What Does a Senior Legal Assistant Do?

In this section, we take a look at the annual salaries of other professions. Take law clerk for example. On average, the law clerks annual salary is $4,814 higher than what senior legal assistants make on average every year.

While the salaries between these two careers can be different, they do share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both senior legal assistants and law clerks positions are skilled in litigation, legal research, and discovery responses.

There are some key differences in responsibilities as well. For example, a senior legal assistant responsibilities require skills like "legal correspondence," "legal support," "dictation," and "administrative tasks." Meanwhile a typical law clerk has skills in areas such as "legal memos," "pre-trial motions," "summary judgment," and "settlement agreements." This difference in skills reveals how truly different these two careers really are.

Law clerks really shine in the professional industry with an average salary of $98,674. Whereas senior legal assistants tend to make the most money in the professional industry with an average salary of $58,939.

On average, law clerks reach similar levels of education than senior legal assistants. Law clerks are 0.6% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 24.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Now we're going to look at the real estate paralegal profession. On average, real estate paralegals earn a $17,285 higher salary than senior legal assistants a year.

While the salary may be different for these job positions, there is one similarity and that's a few of the skills needed to perform certain duties. We used info from lots of resumes to find that both senior legal assistants and real estate paralegals are known to have skills such as "litigation," "legal research," and "subpoenas. "

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, several resumes showed us that senior legal assistant responsibilities requires skills like "legal correspondence," "legal support," "discovery responses," and "dictation." But a real estate paralegal might use skills, such as, "affidavits," "lenders," "sale agreements," and "settlement statements."

It's been discovered that real estate paralegals earn higher salaries compared to senior legal assistants, but we wanted to find out where real estate paralegals earned the most pay. The answer? The finance industry. The average salary in the industry is $72,649. Additionally, senior legal assistants earn the highest paychecks in the professional with an average salary of $58,939.

On the topic of education, real estate paralegals earn similar levels of education than senior legal assistants. In general, they're 2.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 24.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The third profession we take a look at is paralegal. On an average scale, these workers bring in lower salaries than senior legal assistants. In fact, they make a $1,159 lower salary per year.

While looking through the resumes of several senior legal assistants and paralegals we discovered that both professions have similar skills. These similarities include skills such as "litigation," "legal research," and "legal correspondence," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

Some important key differences between the two careers are a few of the skills necessary to fulfill responsibilities. Some examples from senior legal assistant resumes include skills like "dictation," "administrative tasks," "expense reports," and "real estate transactions," whereas a paralegal might be skilled in "affidavits," "real estate closings," "lexis," and "legal articles. "

Interestingly enough, paralegals earn the most pay in the professional industry, where they command an average salary of $55,416. As mentioned previously, senior legal assistants highest annual salary comes from the professional industry with an average salary of $58,939.

When it comes to education, paralegals tend to earn similar education levels than senior legal assistants. In fact, they're 1.2% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

The fourth career we look at typically earns higher pay than senior legal assistants. On average, contractor-paralegals earn a difference of $9,584 higher per year.

According to resumes from both senior legal assistants and contractor-paralegals, some of the skills necessary to complete the responsibilities of each role are similar. These skills include "litigation," "legal research," and "legal correspondence. "

While some skills are shared by these professions, there are some differences to note. "legal support," "dictation," "administrative tasks," and "scheduling appointments" are skills that have shown up on senior legal assistants resumes. Additionally, contractor-paralegal uses skills like in-house counsel, contract database, real estate, and contract review on their resumes.

Contractor-paralegals earn a higher salary in the finance industry with an average of $79,049. Whereas, senior legal assistants earn the highest salary in the professional industry.

Contractor-paralegals reach similar levels of education when compared to senior legal assistants. The difference is that they're 0.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree more, and 2.8% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.