How To Become A Paralegal/Office Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a paralegal/office manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Emily Allen-Hornblower

Would you like to play a key role in delivering needed legal services to individuals or groups? You could do that by becoming a paralegal/office manager. The paralegal or law office manager oversees the day-to-day operations of a law office. The main task of this job is to make sure the office is running smoothly.

In this position, your duties will include Preparing subpoenas and other legal documents, handling legal research, preparing memos, creating client files, training new staff, and scheduling attorney and client meetings. You may also be asked to oversee personnel decisions, such as hiring and salary reviews, and to act as a liaison between paralegals and attorneys to ensure that cases are handled accurately and in a timely manner.

As you can imagine, those working in this career field need to have excellent leadership, management, organization, and decision-making skills. Thorough knowledge of the legal field is also a must. If you're interested in this career, you should consider getting a Bachelor's degree in legal administration, management, or finance. A paralegal certificate from a nationally accredited program is also helpful.

What general advice would you give to a paralegal/office manager?

Emily Allen-Hornblower

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

"I would say, think broadly. Your CV gives you an edge - you chose a course of study that is somewhat atypical, original (and a great conversation starter!) that gave you widely applicable skills.

I mean, who studies Classics? Who willingly subjects themselves to the rigors of Latin or Greek - or both? Who commits to navigating the intricacies of an interdisciplinary path that combines some of the most vital areas of inquiry for our time: social and cultural history, political science, philosophy, psychology, literary studies, material culture?

A go-getter. Someone who is passionate. And is Driven.

And you know what? Employers know that. They see that on your CV, and they think, wow - here is someone interesting and hard-working and who thinks out of the box. And they are right. Xerox saw that. Macy's saw that. The Air Force Intelligence Officer who hired one of our (female!) undergraduates as an officer saw that. The software engineer who hired another one of our grads to join his team as a full-time software engineer saw that. Oxford University Press in New York City saw that - and hired another recent grad as a full-time intern in their Higher Education Editorial Development department. SO: Classics majors, think big and broad. There is no restricted path for what is next.

So - Graduating seniors in Classics (and other Liberal Arts degrees), as you prepare to go forward into the world, you have good reason to go forth with pride, and enter the world after college, with all its question marks and inevitable bumps in the road, with confidence.
A Classics major is excellent preparation for the pursuit of a wide range of careers in a large number of fields, including, but not limited to, government, law, education, business, journalism, library science, publishing, foreign service, finance, the entertainment industry, museum, and preservation work, pharmaceutical sciences, music, and the arts, foundations, technology, web design, and labor relations. So think broadly. You've got this. "

ScoreParalegal/Office ManagerUS Average

Salary

4.4

Avg. Salary $56,389

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.7

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.87%

Asian 2.73%

Black or African American 7.45%

Hispanic or Latino 13.17%

Unknown 3.98%

White 71.80%

Gender

female 85.06%

male 14.94%

Age - 56

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 - 56

Stress level

4.7

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.0

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.2

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a paralegal/office manager

Explore paralegal/office manager education requirements

Most common paralegal/office manager degrees

Bachelor's

44.6 %

Associate

35.6 %

Certificate

6.3 %

Start to develop specific paralegal/office manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Discovery Responses	9.05%
Litigation	8.50%
Legal Research	8.18%
Payroll	6.99%
Trial Preparation	6.08%

Complete relevant paralegal/office manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New paralegal/office managers 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 paralegal/office manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real paralegal/office manager resumes.

Research paralegal/office manager duties and responsibilities

Assist patent attorneys by managing invention disclosure documentation and relate correspondence with outside counsel and USPTO.
Prepare interrogatories, subpoenas, document requests and conduct client interviews.
Direct administrative aspects of discovery, presenting draft interrogatories and responses for attorney review.
Create and track all expenses and client account codes utilizing QuickBooks accounting software.

Prepare your paralegal/office manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your paralegal/office manager 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 paralegal/office manager resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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