How To Become A Legal Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a legal specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Hanna Royce

Legal Specialists perform various office tasks, including scheduling appointments, answering the telephone, and handling day-to-day correspondence. In addition to these tasks, however, they may compile legal briefs, prepare contracts or help expedite legal cases.

Most Legal Specialists work full time (40 hours per week) in an office setting. Their hours may extend into overtime when deadlines loom for filing motions or researching casework for trial. Responsibilities include reviewing contracts and legally direct procedures, training staff on legal issues, attending department meetings, and offer legal insight, among others. The minimum educational requirement for those seeking a job as a legal specialist is typically a high school diploma. Still, candidates can obtain the Accredited Legal Professional (ALP) certification as well. Candidates must have strong computer and office skills.

Legal Specialists make $32.16 per hour, which is over $66,000 a year. The career is likely to grow 6% and produce over 50,000 job opportunities within the United States in the following years.

What general advice would you give to a legal specialist?

Hanna Royce

Assistant Dean of Career Services, University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law

Graduates should keep their network active. This includes them taking the time to re-engage with the members of their network on a regular basis and continuing to make new contacts. They should make it a priority to stay in touch with their classmates and professors. They might be looking for a new position in the future, and their legal network can help them locate opportunities through the hidden job market.

Many graduates are securing remote positions. To be successful in a remote environment, employees need to make the extra effort to communicate and stay connected with colleagues. Even when employees are telecommuting, they should dress as if they are going into the office. This can help them with productivity and illustrate their professionalism when meeting with colleagues or clients.

ScoreLegal SpecialistUS Average

Salary

4.3

Avg. Salary $55,253

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.31%

Asian 6.36%

Black or African American 5.53%

Hispanic or Latino 7.75%

Unknown 4.38%

White 75.67%

Gender

female 67.52%

male 32.48%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.9

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a legal specialist

Explore legal specialist education requirements

Most common legal specialist degrees

Bachelor's

53.6 %

Associate

17.5 %

Doctorate

10.5 %

Start to develop specific legal specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Legal Support	12.47%
Legal Research	11.19%
Proofreading	8.99%
Litigation	8.74%
Confidentiality Agreements	4.96%

Complete relevant legal specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New legal specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a legal specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real legal specialist resumes.

Research legal specialist duties and responsibilities

Attain signing authority training certificate to sign motions for relief upon filing complex transactions.
Prepare and distribute payroll manage daily office operations and equipment and maintain supplies for office to run effectively.
Achieve award for increasing efficiency by extensively communicating with debtors' attorneys and monitoring trustee activities on a daily basis.
Review bankruptcy filing notifications and updating appropriate fields and workstations on MSP and LPS systems.

Prepare your legal specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your legal specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a legal specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable legal specialist resume templates

Build a professional legal specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your legal specialist resume.