What is a Legal Administrator?

Legal administrators provide administrative functions and support for lawyers and paralegals of a legal establishment. It is your responsibility to transcribe and proofread legal documents. You will also process invoices, schedule court hearings as well as client meetings.

Legal administrators greet visitors, answer phone calls, carry out legal research, interact with solicitors and manage schedules. You are also responsible for the supervision of other members of the administrative staff, order of supplies, and oversee office arrangements.

The minimum educational requirement for this ole is a diploma in administrative studies or other related fields. Familiarity with legal terminologies and processes is a key requirement.

As a legal administrator, you are required to be very organized, professional, and courteous. You should be a good team player, be able to multitask and prioritize. Proficiency with word processing software like Microsoft Office is also an essential skill. The average annual salary of legal administrators is $53,752.

What Does a Legal Administrator Do

There are certain skills that many legal administrators have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, computer skills and organizational skills.

Learn more about what a Legal Administrator does

How To Become a Legal Administrator

If you're interested in becoming a legal administrator, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 55.2% of legal administrators have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.1% of legal administrators have master's degrees. Even though most legal administrators have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Legal Administrator
Top Legal Administrator Jobs Near You

Legal Administrator Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of office manager you might progress to a role such as human resources manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title human resources vice president.

Legal Administrator

Average Salary for a Legal Administrator

Legal Administrators in America make an average salary of $47,198 per year or $23 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $66,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $33,000 per year.
Average Legal Administrator Salary
$47,198 Yearly
$22.69 hourly
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Roles and Types of Legal Administrator

The role of a legal administrator includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general legal administrator responsibilities:

  • Exercise excellent customer service while interacting with clients both over the phone
  • Include but are not limited to: the successful candidate will be engaged to perform the following tasks
  • Interviewing persons who visit or telephone vba facilities

There are several types of legal administrator, including:

Paralegal

Role:

A paralegal is in charge of substantive legal work. Typically, they serve lawyers who are so busy building a case that they need help sorting out all of the legal work. That's where you come in.

Paralegals take pride in their responsibilities by administering their knowledge of the law and legal procedures. It can be a great thing to have a paralegal on the case because the law will determine what direction a lawyer may swing a case.

While you definitely need a working knowledge of what the law is, you really only need to obtain an associate's degree for this line of work. Sure, you could probably spend your entire life going through and memorizing every single law out there, but laws change all the time so chances are you're going to have to look it up anyway.

  • Average Salary: $49,943
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Legal Extern

Role:

Let's rip the Band-Aid off, shall we? As a legal extern, you're probably not going to get paid. But what you take away from these opportunities may prove more useful in the longterm. What you'll take away from a legal externship will be experience and academic credit. Which really is priceless, if you ask us.

You'll have experience right off the bat within a legal setting. This definitely will give you an edge against your other colleagues. A legal extern is very similar to an internship, but is usually much shorter. So while you're getting the experience, you don't have to commit to it for as long.

Since being a legal extern won't last very long, it's a good way to see if you even want to work in the legal industry. It'll give you a glimpse into everything you will be doing, like conducting client interviews, making a court appearance, and even some legal research and writing. Just think of it as a very in-depth glimpse into "a day in the life" of a legal profession.

  • Average Salary: $47,238
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Law Clerk

Role:

Imagine this. You grab a cup of coffee and head to the court. With enough coffee flowing through your veins, you're now ready to chat with the judge about legal questions, granting orders and even the construction of documents. Who are you? You're a law clerk and this is just the beginning of your day.

The rest of your day may be spent going through complaints, looking at petitions or motions, and even reading through pleadings so you can help develop a case. Then, you need to type up some judicial opinions, decisions, or citations. There's lots of work to do as a law clerk, so you need to be organized so you don't waste a single minute.

As a law clerk, you'll probably spend a lot of time with judges. You're there to provide assistance on legal determinations while also writing up research-based opinions that are relevant to the court. The best part of becoming a law clerk is that you don't have to wait very long to become one. You could be a student by day and a law clerk by night. Unless you have night classes, in which case it might be switched.

