Have you ever wondered how busy lawyers handle all of their casework and get ready for trials? The answer is that they do not do all of the work alone. Many law offices rely on the work of a legal office assistant to manage administrative tasks and free up lawyers for more complex legal proceedings.

As a legal office assistant, you would take care of tasks such as entering data, drafting legal documents such as subpoenas, and researching information in special legal reference systems. You would also communicate with clients, court administrators, and other relevant parties to ensure that all investigations and cases go as smoothly as possible.

To be a legal office assistant, you don't need a law degree. In fact, you could use this position to test out if you enjoy working in the law before going to law school. For most positions, all you need is a bachelor's or associate's degree, some previous administrative experience, and a passion for the law.

What Does a Legal Office Assistant Do

There are certain skills that many legal office assistants have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, computer skills and research skills.

Learn more about what a Legal Office Assistant does

How To Become a Legal Office Assistant

If you're interested in becoming a legal office assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 48.5% of legal office assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.5% of legal office assistants have master's degrees. Even though most legal office assistants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Legal Office Assistant

Legal Office Assistant Career Paths

Average Salary for a Legal Office Assistant

Legal Office Assistants in America make an average salary of $34,133 per year or $16 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $47,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $24,000 per year.
Average Legal Office Assistant Salary
$34,133 Yearly
$16.41 hourly

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Roles and Types of Legal Office Assistant

There are several types of legal office assistant, including:

Office Administrator

Role:

As office administrator, you've got to lay down the law for your team. Sure, no one likes a tough boss, but they need to know what goals they're aiming for, and that's where you come in. You'll need to divide and conquer on some tasks, so the team doesn't feel overwhelmed.

The biggest, and probably toughest, part of your job is making sure your team is consistantly performing. You have to find a nice balance for employees so they don't get burned out on work, while also making sure they're not playing Solitaire on their computer.

Office administrators typically work somewhere between 35-40 hours a week. Generally, they won't work more than that. This means you might get to go home a little early some days. Our fingers are crossed that you get off a little early on Friday, so you can kickstart your weekend on a high note.

  • Average Salary: $37,423
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Office Clerk

Role:

An Office Clerk works in an office and carries out administrative tasks. Working under the supervision of secretaries or executive assistants, office clerks prepare documents and sort mail, file and update company records, schedule meetings, answer phones, greet clients and make sure office supplies are in stock at all times.

You might be asked to make travel arrangements or book venues, take minutes at meetings, and maybe even do some basic bookkeeping tasks. Using photocopy machines and printers and being familiar with basic computer software, such as word processors or spreadsheets, will also be required.

If you want to be an efficient office clerk, you need to be diligent, reliable, and hard-working. You must be perceptive and easy to talk to, and experience with office equipment and procedures is always helpful.
  • Average Salary: $30,927
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Office Worker

Role:

Every office, business, or industry hires highly qualified expert staff who spend hours and days making policies and strategies. But what if none of the data they produce is preserved for references and later analysis? Of course, their efforts will go in vain. To avoid that situation, all organizations, whether big or small, have office workers. They are the administrative staff responsible for holding all official records intact.

Being an office worker is all about documentation, filling, and organizing data in a manageable manner. For which you require at least a high school graduation certificate. As an office worker, you will be asked to do documentation, filling, organize data, and data entry tasks. Therefore, you also need to learn the necessary computer and editing skills.

You can start serving as an office worker with a salary of $18.25 per hour. But chances of progress in this field are great so that you can earn much more than that based on your expertise and skills.

