RingOwl
Try free
← Job description generator

Legal Secretary job description

A complete, ready-to-post description for our firm. Add your business name, hours and pay range below, tick the duties that apply, and copy it into Indeed or your careers page.

Duties

Pre-selected for legal secretary. Tick anything else that applies.

Tone

Your job description

286 words
Legal Secretary

ABOUT THE ROLE
[Company name] is hiring a legal secretary to support our attorneys. You'll prepare and proofread legal documents and correspondence, keep court dates and filing deadlines on the calendar, prepare filings for attorney review, manage client files, answer and route calls, and help with billing and new-client intake. Accuracy and deadlines are the job — a missed date is a real problem for a client.

WHAT YOU'LL DO
• Answer and route incoming calls
• Book, reschedule and confirm appointments
• Greet visitors and sign them in
• Take accurate messages and pass them on
• Monitor the shared inbox and reply to routine email
• Maintain patient or client records
• Complete new client or patient intake paperwork
• Run conflict checks on new inquiries
• Prepare invoices and chase outstanding balances
• Maintain the team calendar and travel bookings
• Maintain filing and document systems
• Prepare, format and proofread legal documents and correspondence
• Track court dates and filing deadlines on the attorneys' calendars
• Prepare filings and exhibits for attorney review

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
• Experience as a legal secretary, legal assistant or in a professional-services office
• Precise with documents, formatting and proofreading
• Organized with calendars and deadlines — and able to keep several attorneys' straight
• Absolute discretion with confidential client information
• Comfortable with document management, calendaring and billing software

NICE TO HAVE
• Familiarity with court filing procedures in our jurisdiction
• Experience with legal billing and time entry

DETAILS
• Employment type: Full-time

TO APPLY
Send your résumé and a short note about why this role suits you to [Company name]. We read every application and reply to all of them.

Nothing you type is uploaded — this runs entirely in your browser.

What does a legal secretary do?

We're hiring a legal secretary to support our attorneys. You'll prepare and proofread legal documents and correspondence, keep court dates and filing deadlines on the calendar, prepare filings for attorney review, manage client files, answer and route calls, and help with billing and new-client intake. Accuracy and deadlines are the job — a missed date is a real problem for a client.

Legal Secretary duties and responsibilities

  • Answer and route incoming calls
  • Book, reschedule and confirm appointments
  • Greet visitors and sign them in
  • Take accurate messages and pass them on
  • Monitor the shared inbox and reply to routine email
  • Maintain patient or client records
  • Complete new client or patient intake paperwork
  • