Paralegals and Legal Assistants
Legal
Supports a lawyer's caseload by searching the facts, gathering statutes, decisions, and articles, and turning that material into usable drafts. Typical documents include correspondence, affidavits, briefs, pleadings, appeals, wills, contracts, and real estate closing papers, kept in paper or electronic files. Before trial the work often means organizing exhibits; throughout a matter it includes meeting clients and other professionals to pin down details. Public records and online sources are part of the fact-finding. This tends to fit people who like tracking many pieces of a case and writing drafts a lawyer will sign.
Typical education: Bachelor’s Degree (4-year)
Annual Median Wage in Field (2025)
$62'890
Median Wage Market Position
$62'890
What you might do
- Investigate facts and law to help build a case
- Draft contracts, wills, briefs, and other legal papers
- Keep case files organized in paper or digital form
- Pull statutes, decisions, and articles for the lawyer
- Assemble exhibits and documents ahead of trial
- Meet with clients to go over case details
Skills that matter
- Drafting affidavits and legal correspondence
- Searching statutes, decisions, and legal articles
- Organizing exhibits before a trial
- Discussing case details with clients
- Reviewing wills, appeals, and closing statements
- Investigating facts in public records
AI & the future of this role
Document review, legal research, and first-draft filings are tasks software is already well placed to accelerate, which may shrink demand for routine support. Investigative judgment and attorney coordination still matter, but much of the screen-based workload looks highly automatable.
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Includes O*NET® 30.3 Database information by USDOL/ETA under CC BY 4.0; modified by LostInCareer. Wage/outlook from BLS. Attribution details