Legal Assistant Job Description

Legal assistants, as their name suggests, are non-lawyers who assist lawyers with legal activities. Legal assistants are also referred as paralegals, and they help and assist lawyers with proceedings of a particular case, which include the closings, hearings, trials and corporate meetings. In short, a legal assistant helps a lawyer with the case proceedings, and thereby reduces his/her workload and stress. Other than a lawyer, a legal assistant can also work for an administrative law examiner, an administrative law specialist, prosecutor training coordinators or attorneys. In some countries, paralegals are not licensed by the government or any legal authority, and work as mere assistants to lawyers, while in other countries paralegals or legal assistants can provide legal services to the public. The job of a legal assistant is not the same in every country, and given below is a general description of the duties and responsibilities of a legal assistant.

Educational Requirements

The educational requirements to become a paralegal or a legal assistant is not fixed, and hence there is no single answer to the question how to become a paralegal. One can acquire an Associate Degree in Paralegal Studies or even get a Bachelor's degree in other related fields and start a career as legal assistant. However, the most common method to become a paralegal is to join a college or law school that provides an Associate Degree in Paralegal Studies. Students who have already earned a Bachelor's degree or an Associate degree in any other field can opt for a Certificate Course in Paralegal Studies or join a paralegal training program. Other than these educational requirements, a student must have certain basic skills, which include good knowledge of the fundamentals subjects of law, good analytical skills, proper knowledge of using the tools of law, good communication skills and good clerical skills.

Job Profile

As mentioned earlier, the paralegal job description includes assisting a lawyer and helping him/her with legal services. The main legal assistant responsibilities are as follows. He/she researches old cases, investigates facts related to the current case, prepares legal documents and provides suggestions related to current proceedings. A legal assistant is not allowed to provide legal advice to clients. A legal assistant has to review case records, gather necessary data and update the case progress. Depending on the study and analysis of the cases, he gives oral presentations and also prepares case reports. Given below is a list of legal assistant duties.

• Prepares legal documents, which include wills, contracts, appeals, closings, etc.
• Monitors legal volumes and makes sure that the law library is up-to-date.
• Updates legal publications and works for up-gradation of the law library.
• Prepares letters for yearly audits.
• Prepares annual or quarterly reports.
• Attends the executions of wills, real estate closings, depositions and court trials with the lawyer.
• Makes use of computer devices for researching, entering data and preparing reports.
• Analyzes the available data and suggests some of the best solutions to solve a problem or case.

Salary Range

The salary of a paralegal varies depending upon the type of employer, educational qualification, work experience, etc. The average paralegal salary range for a fresher is about $25,000 to $35,000, while that of an experienced paralegal is between $39,300 to $54,000. Given below are some tables that will give you some more idea about the salary of a legal assistant.

Work Experience (in years)	Salary Range (in $)
Less than 1 year	25,030 to 35,571
1 to 4	26,999 to 38,089
5 to 9	30,889 to 43,860
10 to 19	35,704 to 51,191
20 years or more	39,332 to 54,133

Educational Qualification	Salary Range (in $)
Paralegal Certificate	36,509 to 52,348
Certified Legal Assistant	30,938 to 48,807
Certified Paralegal	32,678 to 50,348
Legal Administrative Assistant	28,105 to 40,695

This was some brief information on the legal assistant job description. The figures given above related to the average salary of a legal assistant are approximate and can vary.