How To Become A Legal Administrative Secretary: What It Is and Career Path

What is a legal administrative secretary and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Anne McConnell Ph.D.

The average legal administrative secretary salary is $39,394. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an business major. It usually takes 2-4 years of experience to become a legal administrative secretary. Legal administrative secretaries with a Professional Legal Secretary (PLS) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -8% and produce -286,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a legal administrative secretary?

Anne McConnell Ph.D.

Professor, West Virginia State University

I would say it's important to be very attentive to the way you communicate with your employers, managers, and co-workers. Even sending an e-mail can be an opportunity to demonstrate your professionalism and communication skills. Some people think that no one knows how to write anymore, or how to communicate in a professional way. I don't think that's true. But we don't always think about how our writing can be a tool to communicate our competence and seriousness. If you know how to write and communicate professionally-which college grads do-then make sure to demonstrate that in the workplace.

ScoreLegal Administrative SecretaryUS Average

Salary

3.1

Avg. Salary $39,394

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.7

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.87%

Asian 2.73%

Black or African American 7.45%

Hispanic or Latino 13.17%

Unknown 3.98%

White 71.80%

Gender

female 94.81%

male 5.19%

Age - 56

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 56

Stress level

4.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.0

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.2

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a legal administrative secretary

Explore legal administrative secretary education requirements

Most common legal administrative secretary degrees

Bachelor's

37.0 %

Associate

32.0 %

High School Diploma

15.3 %

Start to develop specific legal administrative secretary skills

Skills	Percentages
Litigation	10.99%
Travel Arrangements	8.46%
Real Estate	7.27%
Law Firm	6.46%
Subpoenas	4.92%

Complete relevant legal administrative secretary training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New legal administrative secretaries learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a legal administrative secretary based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real legal administrative secretary resumes.

Research legal administrative secretary duties and responsibilities

Coordinate firm-wide calendar and manage litigation document deadline process.
Complete accounting and payroll functions.- gather and process client documents.- manage daily operations of office.
Provide administrative and secretarial support in practice areas such as litigation, corporate and capital markets.
Assist safety consultant (s) in summarizing depositions and interrogatories ,.

Get legal administrative secretary experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a legal administrative secretary. The most common roles before becoming a legal administrative secretary include legal secretary, legal assistant team lead and administrative assistant.

Prepare your legal administrative secretary resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your legal administrative secretary resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a legal administrative secretary resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable legal administrative secretary resume templates

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