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Legal office assistant skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Shelly Grunsted,

Emily Allen-Hornblower

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical legal office assistant skills. We ranked the top skills for legal office assistants based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 8.8% of legal office assistant resumes contained management system as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a legal office assistant needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 legal office assistant skills for your resume and career

1. Management System

A management system is a set of policies, processes, and procedures taken by an organization or a business to ensure it can fulfill its tasks and achieve its objectives. A management system makes sure that the company excels financially and improves the user experience. The management system also takes care of the worker's and employees' needs and manages their workload and oversees their performance. Apart from interior matters of the company, a management system also deals with exterior matters like legislations, tax matters, and law issues.

Here's how legal office assistants use management system:

Converted hundreds of archived hard files to electronic Document Management system.
Organized and tracked case files daily to ensure case management system was updated.

2. Legal Correspondence

Here's how legal office assistants use legal correspondence:

Reviewed outgoing legal correspondence / documents to ensure proper signature and conformance to style / format requirements and procedural instructions.
Composed and prepared legal correspondence and reviewed legal briefs, conducted legal research for memorandums and exhibits.

3. Litigation

Here's how legal office assistants use litigation:

Maintained files for 911/Lower Manhattan Master Litigation and handled discovery related requests with outside counsel.
Acted as primary office personnel for small law firm exclusively specializing in Plaintiff litigation.

4. Data Entry

Data entry means entering data into a company's system with the help of a keyboard. A person responsible for entering data may also be asked to verify the authenticity of the data being entered. A person doing data entry must pay great attention to tiny details.

Here's how legal office assistants use data entry:

Perform criminal history/criminal records checks and bureau specific data entry.
Handle multifaceted clerical tasks (e.g., data entry, filing and records management) as the Assistant to Attorney offices.

5. Legal Research

Here's how legal office assistants use legal research:

Conducted legal research on pertinent university issues for the General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel.
Conducted legislative and legal research and performed policy analysis.

6. Office Equipment

Here's how legal office assistants use office equipment:

Ordered supplies, maintained office equipment, provided Notary services, receipted payments, and ran errands.
Assisted entire firm with filing court documents and various office equipment assistance including computer and printer setup.

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7. Law Firm

Here's how legal office assistants use law firm:

Started and currently research and write articles for InjusticeNews.com, which has brought several new cases to the law firm.
Performed receptionist, filing, and clerical duties for a local law firm specializing in real estate and title matters.

8. Word Processing

Here's how legal office assistants use word processing:

Supported attorneys in all word processing and secretarial tasks.
Organized company functions, provided overflow relief to main reception and the word processingdepartment with transcribing dictation.

9. Subpoenas

Subpoenas are formal and legal documents issued mostly by a court or some other government agency that demands the presence of the person the document is addressed to, to show up at court. Subpoenas are issued to individuals whom the court wants to appear either as a witness in a particular case in order to testify or to provide any evidence such as an object or a document.

Here's how legal office assistants use subpoenas:

Assisted with investigations by drafting subpoenas, identifying issues, and communicating with detectives regarding assigned tasks.
Serve subpoenas to obtain records such as medical and employment information and initiated surveillance.

10. Real Estate

Real estate is land that has buildings on it. This kind of property consists of permanent improvements either natural or man-made, which include, houses, fences, bridges, water trees, and minerals. There are 4 types of real estate namely; residential real estate, commercial real estate, industrial real estate, and vacant land.

Here's how legal office assistants use real estate:

Conducted real estate transactions from start to closing including review of title reports, preparation of closing statements, title binders/policies.
Performed tasks of typing general correspondence, lease documents, contracts, and property forms for a real estate firm.

11. Scheduling Appointments

Scheduling appointments is the practice of finding a free slot with the person(s) you want to meet. The process of scheduling appointments involves finding mutually free time, negotiating follow-ups, sending reminders, and creating new appointments. Scheduling appointments is important to ensure that the timings of consecutive meetings do not clash with each other.

Here's how legal office assistants use scheduling appointments:

Perform general administrative office assignments, scheduling appointments for clients, filing and maintaining legal documents.
Performed daily office tasks (filing, index searching, mail, answering phones, scheduling appointments, etc.)

12. Telephone Calls

Telephone calls are a communication means through which a caller is connected to the called party. The call is done through a telecommunications device called a telephone. The caller can use a landline, mobile phone, or satellite phone to make the call.

Here's how legal office assistants use telephone calls:

Received telephone calls and greeted internal and external visitors.
Used discretion and judgment when screening visitors and telephone calls, scheduled appointments, and organized workload to meet established priorities.

