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The following article was published in our article directory on August 21, 2013.
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What is the Difference Between Legal Assistants, Legal Secretaries and Paralegals?

Article Category: Legal

Author Name: Dave Mulcahy

Whether you are just starting out in your search, or have already begun working in the legal field, it is important to make sure you understand the differences in the roles and responsibilities of legal assistants, legal secretaries and paralegals.

In practice, the terms "paralegal" and "legal assistant" are used interchangeably. Depending on which side of the country you live on, you may hear one term more so than the other. In 1997, the American Bar Association changed it's definition of a paralegal to include legal assistants. The American Bar Association's current definition is;

A legal assistant or paralegal is a person, qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.
Occasionally, the term legal secretary will also be added as an interchangeable term. For example, some law firms will refer to all of the assistants in the firm as paralegals or legal assistants, regardless of whether they have completed the necessary paralegal training or education program. Other firms will refer to all of their paralegals as legal secretaries, even though they may have completed the requisite training to be a paralegal.

In a lot of ways, there is not a huge difference between the positions, especially since there are a lot of ways the jobs overlap and a lot of similar responsibilities for both. However, the main difference lies in their education. Generally speaking, a person who has obtained a high school diploma or GED could be qualified to be a legal secretary. In most cases, the primary responsibilities of a legal secretary include things like telephone reception, transcribing documents, scheduling appointments, and organizing client files. Most legal secretaries will not handle things like legal research, sit in during client interviews or depositions, or compose correspondences.

A paralegal, or legal assistant, differs usually because they have completed an education in paralegal studies or received a certificate of completion from a paralegal training program. These individuals will usually have a much larger list of responsibilities than a legal secretary. A paralegals education allows them to help with composing correspondence to clients and complete first drafts of legal documents, such as wills or divorce settlement decrees. Paralegals are also often used to complete in-depth legal research on past cases and rulings, using a variety of mediums. This type of research could include anything from finding precedent to support a particular argument in a case, or it could be something like reading through laws and regulations in order to find small details that will be helpful for the case.

Legal secretaries, legal assistants and paralegals all provide invaluable support to attorneys, law firms, and clients. Paralegals, because of their education and ability to complete a wider range of tasks, are often able to command a higher salary than legal secretaries.

Keywords: Difference Between Legal Assistants, Legal Secretaries and Paralegals

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