Legal assistant to legal administrative assistant
A legal assistant already meets 71% of what the legal administrative assistant role asks for. The move turns on 3 required skills not yet in the profile.
29.9/ 100
1 How much of what a legal administrative assistant is expected to do is already part of a legal assistant’s work. Directional: the figure for the reverse move differs, because moving into a speciality is not the same problem as moving out of one. 2 Every skill the legal administrative assistant role is recorded as needing, required and optional together. What these numbers mean.
Why this move works
A legal administrative assistant role treats 8 of its required skills as things a legal assistant already does. You would walk in with these on day one.
- compile legal documents
- legal department processes
- legal terminology
- manage personnel agenda
- meet deadlines for preparing legal cases
- perform clerical duties
What stands in the way is 3 required skills the profile does not yet cover. Table 3 groups them; Table 4 says which to take first.
Table 2 · What you already bring
Of the 20 skills that carry over, these are the ones fewest other occupations ask for. A legal administrative assistant role needs them, and most people applying for one will not have them already. This is the part of a legal assistant background worth leading with.
- already held meet deadlines for preparing legal cases management skills
- already held study court hearings information skills
- already held brief court officials management skills
- already held legal department processes business, administration and law
- already held manage personnel agenda management skills
- already held revise legal documents communication, collaboration and creativity
All 20 carried skills, including the 8 the legal administrative assistant role treats as required.
Table 3 · What you may need to learn
The 9 missing skills fall into 6 areas of the ESCO skill hierarchy, numbered in the order worth working in. Areas carrying the most required skills come first, and inside each one the required skills sit above the optional ones. Nothing here is a verdict on you: it is a list of what this particular job asks for that your current one does not.
- still to learn communicate by telephone required
- optional, not held liaise with typists optional
- still to learn observe confidentiality required
- still to learn procedural law required
- optional, not held decode handwritten texts optional
- optional, not held translate keywords into full texts optional
- optional, not held issue sales invoices optional
- optional, not held fix meetings optional
- optional, not held manage digital documents optional
Table 4 · Where to start
The 3 entries a legal administrative assistant role is least likely to hire without. The ordering is computed from the skill data, not from what pays.
- 01 procedural law study this
- 02 communicate by telephone practise this
- 03 observe confidentiality practise this
Each entry opens a course search for that skill. Career Overlap earns nothing from these links.
Appendix · The rest of the record
All 20 skills that carry over
- already held compile legal documents skill
- already held legal department processes knowledge
- already held legal terminology knowledge
- already held manage personnel agenda skill
- already held meet deadlines for preparing legal cases skill
- already held perform clerical duties skill
- already held perform office routine activities skill
- already held private law knowledge
- already held apply technical communication skills skill
- already held brief court officials skill
- already held civil law knowledge
- already held civil process order knowledge
- already held court procedures knowledge
- already held handle case evidence skill
- already held legal case management knowledge
- already held legal research knowledge
- already held manage accounts skill
- already held revise legal documents skill
- already held study court hearings skill
- already held use word processing software skill
6 supplementary skills, helpful but not required
- optional, not held issue sales invoices optional
- optional, not held decode handwritten texts optional
- optional, not held fix meetings optional
- optional, not held liaise with typists optional
- optional, not held manage digital documents optional
- optional, not held translate keywords into full texts optional
9 held skills the legal administrative assistant role does not ask for
- not needed by the target role advise on legal services skill
- not needed by the target role assist judge skill
- not needed by the target role criminal law knowledge
- not needed by the target role execute working instructions skill
- not needed by the target role pose questions referring to documents skill
- not needed by the target role process commissioned instructions skill
- not needed by the target role proofread text skill
- not needed by the target role record court procedures skill
- not needed by the target role respond to enquiries skill
1 gaps that are knowledge rather than practice
Knowledge gaps usually close through study. Practical skill gaps usually need something you can point at.
- still to learn procedural law required
Common questions about this move
Can a legal assistant become a legal administrative assistant?
Yes, and it is an adjacent move. A legal assistant already covers 71% of what a legal administrative assistant is expected to do: 20 skills carry over, 8 of which the legal administrative assistant role treats as required.
What skills does a legal assistant need to become a legal administrative assistant?
3 required skills are missing, plus 6 optional ones. They fall into 6 areas of the ESCO skill hierarchy, led by communication, collaboration and creativity. The single most important is procedural law.
How hard is the move from legal assistant to legal administrative assistant?
Its learning distance is 29.9 out of 100, which is the adjacent band. That accounts for both how much is missing and how specialised those skills are.
How this record was compiled
Both occupations are taken from ESCO, which lists the skills and knowledge each occupation is expected to have and marks every one required or optional. Nothing here is a prediction about hiring, and nothing here knows that a particular employer wants a particular certificate. Treat Table 3 as a starting point for your own research rather than a syllabus. The full method states what these figures can and cannot tell you.