Skip to content
Check resume
Legal, Public Service & Nonprofit

Legal Assistant resume example

Attorneys hire a legal assistant to keep their day under control, so the resume should read as organized as you are. Say how many attorneys you support, the practice area, and the systems you live in: calendaring, document management, time entry and e-filing. Then add proof of accuracy and speed, like clean billing cycles, zero missed court dates or a backlog you cleared.

Updated

Declan Murtagh

Legal Assistant | Insurance Defense & Family Law | 300 court dates a year, none missed

  • Philadelphia, PA
  • declan.murtagh@example.com
  • +1 (215) 555-0173
  • linkedin.com/in/your-name

Summary

Legal assistant with seven years in Philadelphia law offices, most recently supporting three insurance defense attorneys with 120 open files. Keeps calendars and court dates under control, formats filings to local rules, e-files and manages monthly time entry. Led a paper-to-NetDocuments move covering 2,800 files. NALS Accredited Legal Professional and Pennsylvania notary, typing 75 WPM.

Work Experience

Legal Assistant, Insurance Defense

Apr 2021 – Present

Lantz & Ferrante LLC · Philadelphia, PA

  • Support 3 attorneys with 120 open files, tracking about 300 court dates and deadlines a year with no missed appearances.
  • Moved 2,800 paper files into NetDocuments over 5 months, setting the naming rules the whole firm now follows.
  • Enter weekly time and review pre-bills for carrier clients under their billing guidelines, cutting rejected line items by 40%.

Legal Secretary

Jun 2018 – Mar 2021

Delacorte Kim Family Law · Media, PA

  • Prepared custody and support filings, financial disclosures and correspondence for 2 attorneys from templates and dictation.
  • Scheduled 25 client consultations a week and ran conflict checks before every new matter was opened.
  • Notarized 300 documents a year and kept the notary journal complete for state review.

Receptionist and Office Assistant

Sep 2016 – May 2018

Brinton Pell Injury Law · Philadelphia, PA

  • Answered 60 calls a day and booked intake appointments, cutting the attorneys' callback list by about a third.
  • Requested and logged medical records for 150 clients, following up until every file was complete.

Education

Associate of Arts, Business Administration

2014 – 2016

Community College of Philadelphia

Skills

Core competencies

  • Court Date & Deadline Tracking
  • Pleading Formatting
  • Time Entry & Pre-Bills

Support

  • Client Intake & Conflict Checks
  • Dictation Transcription
  • Trial Binder Preparation
  • Notarization

Software

  • NetDocuments
  • Aderant
  • Clio
  • Microsoft Word Advanced Formatting

Certifications

  • Accredited Legal Professional (ALP) · NALS, the association for legal professionals, 2019
  • Notary Public Commission · Pennsylvania Department of State, 2018

Languages

  • English · Native

The full sample as text. Rendered in the Charter template, a layout applicant tracking systems read in order.

Fictional person: the name and contact details are invented. Any resemblance to a real person is coincidental.

Legal Assistant resume summary examples

Pick the one closest to your level and replace the specifics with your own.

  • Entry level

    Office assistant moving into legal support after two years at the front desk of a personal injury firm. Schedules consultations, runs intake calls, scans and indexes client files in Clio and prepares template letters for attorney signature. Types 72 WPM with high accuracy and completed a legal terminology course. Ready to support one or two attorneys full time.

  • Mid level

    Legal assistant with six years supporting litigation attorneys in insurance defense and family law. Manages three attorney calendars and court deadlines, formats pleadings to local rules, e-files in state and federal court and enters time for monthly billing. Cleared a 400-document filing backlog in a month after a system move. NALS Accredited Legal Professional and notary.

  • Senior

    Senior legal assistant with twelve years supporting partners in a 60-attorney firm. Handles complex calendars, client communication, conflict checks, pre-bills and document management for a practice with 250 open matters. Trains new assistants on firm templates and NetDocuments, and led the switch from paper to electronic files. NALS Certified Legal Professional, known for calm accuracy under deadline pressure.

Common mistakes on a legal assistant resume

  • Writing only "provided administrative support"

    Fix: That phrase fits every office job. Name who you supported and what you kept running: "Managed calendars, filings and correspondence for 3 insurance defense attorneys with 120 open files." Then add a number that shows reliability, such as on-time billing, no missed deadlines or a filing backlog cleared.

