Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between legal consultants and assistant counsels can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a legal consultant and an assistant counsel. Additionally, a legal consultant has an average salary of $75,024, which is higher than the $61,229 average annual salary of an assistant counsel.
The top three skills for a legal consultant include litigation, regulatory compliance and legal research. The most important skills for an assistant counsel are litigation, legal issues, and legal advice.
| Legal Consultant | Assistant Counsel | |
| Yearly salary | $75,024 | $61,229 |
| Hourly rate | $36.07 | $29.44 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 16,118 | 8,574 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 52% |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
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.
Assistant counsels are legal professionals who research and analyze various laws so they can apply them to the different legal issues that arose in a corporation. These counsels must develop an agency-wide client privacy policy and manage responses to all matters involving subpoenas and warrants. They advise other departments for legal claims related to the right of privacy and publicity as well as defamation. Assistant counsels are also required to act as labor attorneys for employees facing internal discrimination suits while dealing with FMLA, ERISA, and HIPAA issues.
Legal consultants and assistant counsels have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Legal Consultant | Assistant Counsel | |
| Average salary | $75,024 | $61,229 |
| Salary range | Between $40,000 And $139,000 | Between $36,000 And $103,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | New York | New York |
| Best paying company | Alston & Bird | Baltimore City Public Schools |
| Best paying industry | Professional | Government |
There are a few differences between a legal consultant and an assistant counsel in terms of educational background:
| Legal Consultant | Assistant Counsel | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 52% |
| Most common major | Law | Law |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Duke University |
Here are the differences between legal consultants' and assistant counsels' demographics:
| Legal Consultant | Assistant Counsel | |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 49.0% Female, 51.0% | Male, 42.3% Female, 57.7% |
| Race ratio | 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% | Black or African American, 5.7% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 8.0% Asian, 6.5% White, 75.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 10% |