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Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants vs Paralegals and Legal Assistants

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants and Paralegals and Legal Assistants on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants Paralegals and Legal Assistants
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$54,140
$61,010
Employment · BLS OEWS
154,540
367,220
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
70th pct
13th pct

At a glance

Dimension Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants Paralegals and Legal Assistants
Median pay $54,140 $61,010
Employment 154,540 367,220
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-5.8%) About average (+0.2%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 19,600 39,300
Typical education · O*NET Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
AI exposure · published exposure studies High · 70th pct Low · 13th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 93rd pct · 55% of tasks 76th pct · 39% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Automation-leaning (64.4%) Augmentation-leaning (51.9%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman Yes Yes

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Administrative, English Language, Law and Government, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Oral Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Near Vision, Customer and Personal Service, Computers and Electronics, Writing, Oral Expression, Written Expression, Speaking, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, Time Management, Administration and Management, Information Ordering, Selective Attention, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Service Orientation, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Category Flexibility, Complex Problem Solving, Inductive Reasoning, Active Learning, Judgment and Decision Making, Fluency of Ideas, Far Vision, Originality.

Specific to Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants

  • Public Safety and Security
  • Communications and Media
  • Economics and Accounting
  • Education and Training
  • Personnel and Human Resources

Specific to Paralegals and Legal Assistants

  • Flexibility of Closure
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Persuasion
  • Negotiation
  • Memorization

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Document management software , Accounting software , Data base user interface and query software , Project management software , Cloud-based data access and sharing software , Information retrieval or search software , Analytical or scientific software , Video conferencing software .

Specific to Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants

Specific to Paralegals and Legal Assistants

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants or Paralegals and Legal Assistants — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants vs Paralegals and Legal Assistants." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/legal-secretaries-and-administrative-assistants-vs-paralegals-and-legal-assistants

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants vs Paralegals and Legal Assistants. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/legal-secretaries-and-administrative-assistants-vs-paralegals-and-legal-assistants

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-legal-secretaries-and-administrative-assistants-vs-paralegals-and-legal-assistants,
  title  = {Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants vs Paralegals and Legal Assistants},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/legal-secretaries-and-administrative-assistants-vs-paralegals-and-legal-assistants}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.