  • Leaving out the practice area

    Fix: Personal injury, family law, estate planning and corporate work each run on different documents and rhythms. State your practice area in each role and mention the documents you handled most, like demand letters, financial affidavits, wills or closing binders. Firms prefer someone who already knows their paperwork.

  • Not naming legal software

    Fix: Law offices run on specific tools: Clio or PracticePanther for case management, NetDocuments or iManage for files, Aderant or Elite for billing, and court e-filing portals. Name the ones you used daily. Knowing the firm's system can shorten your training time and make you the easier hire.

  • Overstating substantive legal work

    Fix: Legal assistants must not give legal advice, and attorneys will notice wording that suggests it. Write "prepared draft letters for attorney review" rather than "advised clients on settlement." Accurate wording shows you understand the limits of the role, which is part of being trusted with client contact.

What should a legal assistant resume include?

A legal assistant resume should open with a two or three line summary of your focus, then show each role as results rather than duties. Name the skills the posting asks for, such as Calendar Management, Court Date Tracking and Travel Arrangements. Start bullets with verbs like Scheduled, Formatted and Proofread, and give each one a number where you honestly have one. If you hold a credential such as NALS Accredited Legal Professional (ALP), list it in its own section.

Attorney support

  • Calendar Management
  • Court Date Tracking
  • Travel Arrangements
  • Meeting Scheduling
  • Dictation Transcription
  • Correspondence Drafting

Documents and filing

  • Pleading Formatting
  • Proofreading
  • Tables of Contents & Authorities
  • E-Filing
  • Service of Process Coordination
  • Exhibit Preparation

Client and office

  • Client Intake
  • Conflict Checks
  • Confidential File Handling
  • Phone & Email Triage
  • Records Requests
  • Notarization

Billing

  • Time Entry
  • Pre-Bill Review
  • Invoice Preparation
  • Expense Reconciliation
  • LEDES Billing
  • Retainer Tracking

Software

  • Clio
  • NetDocuments
  • iManage
  • Aderant
  • Elite 3E
  • Adobe Acrobat Pro
  • Microsoft Word & Outlook

Action verbs

  • Scheduled
  • Formatted
  • Proofread
  • Coordinated
  • Processed
  • Organized

Certifications

  • NALS Accredited Legal Professional (ALP)
  • NALS Certified Legal Professional (CLP)
  • Notary Public commission (issued by your state; requirements vary)
  • Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS): Word Expert

Match these against the job posting you are applying to: the free resume checker shows which keywords your resume is missing.

Legal Assistant resume bullet examples

The numbers are illustrative. Keep the structure (verb, action, measurable result) and use figures you can back up.

  • Scheduled and tracked 300 court dates and deadlines a year for 3 litigation attorneys with no missed appearances.
  • Formatted and proofread 45 pleadings and motions a month to local court rules, cutting attorney revision rounds by half.
  • Processed weekly time entries and pre-bills for 4 attorneys, getting monthly invoices out 5 days sooner on average.
  • Coordinated 120 new client intakes a year, running conflict checks and opening matters in Clio within one business day.
  • Organized the move of 2,800 paper files into NetDocuments, indexing each with matter number and document type.
  • Transcribed 25 dictated letters and memos a week at 75 WPM with near-zero corrections.
  • Prepared 18 trial binders and exhibit sets with Bates-labeled tabs, delivered to the courtroom on schedule each time.
  • Answered and routed 60 client calls a day, cutting voicemail callbacks owed by attorneys by 30%.
  • Notarized 400 estate planning documents a year and kept the notary journal audit-ready.
  • Reconciled 9 months of unbilled expenses, recovering costs the firm had missed on 70 closed matters.

How to stand out as a legal assistant applicant

Tailor every application to the posting: the resume, the cover letter and the answers you prepare for the interview.

