Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants

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Moderate Risk
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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
1.9/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

59% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): This occupation may be meaningfully affected by automation. Some parts of the role may be suitable for AI, software, or robotics, while others still rely on human skill, judgement, trust, or real-world context. People in this range may benefit from building skills that complement automation and reduce replacement risk.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Quite important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Quite important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 71 votes

77% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's probable this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 59% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants was $54,140 ($26 per hour).

The median annual wage for Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants was 9.4% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants' job openings is expected to decline 5.8% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 154,540 people employed as 'Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants' within the United States.

This represents around 0.10% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 997 people are employed as 'Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants'.

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What people are saying (2)

Agent K (Highly likely)
07 Aug 2025 03:00
Simply put, it has already begun quite some time ago and is accelerating. Why because that is the intrinsic nature of exponential and algorithms.
When something is more or less a recipe of rinse and repeat with minor variations, and doesn't require dexterity moving parts it is the first to not necessarily go extinct but requires far less humans than before to achieve greater efficiencies and therefore output with less resources. AKA great disruption to the former order with casualties.
Kay (Low)
17 Oct 2024 15:56
Accuracy is paramount in the drafting and submission of legal documents. Furthermore, requests for release of information and conversing with clients require analyzing and compiling receiving information with human judgement that AI isn't capable of completing.
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Job description

Perform secretarial duties using legal terminology, procedures, and documents. Prepare legal papers and correspondence, such as summonses, complaints, motions, and subpoenas. May also assist with legal research.

O*NET-SOC code: 43-6012.00