Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
Perform secretarial duties using legal terminology, procedures, and documents. Prepare legal papers and correspondence, such as summonses, complaints, motions, and subpoenas. May also assist with legal research.
🎬Career Video
📋Key Responsibilities
- •Organize and maintain law libraries, documents, and case files.
- •Mail, fax, or arrange for delivery of legal correspondence to clients, witnesses, and court officials.
- •Prepare and distribute invoices to bill clients or pay account expenses.
- •Prepare, proofread, or process legal documents, such as summonses, subpoenas, complaints, appeals, motions, or pretrial agreements.
- •Make photocopies of correspondence, documents, and other printed matter.
- •Assist attorneys in collecting information such as employment, medical, and other records.
- •Complete various forms, such as accident reports, trial and courtroom requests, and applications for clients.
- •Receive and place telephone calls.
💡Inside This Career
The legal secretary supports attorneys—preparing legal documents, managing case files, coordinating filings, and handling the specialized administrative work that law practice requires. A typical day centers on document and case support. Perhaps 50% of time goes to document preparation: drafting correspondence, preparing legal documents, proofreading filings. Another 35% involves case coordination—maintaining files, tracking deadlines, scheduling, coordinating with courts and parties. The remaining time addresses client communication, billing, and general administrative duties.
People who thrive as legal secretaries combine administrative excellence with legal terminology knowledge and the precision that legal document preparation requires. Successful secretaries develop expertise in legal procedures and formatting while building the organizational skills that managing multiple cases demands. They must maintain absolute accuracy in documents with legal consequences. Those who struggle often cannot master the specialized legal procedures or find the pressure of deadline-driven work overwhelming. Others fail because they cannot produce the error-free documents that legal practice requires.
Legal secretarial work represents specialized administrative support for the legal profession, with secretaries handling the documentation and coordination that law practice requires. The field requires understanding legal procedures, terminology, and court requirements. Legal secretaries appear in discussions of law firm operations, legal support careers, and the specialized workforce enabling legal practice.
Practitioners cite the legal environment and the specialized skills as primary rewards. The legal work is intellectually engaging. The specialized knowledge is valued. The law firm environment is professional. The compensation is better than general administrative work. The career offers stability. The skills are transferable within legal practice. Common frustrations include the pressure and the demanding attorneys. Many find that legal deadlines are inflexible and stressful. Attorney demands can be unreasonable. The perfectionism required is exhausting. Billable hour pressure affects everyone. The work is often invisible—only errors are noticed. Work-life balance in many firms is poor.
This career requires legal secretarial training with demonstrated skills. Strong legal knowledge, document preparation ability, and organizational excellence are essential. The role suits those interested in legal work and comfortable with demanding professional environments. It is poorly suited to those uncomfortable with pressure, wanting work-life balance, or preferring less structured environments. Compensation is moderate to good for specialized administrative work.
📈Career Progression
📚Education & Training
Requirements
- •Entry Education: Associate's degree
- •Experience: One to two years
- •On-the-job Training: One to two years
- !License or certification required
Time & Cost
🤖AI Resilience Assessment
AI Resilience Assessment
High Risk: High AI exposure combined with declining employment and limited human differentiation
How much of this job involves tasks AI can currently perform
Likelihood that AI replaces workers vs. assists them
(BLS 2024-2034)
How much this role relies on distinctly human capabilities
💻Technology Skills
⭐Key Abilities
🏷️Also Known As
🔗Related Careers
Other careers in office-admin
🔗Data Sources
Work as a Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants?
Help us make this page better. Share your real-world experience, correct any errors, or add context that helps others.