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The differences between legal investigators 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 investigator and an assistant counsel. Additionally, a legal investigator has an average salary of $72,914, which is higher than the $61,229 average annual salary of an assistant counsel.
The top three skills for a legal investigator include investigative reports, litigation and legal investigations. The most important skills for an assistant counsel are litigation, legal issues, and legal advice.
| Legal Investigator | Assistant Counsel | |
| Yearly salary | $72,914 | $61,229 |
| Hourly rate | $35.05 | $29.44 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 9,582 | 8,574 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 52% |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
Legal investigators are professionals tasked with providing research, investigative services, and surveillance to the public, insurance companies, financial institutions, law firms, banks, and even local law enforcement agencies. They use methods and tools to uncover facts about financial, personal, and legal matters. This type of investigator must pay attention to analyzing details and evidence, but it will be difficult to know to begin. There is no need for formal education to be a legal investigator, one must take a legal investigator certificate course.
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 investigators and assistant counsels have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Legal Investigator | Assistant Counsel | |
| Average salary | $72,914 | $61,229 |
| Salary range | Between $45,000 And $117,000 | Between $36,000 And $103,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | - | New York |
| Best paying company | - | Baltimore City Public Schools |
| Best paying industry | - | Government |
There are a few differences between a legal investigator and an assistant counsel in terms of educational background:
| Legal Investigator | Assistant Counsel | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 52% |
| Most common major | Criminal Justice | Law |
| Most common college | University of Richmond | Duke University |
Here are the differences between legal investigators' and assistant counsels' demographics:
| Legal Investigator | Assistant Counsel | |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 66.0% Female, 34.0% | Male, 42.3% Female, 57.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 5.7% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 6.5% White, 75.2% 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% |