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The differences between executive legal assistants and executive secretaries can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-12 months to become an executive legal assistant, becoming an executive secretary takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, an executive legal assistant has an average salary of $53,442, which is higher than the $46,594 average annual salary of an executive secretary.
The top three skills for an executive legal assistant include powerpoint, expense reports and litigation. The most important skills for an executive secretary are office procedures, payroll, and word processing.
| Executive Legal Assistant | Executive Secretary | |
| Yearly salary | $53,442 | $46,594 |
| Hourly rate | $25.69 | $22.40 |
| Growth rate | 14% | -8% |
| Number of jobs | 72,148 | 103,802 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 44% |
| Average age | 46 | 49 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 4 |
An Executive Legal Assistant provides comprehensive support to lawyers and legal offices. They start as entry-level assistants before specializing in a field after a few years with experience; litigation, criminal law, family law, international law. Their duties include performing legal research by gathering case information for presentation, writing legal reports based on research and interviews, scheduling meetings, organizing travel arrangements, and organizing documentation for easy accessibility. An Executive Legal Assistant must be well organized, analytical research skills, and experience in case management. They typically spend long work hours spent in libraries and offices, requiring occasional travel.
The primary role of executive secretaries is to provide clerical support to an executive or a high-level administrator. They are the ones who conduct the different administrative support tasks for executives which include managing the calendar of executives, answering phone calls, conducting research and sorting important files, preparing and proofreading monthly reports and industry documents that are relevant to the role of executives, and performing some bookkeeping activities such as invoice creation and office inventory tracking.
Executive legal assistants and executive secretaries have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Executive Legal Assistant | Executive Secretary | |
| Average salary | $53,442 | $46,594 |
| Salary range | Between $37,000 And $75,000 | Between $31,000 And $69,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | California | New York |
| Best paying company | PayPal | InfosysPublicService |
| Best paying industry | Telecommunication | Government |
There are a few differences between an executive legal assistant and an executive secretary in terms of educational background:
| Executive Legal Assistant | Executive Secretary | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 44% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | Western Carolina University |
Here are the differences between executive legal assistants' and executive secretaries' demographics:
| Executive Legal Assistant | Executive Secretary | |
| Average age | 46 | 49 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 8.7% Female, 91.3% | Male, 7.7% Female, 92.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.2% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 21.4% Asian, 5.4% White, 60.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 11.2% Asian, 5.0% White, 71.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 10% |