  • Match the practice area and software in each posting

    Legal assistant postings usually name the practice group and the tools they use. Move your matching practice experience to the top and list their software if you know it. If the firm uses a system you have not used, name the closest one you know well, since document and billing tools often follow similar patterns. Tailor your legal assistant resume

  • Keep the cover letter short and error-free

    Attorneys read your letter as a test of your proofreading. Keep it to three short paragraphs: the attorneys and practice you have supported, two examples of keeping things on track, and why this firm. Proofread it twice, check the hiring attorney's name and title, and send it as a clean PDF. Draft a legal assistant cover letter

  • Expect a skills test and scenario questions

    Firms may give a typing test, a Word formatting exercise or a proofreading sample. Interview questions often cover two attorneys needing urgent work at once, a client upset about a bill, or a deadline you noticed was wrong. Practice short answers that show how you prioritize and when you escalate. Practice legal assistant interview questions

  • Check whether the posting is really a paralegal job

    Some postings titled legal assistant describe drafting discovery, summarizing records and research. If yours does, compare your resume with the paralegal example and bring your substantive tasks forward. If it is administrative, keep the focus on calendars, filings and billing. Either way, describe only work you actually did. Compare with the paralegal resume example

Salary (official data)

Official pay statistics for the occupation that matches this role, copied exactly as each statistics office publishes them.

  • United States

    Median gross annual pay: $62,890 a year · Median gross hourly pay: $30.24 an hour

    Middle half of earners: $50,340 to $80,080 · 10th to 90th percentile: $44,740 to $101,500

    Official occupation: Paralegals and Legal Assistants (SOC 23-2011)

    Gross wages of employees in all industries, before deductions; excludes the self-employed.

    Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Public domain.

  • Canada

    Median gross hourly pay: CA$26.92 an hour · Median gross weekly pay: CA$1,000 a week

    Official occupation group: Paraprofessional occupations in legal, social, community and education services (NOC 2021 422)

    Usual gross wages of full-time employees (30 hours or more a week) at their main job, including tips, commissions and bonuses.

    Source: Statistics Canada, Table 14-10-0417-01 Employee wages by occupation, annual, 2025. Reproduced and distributed on an "as is" basis with the permission of Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence). This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.

  • Ireland

    Mean gross annual pay of the whole major group: €59,734 a year

    Major occupation group: Technicians and associate professionals (ISCO-08 3)

    Mean gross annual earnings, including bonuses, for the whole major occupation group in enterprises with 10 or more employees. Eurostat publishes no median by occupation.

    Source: Eurostat, Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_28), 2022, CC BY 4.0. Ruubu matched the role to an ISCO-08 major group; Eurostat is not responsible for this use of its data.

No official figure in our sources for: United Kingdom.

Figures cover everyone in the official occupation, at every experience level. They are not a job offer, a forecast or a Ruubu estimate. Ruubu matches each role to the closest official occupation. An official occupation can include related jobs.

How we choose and show official salary data

Legal Assistant resume questions

Is a legal assistant the same as a paralegal?

It depends on the employer. Some firms use the two titles for the same job. Others treat a legal assistant as an administrative role focused on calendars, correspondence, filing and billing, while paralegals do more substantive work such as drafting discovery or summarizing depositions. Read the duties in each posting and describe your work accurately rather than matching the title.

Should I list my typing speed?

List it if the posting asks for it or if it is clearly strong, and give the tested number with accuracy, such as "75 WPM, 98% accuracy." Pair it with real output so it means something: transcribing dictation for three attorneys, or turning around 40 letters a week. A typing number without context is easy to ignore.

Do I need a certificate to get a legal assistant job?

Usually not. Employers often hire based on office experience, software skills and attention to detail. A certification such as the NALS Accredited Legal Professional shows you know legal terminology and procedure basics, which helps when you are new to law offices. A notary commission can also help in practices like real estate or estate planning, where documents need notarizing.

How do I move into a legal assistant role from general admin or reception?

Pull forward everything that already looks like legal support: scheduling for several busy people, handling confidential files, preparing documents to a template, managing invoices or answering client calls with care. Learn the basics of legal formatting and a document management system. A short legal terminology course or the NALS ALP can show a firm you are serious.

Keep reading

How we write and review resume examples: editorial policy.

Check your legal assistant resume before you apply

Paste or upload your resume to get a score out of 100 from 14 checks, with a list of what to fix first.

Check my resume free
Try it free

Tailor your resume to the job you want