Legal Analyst Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a legal analyst. Feel free to use our job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a legal analyst.
Who is a Legal Analyst?
Legal analysts assist businesses in analyzing their legal documents to ensure that they are in conformity with all applicable laws and regulations. They perform legal studies, acquire evidence, and provide legal recommendations. They are legal experts who collaborate with lawyers and legal counselors.
You will work with the legal team to examine contracts and do case analyses in your capacity as a legal analyst. You’ll have to keep up with changes in local, state, and federal rules and regulations. In this profession, it’s vital to be able to translate complicated legal concepts into understandable chunks of data. Success in this area will be demonstrated by offering valuable legal research and advice in order to defend the company’s legal interests.
Legal analysts are legal experts who provide support and assistance to lawyers and legal teams. They carry out legal research and compile relevant legal data. They examine legal papers for laws, judgments, and regulations. They collect, proofread, and revise drafts of contracts, leases, licenses, policies, and other legal documents in the same way. They also research and write summaries of laws, rules, court decisions, industry standards, trade journals, and other publications. They also update and manage database and tracking systems. They also act as the principal point of contact and carry out administrative tasks.
One of the most important aspects of this position is that it pays well, and the candidate’s package grows as his or her expertise grows. A legal analyst’s job, on the other hand, is exceedingly stressful, as he or she is always neck-deep in case files or legal materials. Furthermore, the legal analyst must interact with a large number of people, and it is unlikely that all of them will be supportive of him. One of the issues a Legal Analyst faces is dealing with difficult people while still getting work done.
Legal Analyst Job Description
Below are the legal analyst job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a job description for your employee. The employer can use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
However, the following are their primary obligations, tasks, and responsibilities:
- Assist lawyers and legal teams by doing a variety of administrative tasks.
- Perform legal research and gather crucial material to assist lawyers with their cases.
- Manage databases.
- Compile indices and trail material from disposition transcripts.
- Distribute and receive materials pertaining to current cases.
- Assist in the preparation of affidavits and search warrants.
- Handle confidential and sensitive information discreetly
- Serve as a liaison between the Legal Department and Client Services or other related departments.
- Review, manage and investigate escalated user complaints and internal questions prior to counsel
- Document legal opinions and conclusions in full.
- Informs internal and external stakeholders about legal decisions in a clear and concise manner.
- Create legal resources for the firm’s legal staff by preserving an archive of legal replies.
- Identify and implement process improvements within the legal team as well as with other units’ stakeholders.
- Ensure that any requests for data information are compliant with data protection legislation.
- Perform ad hoc administrative tasks as a member of the legal team
- Provide assistance with file management and project tracking when needed.
- Gather legal information and conduct legal research.
- Decipher legal papers for laws, rulings, and regulations.
- Assemble, proofread, and amend contract, lease, license, policy, and other legal papers drafts.
- Monitor, research, and write summaries of pending and approved legislation, regulations, court rulings, industry standards, trade journals, and other related publications.
- Maintain daily records by filing documents both electronically and physically.
- Create reference tools for the team to use and synthesize and organize knowledge.
- Assist internal business teams in obtaining legal and regulatory assistance.
- Keep databases and tracking systems up to date.
- Respond to correspondence and phone calls, as well as do other managerial duties.
Qualifications
Every specialization has particular qualifications that you must meet to practice in them, the qualifications to function as a legal analyst includes the following:
- A bachelor’s degree in law is required.
- A minimum of two years experience as a legal analyst or an equivalent position.
- An analytical thinker who is logical and has good theoretical and research skills.
- The ability to read and understand legal papers.
- A thorough understanding of databases and tracking systems is required.
- Excellent organizational abilities and a great eye for detail.
- Ability to work under strain and meet tight deadlines.
- Ability to operate both independently and in a group.
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
- Ability to maintain composure under duress and intense conditions.
- Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office, Lexis-Nexis, PACER, Westlaw, and other legal research programs.
Essential Skills of a Legal Analyst
If you apply for a position as a legal analyst at a firm, you will most likely be asked to meet a set of prerequisites. This is to show the recruiter that you are capable of carrying out the legal analyst’s responsibilities, goals, and objectives. The following are the necessary talents that you must possess as a legal analyst candidate in order to be considered by most recruiters:
To work as a legal analyst, you must have a bachelor’s degree or a paralegal certification as an applicant.
You must have a thorough understanding of the law and legal issues. They should also have practical expertise with legal research and drafting, cite-checking and formatting of legal documents, pre-trial and trial support, and handling briefs, motions, depositions, and exhibits, among other things.
Communication skills: You must be able to communicate well both verbally and in writing.
Analytical and problem-solving skills: As a legal analyst candidate, you must be a forward thinker who can predict difficulties before they arise and seek changes to procedures and systems, as well as assume responsibility for projects from start to finish.
Skills in time management: You must be able to prioritize tasks and meet deadlines.
Teamwork skills: As a legal analyst, you must be able to work independently or with limited supervision, but you must also be able to influence and interact at all levels of the organization, as well as work on many difficult projects with different teams or stakeholders at the same time.
Research skills: Because the legal analyst position requires a lot of research, it’s critical that you check up previous cases, find legal precedents, and explore public records for pertinent case information as an application.
Thinking critically: This ability is useful for presenting legal arguments and conducting research in order to write brief reports.
Confidentiality: Because a legal analyst works with sensitive material, you must demonstrate as a candidate that you can keep the information confidential.
Steps to Becoming a Legal Analyst
The step by step guide to becoming a legal analyst is listed below:
- Earn a post-secondary degree: Most firms looking to hire legal analysts require candidates to have a bachelor’s degree or an associate’s degree. Prospective legal analysts, often known as paralegals, can choose the type of degree they want to pursue based on the type of job they want to do.
- Enroll in an American Bar Association (ABA) approved paralegal education program: The American Bar Association is a well-respected voluntary legal organization that lawyers look to for advice. Paralegal programs must adhere to ABA paralegal education requirements in order to gain ABA approval. If you have a B.A. in a field other than paralegal studies, enrolling in an ABA-approved school may improve your job prospects.
- Become a certified paralegal: After you’ve finished your degree, you might want to try becoming a certified paralegal. You must pass a paralegal exam issued by a national certification organization, such as the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA), or state bar associations to become certified. The certification shows that you are qualified to perform high-level paralegal services that law firms require. Obtaining paralegal certification may make you a more attractive employment applicant. Law firms, private enterprises, colleges and universities, government agencies, and other organizations with legal departments are all good places to look for paralegal work.
Finally, this position requires good research, analytical, and communication abilities.
Where to Work as a Legal Analyst
Jobs as a paralegal can be found in the following settings:
- Law firms
- Companies that are privately owned
- Universities and Colleges
- Legal divisions in government bodies and other entities
Legal Analyst Salary Scale
Based on 14 salaries, an entry-level Legal Analyst with less than 1 year of experience can expect to make an average total salary of $56,325 (including tips, bonus, and overtime pay). Based on 85 salaries, an early career Legal Analyst with 1-4 years of experience gets an average total salary of $57,107. Based on 39 salaries, a mid-career Legal Analyst with 5-9 years of experience gets an average total salary of $67,092. Based on 15 salaries, an experienced Legal Analyst with 10-19 years of experience gets an average total salary of $67,249. Employees with a long career (20 years or more) get an average total salary of $67,971. However, in the United Kingdom, the average compensation for a Legal Analyst is £39,815 per year in London.