner vs legal consultant skills

Common associate partner skills
  • Digital Transformation, 19%
  • Analytics, 13%
  • Cloud, 9%
  • Portfolio, 9%
  • Account Management, 6%
  • Client Relationships, 5%
Common legal consultant skills
  • Litigation, 16%
  • Regulatory Compliance, 9%
  • Legal Research, 8%
  • Financial Statements, 5%
  • Client Relationships, 5%
  • Legal Issues, 5%