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The differences between law clerks and executive legal assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a law clerk has an average salary of $55,916, which is higher than the $53,442 average annual salary of an executive legal assistant.
The top three skills for a law clerk include litigation, legal issues and legal memos. The most important skills for an executive legal assistant are powerpoint, expense reports, and litigation.
| Law Clerk | Executive Legal Assistant | |
| Yearly salary | $55,916 | $53,442 |
| Hourly rate | $26.88 | $25.69 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 14% |
| Number of jobs | 75,014 | 72,148 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 52% |
| Average age | 41 | 46 |
| Years of experience | - | 12 |
Law clerks are employees in a legal firm who handle clerical tasks for the office. They handle the office's official phone lines, answering incoming calls, and making outgoing calls. They also field office correspondence, often receiving incoming mail and distributing them to their addressees. They manage office documents and ensure that they are correctly filed and labeled in their respective storage bins. Law clerks help make office life more comfortable because they make sure that the office is running well. They also manage appointments and office calendars.
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.
Law clerks and executive legal assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Law Clerk | Executive Legal Assistant | |
| Average salary | $55,916 | $53,442 |
| Salary range | Between $27,000 And $114,000 | Between $37,000 And $75,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New York | California |
| Best paying company | Hughes Hubbard & Reed | PayPal |
| Best paying industry | Professional | Telecommunication |
There are a few differences between a law clerk and an executive legal assistant in terms of educational background:
| Law Clerk | Executive Legal Assistant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 52% |
| Most common major | Law | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between law clerks' and executive legal assistants' demographics:
| Law Clerk | Executive Legal Assistant | |
| Average age | 41 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 52.5% Female, 47.5% | Male, 8.7% Female, 91.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.4% Unknown, 8.3% Hispanic or Latino, 17.8% Asian, 10.3% White, 53.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | 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% |
| LGBT Percentage | 13% | 9% |