13. Clerical Support

Clerical support performs activities that must be done in every workplace in order to support the company going forward. These duties, which come within the category of clerical support, are typically delegated to entry-level employees since they are simple and easy to learn. Even though clerical duties like printing and filing are easy, they require time and in many instances, other workers are preoccupied with other activities and unable to keep up with all that needs to be accomplished. As a result, many businesses employ clerical support staff who are solely responsible for these duties.

Here's how legal office assistants use clerical support:

Provided administrative and clerical support to attorneys and clients in preparation for legal hearings.
Provided comprehensive secretarial and clerical support to assigned attorney.

14. Travel Arrangements

Here's how legal office assistants use travel arrangements:

Coordinated travel arrangements and accommodations for attorneys as needed.
Prepared and coordinated domestic and international travel arrangements.

15. Court Dates

Here's how legal office assistants use court dates:

Managed and maintained calendars for senior partner including client meetings, court date, including extracurricular and community matters.
Maintained multiple calendars for the partners and worked with the court clerks to reschedule conflicting court dates and times.

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What skills help Legal Office Assistants find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on legal office assistant resumes?

Shelly Grunsted

Executive Director - Center for Student Success, Director, First Fidelity Integrated Business Core Program (IBC), Associate Professor, The University of Oklahoma

Depending on the job, but some that stand out: experiential learning experience, leadership skills, communication skills, problem-solving/analytical, internship experience, and collaboration efforts/group-work

What legal office assistant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Emily Allen-Hornblower

Associate Professor of Classics, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

No question our economy has been hit hard, and the job market will be very competitive, for students in all courses of study but those who have solid training in the Humanities, along with the strong writing and communication skills that come with it, should do well. Good writers and critical thinkers are essential across the board, and those who have studied history, philosophy, oratory, and literature at its source (that is, the Classics) are well equipped to be competitive in any market.

What type of skills will young legal office assistants need?

Deirdre Kelly

Assistant Dean for Career Development, Western State College of Law

Young graduates will need the same traditional legal skills that they have always needed. Additionally, they will need to be resilient and creative to weather a more challenging and ever-evolving work environment. They will need to be very disciplined and able to work independently if they are working more remotely and have enough technical skills to navigate the virtual world. New graduates will need to think about how they build relationships with their co-workers and develop mentors, as well as develop clients and networks if the future means working remotely more and not as many in-person meetings.

What technical skills for a legal office assistant stand out to employers?

Paula Smith

Assistant Dean for Career & Professional Development, Texas Tech University

Legal employers are seeking young lawyers with a good academic grasp of the law, excellent legal research and writing skills, advocacy abilities including negotiation, trial, and appellate exposure, and personal attributes of integrity, teamwork, diligence, resilience, and an expectation of success.

What soft skills should all legal office assistants possess?

Jennifer Brobst

Associate Professor, Southern Illinois University

Two soft skills come to mind immediately: kindness and self-restraint. I have noticed that this generation of new attorneys is less accustomed to taking conflict in stride. What I mean is that in a social media world, one can overreact without facing the other person or simply walk away without responding to a text or post that seems confrontational or disrespectful. In person, there is usually no way to walk away without making the situation worse, so we get better and better at figuring out how to respond with kindness, humor, and patience. That is an excellent skill to have with clients who naturally feel stressed, or with overworked or overzealous opposing counsel or judges.

As to self-restraint, many ethics violations occur among attorneys who feel overwhelmed by their workload. Law school is the best place to learn how to figure out how to manage one's time, and to learn self-restraint -- i.e., when to stop and move on to the next task. This quality of self-restraint will not only help to make sure that new attorneys are reliable on behalf of their clients, but that they are happy with their job for the long-haul. There will always be more clients, but an attorney who knows their limits, but still gets the job done, will be glad to be an attorney throughout their career.

Do you want to know more?

List of legal office assistant skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a legal office assistant resume and required skills for a legal office assistant to have include:

Management System
Legal Correspondence
Litigation
Data Entry
Legal Research
Office Equipment
Law Firm
Word Processing
Subpoenas
Real Estate
Scheduling Appointments
Telephone Calls
Clerical Support
Travel Arrangements
Court Dates
Office Procedures
Bank Deposits

Front Desk
Office Operations
Administrative Tasks
Legal Issues
Provides Administrative Support
Court Proceedings
Office Management
Court Orders
Court Hearings
Law Library
Legal Forms
Probate
Legal Pleadings
Multi-Line Phone System
Family Law
Legal Advice
Summonses

Criminal Law
Legal Articles
QuickBooks
Interrogatories
Estate Planning
Client Appointments
Attorney Review
Expense Reports
Trial Preparation
Client Billing
PowerPoint
Office Machines
Court Appearances
Court Filings
Legal Assistance
Civil Litigation

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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