What is an Administrative Legal Assistant?

An administrative legal assistant is an office administrative professional that provides support to attorneys, legal firms, or the legal department of corporations or organizations. Beyond the level of a standard administrative professional, an administrative legal assistant must possess knowledge and skills pertinent to the legal field. Many legal assistants work alongside attorneys, paralegals and other legal staff in order to support case management and court proceedings in a timely, efficient manner.

In order to become an administrative legal assistant, someone must have at least a high school diploma or equivalency, plus at least two years of college coursework. This college coursework should include basic office technology and administrative procedures, as well as legal terminology and concepts. Many administrative legal assistants take coursework that leads to an associate’s degree or a certificate level of achievement before taking on this type of career.

In some organizations, administrative legal assistants are referred to as paralegals, legal assistants, legal secretaries, or administrative assistants. Many work in tandem with legal staff to perform routine administrative duties such as case file organization, filing, typing, telephone support, errand running, courtroom support, or legal transcription from recorded case transcripts. Many administrative legal assistants also process office timesheets, invoices for legal clients, and perform legal research or fact finding for court cases.

Many administrative legal assistants start out in regular business administrative work and then move on to working in the legal field out of an interest in legal casework. Once a job is obtained in the legal office environment, entry level administrative assistants work under more seasoned legal assistants as they learn key concepts and processes needed to perform well in a legal office. Some may choose to attend college while employed in a legal office, to learn legal terminology, case management, regional laws and policies, and legal transcription and Dictaphone skills.

Legal administrative assistants can expect to earn a higher than average salary than business or corporate administrative assistants. This is due in part to the specialization and additional skills that are required to work as an administrative legal assistant. In addition, many legal secretaries and support staff are required to work long hours, getting case files and research notes ready for attorneys working on critical cases that often make history in courtrooms, affecting new laws and positive changes in the legal system.

In general, administrative legal assistants should have an interest in laws, criminal science, and legal court proceedings. Some of the most successful administrative legal assistants have gone on to have long careers with well-respected firms. Many others have decided to go on for additional education and training to become paralegals, or even lawyers due to this interest and experience with working in law.