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The differences between legal specialists and law clerks can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a law clerk has an average salary of $55,916, which is higher than the $55,253 average annual salary of a legal specialist.
The top three skills for a legal specialist include legal support, legal research and proofreading. The most important skills for a law clerk are litigation, legal issues, and legal memos.
| Legal Specialist | Law Clerk | |
| Yearly salary | $55,253 | $55,916 |
| Hourly rate | $26.56 | $26.88 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 6,517 | 75,014 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 54% | Bachelor's Degree, 63% |
| Average age | 46 | 41 |
| Years of experience | 4 | - |
A legal specialist is responsible for supporting an organization's legal department or law office by performing administrative duties to assist legal operations. Legal specialists are the clients' first point-of-contact, especially on scheduling appointments and responding to legal services inquiries and concerns. They also organize legal documents, prepare and write contracts, and help legal professionals with collecting information for their cases. A legal specialist must have comprehensive knowledge of the legal industry, including law processes and federal regulations.
Law clerks are employees in a legal firm who handle clerical tasks for the office. They handle the office's official phone lines, answering incoming calls, and making outgoing calls. They also field office correspondence, often receiving incoming mail and distributing them to their addressees. They manage office documents and ensure that they are correctly filed and labeled in their respective storage bins. Law clerks help make office life more comfortable because they make sure that the office is running well. They also manage appointments and office calendars.
Legal specialists and law clerks have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Legal Specialist | Law Clerk | |
| Average salary | $55,253 | $55,916 |
| Salary range | Between $30,000 And $98,000 | Between $27,000 And $114,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | New York | New York |
| Best paying company | Orrick | Hughes Hubbard & Reed |
| Best paying industry | - | Professional |
There are a few differences between a legal specialist and a law clerk in terms of educational background:
| Legal Specialist | Law Clerk | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 54% | Bachelor's Degree, 63% |
| Most common major | Business | Law |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between legal specialists' and law clerks' demographics:
| Legal Specialist | Law Clerk | |
| Average age | 46 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 32.5% Female, 67.5% | Male, 52.5% Female, 47.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 5.5% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 6.4% White, 75.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 9.4% Unknown, 8.3% Hispanic or Latino, 17.8% Asian, 10.3% White, 53.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 13% |