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The differences between legal investigators and staff 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 investigator and a staff attorney. Additionally, a staff attorney has an average salary of $110,028, 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 staff attorney are litigation, legal services, and juris.
| Legal Investigator | Staff Attorney | |
| Yearly salary | $72,914 | $110,028 |
| Hourly rate | $35.05 | $52.90 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 9,582 | 75,402 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Doctoral Degree, 56% |
| 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.
Staff Attorneys are legal employees who work for a variety of organizations, often as full-time employees. They use their legal expertise to help deal with day-to-day legal issues with which their organization needs regular assistance.
Legal investigators and staff attorneys have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Legal Investigator | Staff Attorney | |
| Average salary | $72,914 | $110,028 |
| Salary range | Between $45,000 And $117,000 | Between $69,000 And $173,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | - | California |
| Best paying company | - | Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough |
| Best paying industry | - | Professional |
There are a few differences between a legal investigator and a staff attorney in terms of educational background:
| Legal Investigator | Staff Attorney | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Doctoral Degree, 56% |
| Most common major | Criminal Justice | Law |
| Most common college | University of Richmond | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between legal investigators' and staff attorneys' demographics:
| Legal Investigator | Staff Attorney | |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 66.0% Female, 34.0% | Male, 47.5% Female, 52.5% |
| 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, 5.5% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 7.7% Asian, 6.3% White, 75.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 10% |