Legal Secretary, Legal Assistant or Paralegal?

For people considering a career or looking for work as a paralegal, the job titles used by training programs or in help wanted ads can be a significant source of confusion. This confusion stems from different standards for titles that vary from one part of the country to another and even from workplace to workplace.

Legal Assistant vs. Paralegals

The titles "legal assistant" and "paralegal" have traditionally been considered synonymous. In fact, the terms are defined as meaning the same thing in court rules, statutes, ethical opinions, bar association guidelines and similar documents. These legal professionals assist attorneys in conducting legal research, drafting contracts and business agreements, conducting investigations, and preparing for trial. In private law offices, a paralegal's work is charged to the client just as a lawyer's time would be.

Legal Secretaries

However, in recent years, particularly in private law firms, there has been a trend toward calling legal secretaries by the title legal assistant. Legal secretaries perform a variety of administrative tasks, including word processing, filing and recordkeeping, taking phone messages, preparing client bills and assembling filings for the courts. Except on rare occasions, their time is not billed to clients.

Professional organizations of paralegals have recently taken steps to clarify the situation. In a June 2006 survey, Legal Assistant Today published a survey in which 94 percent of its readers preferred the title paralegal to that of legal assistant. Many respondents felt that the paralegal title denoted a more professional and independent image than that of legal assistant. Many also echoed the confusion caused by too many legal secretaries and administrative assistants using the legal assistant title.

Legal Assistant & Paralegal Certification

In 2004, the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) added the certification category Certified Paralegal (CP) to the Certified Legal Assistant (CLA) certification it established in 1976. It did so in response to the preferences of its membership, as well as because term usage varied depending on geographic region. Since making the change, paralegals who pass NALA's certification exam and meet other certification requirements can use either distinction or both.

So although it is a source of confusion, for most prospective paralegals the matter can be reduced to semantics. When you are unsure whether a training program or potential job is for paralegals or legal secretaries, look more carefully at the program or job description. If either concentrates on administrative tasks such as word processing, recordkeeping or court filing procedures, it is most likely for legal secretaries and not paralegals. However, if conducting legal research or drafting legal documents is mentioned, you can be sure that the school or employer is targeting paralegals.

If all else fails, call them and ask.

Criminal Justice Home
Paralegal Articles & Resources | Find Criminal Justice Schools