  • Average Salary: $55,916
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Legal Administrator Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active legal administrator jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where legal administrators earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Legal Administrator Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California2,957$52,738
2Texas1,844$52,317
3Florida1,616$38,912
4New York1,137$60,622
5Illinois976$43,385
6Pennsylvania910$53,259
7Massachusetts890$59,033
8North Carolina818$37,189
9Colorado811$56,975
10Georgia811$41,173
11Washington753$51,035
12Arizona708$40,408
13Ohio701$38,739
14New Jersey605$57,943
15Minnesota554$47,374
16Michigan541$46,345
17Missouri435$35,873
18Indiana414$34,212
19Alabama403$40,719
20Tennessee400$39,761
21Oregon396$50,139
22Wisconsin392$40,264
23Utah343$45,811
24South Carolina327$36,601
25Connecticut253$51,273
26Iowa237$40,297
27Kentucky223$42,047
28Kansas212$38,950
29Oklahoma181$38,243
30New Mexico172$42,007
31Louisiana172$39,625
32Nebraska171$42,877
33Nevada168$49,940
34Arkansas163$36,530
35New Hampshire156$55,667
36Mississippi144$44,074
37Idaho134$44,117
38West Virginia131$47,791
39Alaska112$51,556
40Rhode Island111$48,648
41Virginia107$52,460
42Montana99$40,375
43North Dakota98$42,456
44Delaware95$51,229
45Hawaii95$47,094
46Maine94$43,440
47Vermont77$45,186
48South Dakota69$43,795
49Maryland68$46,493
50Wyoming56$37,087

Legal Administrator Education

Legal Administrator Majors

Business
26.0 %
Legal Support Services
11.0 %
Law
9.0 %

Legal Administrator Degrees

Bachelors

55.2 %

Associate

19.7 %

Masters

9.1 %

Top Colleges for Legal Administrators

1. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

2. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

3. Boston University

Boston, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,948

Enrollment

17,238

4. University of California - Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$13,226

Enrollment

31,568

5. Georgetown University

Washington, DC • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,104

Enrollment

7,089

6. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

7. George Washington University, The

Washington, DC • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,230

Enrollment

12,161

8. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

9. Harvard University

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$50,420

Enrollment

7,582

10. Duke University

Durham, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,695

Enrollment

6,596

Top Skills For a Legal Administrator

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.4% of legal administrators listed veterans on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and computer skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Legal Administrator Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Legal Administrator templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Legal Administrator resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Legal Administrator diversity

Legal Administrator Gender Distribution

Female
Female
72%
Male
Male
28%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among legal administrators, 71.8% of them are women, while 28.2% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among legal administrators is White, which makes up 59.8% of all legal administrators.

  • The most common foreign language among legal administrators is Spanish at 57.4%.

Online Courses For Legal Administrator That You May Like

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1. Legal Contracts and Agreements for Entrepreneurs

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This course focuses on how legal contracts may impact or impede the success of aspiring and active entrepreneurs. We explore a wide variety of legal considerations, including: * What types of legal contracts and agreements are appropriate for which entrepreneurial activities and actions? * What is the role of torts, liability, and negligence in creating and managing products and services? * How should contracts and sales agreements be created, evaluated, and negotiated? * What legal...

2. Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship

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By its nature, the law touches on many aspects of entrepreneurship, making it an applicable and versatile topic of study. For aspiring entrepreneurs, it's important to understand how to form the business, work with the initial customers, and hire. For active entrepreneurs, there are critical considerations on employment law, operating policies, and managing contracts. For everyone, the role that the law plays in managing the company, and its associated risks, must be properly understood to...

3. Effective Legal Office Administration

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(798)

Effective Legal Office Administration...

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Best States For a Legal Administrator

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a legal administrator. The best states for people in this position are New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Colorado. Legal administrators make the most in New York with an average salary of $60,622. Whereas in Massachusetts and New Jersey, they would average $59,033 and $57,943, respectively. While legal administrators would only make an average of $56,975 in Colorado, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Colorado

Total Legal Administrator Jobs: 811
Highest 10% Earn:
$83,000
Location Quotient:
1.66

$56,975

Avg. Salary

View 811 Legal Administrator Jobs In CO

2. Massachusetts

Total Legal Administrator Jobs: 890
Highest 10% Earn:
$86,000
Location Quotient:
1.18

$59,033

Avg. Salary

View 890 Legal Administrator Jobs In MA

3. New York

Total Legal Administrator Jobs: 1,137
Highest 10% Earn:
$90,000
Location Quotient:
1.08

$60,622

Avg. Salary

View 1,137 Legal Administrator Jobs In NY
Full List Of Best States For Legal Administrators

How Do Legal Administrators Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Legal Administrator Employers

Most Common Employers For Legal Administrator

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Citi$80,058$38.495
2Novo Nordisk$71,837$34.544
3Amgen$66,606$32.025
4General Electric$61,376$29.514
5Boeing$58,359$28.064
6U.S. Office of Personnel Management$57,338$27.576
7Delaware State Government$55,072$26.485
8Washington State University$55,012$26.456
9King County$54,671$26.2810
10Social Security Administration$54,266$26.0992
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Updated April 6, 2023