  • Average Salary: $41,003
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Legal Office Assistant Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active legal office assistant jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where legal office assistants earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Legal Office Assistant Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California2,314$44,018
2Florida1,858$27,045
3Texas1,340$33,713
4New York1,272$36,926
5Illinois913$33,898
6Pennsylvania912$36,073
7Ohio911$29,690
8North Carolina768$24,428
9Massachusetts738$37,561
10Georgia677$28,493
11Virginia639$34,024
12Michigan638$32,086
13New Jersey545$39,626
14Washington495$35,952
15Colorado487$34,371
16Arizona482$28,732
17Minnesota476$33,874
18Indiana446$24,015
19Maryland428$30,883
20Tennessee390$27,462
21Wisconsin378$28,628
22Missouri372$25,582
23South Carolina289$24,168
24Oregon277$32,480
25Connecticut253$39,912
26Utah231$32,445
27Kentucky216$29,267
28Alabama214$27,240
29Iowa207$28,934
30Louisiana183$25,989
31Nevada150$35,628
32Oklahoma148$26,665
33Arkansas147$25,210
34Kansas138$27,926
35New Hampshire130$37,803
36Idaho121$30,608
37New Mexico118$28,864
38Nebraska116$30,815
39Alaska115$38,281
40West Virginia109$32,120
41Mississippi102$29,368
42Montana84$28,313
43North Dakota82$30,154
44Maine82$29,568
45Rhode Island66$33,310
46Delaware61$34,519
47Wyoming55$26,291
48Vermont50$31,054
49Hawaii49$39,856
50South Dakota49$31,518

Legal Office Assistant Education

Legal Office Assistant Majors

18.6 %

Legal Office Assistant Degrees

Bachelors

48.5 %

Associate

24.2 %

High School Diploma

12.2 %

Top Colleges for Legal Office Assistants

1. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Law
Political Science
Health Care Administration
Legal Studies

2. Texas Wesleyan University

Fort Worth, TX • Private

In-State Tuition

$30,300

Enrollment

1,445

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Education
Business
Criminal Justice
Psychology
Accounting

3. Boston University

Boston, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,948

Enrollment

17,238

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Education
Communication
Law
Psychology

4. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Law
Liberal Arts
Communication
Psychology

5. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Education
Law
Political Science
English

6. Hamline University

Saint Paul, MN • Private

In-State Tuition

$41,290

Enrollment

2,077

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Psychology
Legal Support Services
Legal Studies
Political Science

7. Harvard University

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$50,420

Enrollment

7,582

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Education
Business
Law
History
Political Science

8. George Washington University, The

Washington, DC • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,230

Enrollment

12,161

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Law
Political Science
Health Care Administration
Business
Accounting

9. Touro College

New York, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$19,870

Enrollment

5,243

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Liberal Arts
Psychology
Business
Law
Accounting

10. Pennsylvania State University

University Park, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$18,454

Enrollment

40,108

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Accounting
Psychology
Criminal Justice
Political Science
Communication

Top Skills For a Legal Office Assistant

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 8.8% of legal office assistants listed management system on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and computer skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Legal Office Assistant Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Legal Office Assistant templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Legal Office Assistant resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Legal Office Assistant Resume
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Legal Office Assistant Demographics

Legal Office Assistant Gender Distribution

Female
Female
80%
Male
Male
20%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among legal office assistants, 79.7% of them are women, while 20.3% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among legal office assistants is White, which makes up 59.7% of all legal office assistants.

  • The most common foreign language among legal office assistants is Spanish at 66.2%.

Online Courses For Legal Office Assistant That You May Like

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Best States For a Legal Office Assistant

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a legal office assistant. The best states for people in this position are California, Connecticut, Hawaii, and New Jersey. Legal office assistants make the most in California with an average salary of $44,018. Whereas in Connecticut and Hawaii, they would average $39,912 and $39,856, respectively. While legal office assistants would only make an average of $39,626 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. District of Columbia

Total Legal Office Assistant Jobs: 219
Highest 10% Earn:
$61,000
Location Quotient:
1.73

2. California

Total Legal Office Assistant Jobs: 2,314
Highest 10% Earn:
$65,000
Location Quotient:
1.05

3. Alaska

Total Legal Office Assistant Jobs: 115
Highest 10% Earn:
$47,000
Location Quotient:
1.83
Full List Of Best States For Legal Office Assistants

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Top Legal Office Assistant Employers

Most Common Employers For Legal Office Assistant

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Social Security Administration$42,773$20.564
2Minnehaha County$40,689$19.565
3Hinckley Allen$39,794$19.133
4Department of Homeland Security$39,657$19.073
5Hoffman Construction$38,969$18.743
6SSC Engineering$37,342$17.953
7Washington State University$37,166$17.8712
8Liberty Mutual Insurance$37,085$17.834
9Texas Department of Transportation$36,896$17.748
10Ford Motor$36,767$17.683