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The differences between legal investigators and legal consultants 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 a legal consultant. Additionally, a legal consultant has an average salary of $75,024, which is higher than the $72,914 average annual salary of a legal investigator.
The top three skills for a legal investigator include investigative reports, litigation and legal investigations. The most important skills for a legal consultant are litigation, regulatory compliance, and legal research.
| Legal Investigator | Legal Consultant | |
| Yearly salary | $72,914 | $75,024 |
| Hourly rate | $35.05 | $36.07 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 9,582 | 16,118 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 46% |
| 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.
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.
Legal investigators and legal consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Legal Investigator | Legal Consultant | |
| Average salary | $72,914 | $75,024 |
| Salary range | Between $45,000 And $117,000 | Between $40,000 And $139,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | - | New York |
| Best paying company | - | Alston & Bird |
| Best paying industry | - | Professional |
There are a few differences between a legal investigator and a legal consultant in terms of educational background:
| Legal Investigator | Legal Consultant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 46% |
| Most common major | Criminal Justice | Law |
| Most common college | University of Richmond | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between legal investigators' and legal consultants' demographics:
| Legal Investigator | Legal Consultant | |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 66.0% Female, 34.0% | Male, 49.0% Female, 51.0% |
| 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, 5.6% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 6.4% White, 75.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 10% |