Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between legal consultants and criminal justice lawyers 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 a criminal justice lawyer. Additionally, a legal consultant has an average salary of $75,024, which is higher than the $49,977 average annual salary of a criminal justice lawyer.
The top three skills for a legal consultant include litigation, regulatory compliance and legal research. The most important skills for a criminal justice lawyer are criminal justice, semester, and public safety.
| Legal Consultant | Criminal Justice Lawyer | |
| Yearly salary | $75,024 | $49,977 |
| Hourly rate | $36.07 | $24.03 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 16,118 | 824 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 53% |
| 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.
A criminal justice lawyer is responsible for representing clients in court with criminal charges and defends them according to legal requirements and procedures. Criminal justice lawyers analyze the case by undergoing in-depth research and investigation that would support settlement claims. They reference laws and state regulations to identify the clients' options for case resolution. A criminal justice lawyer must have extensive knowledge of the legal industry, as well as possessing excellent critical-thinking skills to strategize appeals and negotiate pleas on trials.
Legal consultants and criminal justice lawyers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Legal Consultant | Criminal Justice Lawyer | |
| Average salary | $75,024 | $49,977 |
| Salary range | Between $40,000 And $139,000 | Between $32,000 And $76,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New York | California |
| Best paying company | Alston & Bird | Indiana University of Pennsylvania |
| Best paying industry | Professional | Professional |
There are a few differences between a legal consultant and a criminal justice lawyer in terms of educational background:
| Legal Consultant | Criminal Justice Lawyer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 53% |
| Most common major | Law | Criminal Justice |
| Most common college | Stanford University | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Here are the differences between legal consultants' and criminal justice lawyers' demographics:
| Legal Consultant | Criminal Justice Lawyer | |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 49.0% Female, 51.0% | Male, 48.9% Female, 51.1% |
| 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, 7.9% Asian, 6.5% White, 75.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 10% |