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Office manager and legal assistant skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted experts
Shelly Grunsted,
Emily Allen-Hornblower
Office manager and legal assistant example skills
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical office manager and legal assistant skills. We ranked the top skills for office managers and legal assistant based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 9.2% of office manager and legal assistant resumes contained payroll as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an office manager and legal assistant needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 office manager and legal assistant skills for your resume and career

1. Payroll

Payroll is the sum of all the compensation that an organization has to pay to employees at a specified time. Payroll is managed by the finance or HR department while small business owners may handle it themselves. Payroll isn't fixed as it varies every month due to sick leaves, overtime, etc.

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use payroll:
  • Provided administrative support to the office manager including payroll processing, accounts payable and prepared attorney expenses reports.
  • Completed accounting and payroll functions.- Gathered and processed client documents.- Managed daily operations of office.

2. Discovery Responses

Discovery response is the response made by a person on trial once discoveries are made against them. Certain motions are filed against a person on trial, which may include a request for interrogations, request for production, etc, and they have to file a response within some time. The official response is filed in court and its copies can be distributed to the other parties.

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use discovery responses:
  • Secured litigation discovery responses from clients.
  • Drafted and produced correspondence and pleadings; formulated discovery responses; assisted attorneys in all phases of trial preparation.

3. Litigation

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use litigation:
  • Perform all duties of office manager/administrative assistant/legal assistant for civil cases (litigation) and criminal cases.
  • Coordinated and managed document review for complex civil litigation cases and maintained accurate logs of discovery.

4. Legal Research

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use legal research:
  • Managed office operations, scheduled appointments along with data entry/transcription and attended various legal seminars on office management and legal research.
  • Conducted legal research and drafted pleadings/correspondence in a variety of civil and criminal matters.

5. 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 office managers and legal assistant use scheduling appointments:
  • General administrative responsibilities including general correspondence, scheduling appointments, maintaining court calendars.
  • Managed and maintained the department head s calendar to include scheduling appointments, meetings, and publishing corresponding agendas.

6. Real Estate Closings

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use real estate closings:
  • Assisted in loan and real estate closings by gathering required information and preparing information for submission to lending institutions.
  • Facilitated residential and complex commercial real estate closings.

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7. Trial Preparation

Trial preparation is the practice of gathering sufficient raw material for a court case. This preparation is done to make the bases of a case stronger by bringing the facts to light in a way that will give the concerned law bodies a better comprehension of the entire scenario. The method for preparing for a case may differ depending upon its nature.

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use trial preparation:
  • Assisted attorneys and paralegals with trial preparations and developed trial exhibits to motions and reviewed/organized documents for trial discovery.
  • Maintain calendar and ticklers for multiple jurisdictions, including arbitration and trial preparation.

8. 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 office managers and legal assistant use subpoenas:
  • Prepared and interpreted legal documentation including pleadings, subpoenas, and contracts.
  • Coordinate depositions and prepare subpoenas.

9. Office Equipment

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use office equipment:
  • Assumed responsibility for operation and viability of office equipment.
  • Maintained and operate office equipment.

10. Probate

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use probate:
  • Practice included plaintiff's personal injury, family law, criminal, real estate transactions, probate, corporate, collections.
  • Worked in all areas of the firm, mainly Family Law, Criminal, Real Estate, Probate and Wisconsin Law.

11. Law Firm

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use law firm:
  • Provided continuous high level of confidentiality, high quality administrative support to President/Senator and Law firm senior partner.
  • Increased efficiency, organization and production of law firm by implementing organized office/filing system.

12. Bank Accounts

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use bank accounts:
  • Managed bookkeeping, client billing and collections, bank accounts, reconciliations and served as liaison with CPA.
  • Manage accounts receivable, process deposits; reconciled bank accounts through manual records and Quick Books software.

13. Court Dates

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use court dates:
  • Maintained the daily calendar, scheduled appointments, calendar disposition hearings, closings, and other important court dates.
  • Draft legal documents, review contracts, draft contracts, court filings, schedule court dates and client appointments.

14. Travel Arrangements

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use travel arrangements:
  • Cost effective international/domestic travel arrangements for executive personnel, ensured departments expenditures are compliant with cost management policy for MCI.
  • Arranged domestic and international travel arrangements including detailed travel itineraries and expense reports for CEO and CFO.

15. Office Management

Here's how office managers and legal assistant use office management:
  • General Practice/Personal Injury Duties included filing, transcription, and office management.
  • Maintain central computerized office management records for client and budgetary matters.
top-skills

What skills help Office Managers And Legal Assistant find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on office manager and legal 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 office manager and legal assistant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Emily Allen-HornblowerEmily Allen-Hornblower LinkedIn profile

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 office manager and legal assistants need?

Deirdre KellyDeirdre Kelly LinkedIn profile

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.
Do you want to know more?
Read more about what experts have to say about office manager and legal assistant

List of office manager and legal assistant skills to add to your resume

Office manager and legal assistant skills

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

  • Payroll
  • Discovery Responses
  • Litigation
  • Legal Research
  • Scheduling Appointments
  • Real Estate Closings
  • Trial Preparation
  • Subpoenas
  • Office Equipment
  • Probate
  • Law Firm
  • Bank Accounts
  • Court Dates
  • Travel Arrangements
  • Office Management
  • Client Billing
  • Office Operations
  • QuickBooks
  • Family Law
  • Interrogatories
  • Client Intake
  • Office Procedures
  • Social Security
  • Court Appearances
  • Trust Accounts
  • Telephone Calls
  • Client Interviews
  • Client Appointments
  • Bank Deposits
  • Civil Litigation
  • Accounts Receivables
  • Court Hearings
  • Notary
  • Legal Correspondence
  • Administrative Tasks
  • Criminal Law
  • Office Functions
  • Word Processing
  • Court Filings
  • Client Accounts
  • Criminal Defense
  • A/P
  • Legal Pleadings
  • Court Calendar
  • Client Relations
  • Expense Reports
  • Insurance Adjusters
  • Criminal Cases
  • Summonses
  • Office Calendar

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
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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