The ins and outs of a legal administrative assistant career

Legal administrative assistants are expected to perform a wide range of duties aimed towards helping lawyers and other law personnel with research, communications, and administration. As one of Canada's fastest growing careers, legal assistants create documents and files, work with special computer programs, and conduct research for lawyers. This work is critical to determining how a lawyer will proceed with a case or transaction and involves close interaction with many aspects of a specific area of law.

CDI College's Legal Administrative Assistant program provides students with a solid understanding of law office computer software and technology, written communication, research skills and tools, ethics, and legal procedures and terminology.

Professional legal admin assistants have the opportunity to work in a variety of different office settings. Those interested in corporate or commercial law will find jobs at private or public law firms while others will discover career opportunities in legal departments within insurance, real estate, financial, and litigation offices. Working in a courthouse or in areas of criminal law are also exciting career paths for legal assistants who are interested in criminal justice and law enforcement.

Graduates of the program have high employment prospects considering that almost all major corporations, companies, and government offices require legal administrative assistants in the office. The workload is often fast-paced and multi-dimensional; each day involves different tasks and duties depending on the needs of the lawyer or law office. Legal assistants deal with deadlines and sometimes have busier schedules during high-profile cases or large contracts; however, many legal admin assistants have high job satisfaction and professional recognition when they see the outcome of their hard work.

For more information on this fast-paced career option, visit our Legal Administrative Assistant program page.