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Legal consultant vs senior attorney

The differences between legal consultants and senior attorneys 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 senior attorney. Additionally, a senior attorney has an average salary of $111,002, which is higher than the $75,024 average annual salary of a legal consultant.

The top three skills for a legal consultant include litigation, regulatory compliance and legal research. The most important skills for a senior attorney are litigation, law firm, and legal advice.

Legal consultant vs senior attorney overview

Legal ConsultantSenior Attorney
Yearly salary$75,024$111,002
Hourly rate$36.07$53.37
Growth rate10%10%
Number of jobs16,11810,445
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 46%Doctoral Degree, 53%
Average age4646
Years of experience44

What does a legal consultant do?

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.

What does a senior attorney do?

A Senior Attorney supervises all activities of junior attorneys and deals with all complex legal transactions. They identify legal issues and offer businesses and their customers optimum solutions, as well as ensure that businesses respond appropriately to any legislative changes.

Legal consultant vs senior attorney salary

Legal consultants and senior attorneys have different pay scales, as shown below.

Legal ConsultantSenior Attorney
Average salary$75,024$111,002
Salary rangeBetween $40,000 And $139,000Between $67,000 And $183,000
Highest paying CityWashington, DCWashington, DC
Highest paying stateNew YorkCalifornia
Best paying companyAlston & BirdClifford Chance
Best paying industryProfessionalProfessional

Differences between legal consultant and senior attorney education

There are a few differences between a legal consultant and a senior attorney in terms of educational background:

Legal ConsultantSenior Attorney
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 46%Doctoral Degree, 53%
Most common majorLawLaw
Most common collegeStanford UniversityStanford University

Legal consultant vs senior attorney demographics

Here are the differences between legal consultants' and senior attorneys' demographics:

Legal ConsultantSenior Attorney
Average age4646
Gender ratioMale, 49.0% Female, 51.0%Male, 60.1% Female, 39.9%
Race ratioBlack 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, 5.4% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 7.6% Asian, 6.2% White, 76.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage10%10%

Differences between legal consultant and senior attorney duties and responsibilities

Legal consultant example responsibilities.

  • Manage day-to-day legal affairs of NYSE list airline.
  • Experience includes analysis and advice regarding claims relate to exotic securities agreements.
  • Represent individual and institutional clients in all aspects of commercial and residential real estate acquisition, financing and leasing and foreclosure.
  • Audit key financial and claim-relate regulatory processes including Medicare fraud.
  • Conduct discovery: documents productions, interrogatories, witness depositions.
  • Demonstrate expertise in preparing documents and discovery responses relate to interrogatories, request for admissions, and request for production.

Senior attorney example responsibilities.

  • Manage and respond to corporate subpoenas including drafting appropriate objections and preparing witnesses for deposition.
  • Manage the death administration department with approximately thirty-five plus estates through trust administration, Medicaid estate recovery or probate.
  • Draft charging instruments, pleadings, subpoenas, consent agreements, orders and other documents pertaining to administrative enforcement litigation proceedings.
  • Experience litigation attorney, with emphasis on management of civil and matrimonial litigation, from initial interview through trial or settlement.
  • Communicate with client and insurance carriers concerning the progress of the litigation and provide recommendations regarding settlement or other claim resolution.
  • Represent individual and institutional clients in all aspects of commercial and residential real estate acquisition, financing and leasing and foreclosure.
  • Show more

Legal consultant vs senior attorney skills

Common legal consultant skills
  • Litigation, 16%
  • Regulatory Compliance, 9%
  • Legal Research, 8%
  • Financial Statements, 5%
  • Client Relationships, 5%
  • Legal Issues, 5%
Common senior attorney skills
  • Litigation, 14%
  • Law Firm, 8%
  • Legal Advice, 8%
  • Juris, 7%
  • Legal Research, 7%
  • Legal Support, 4%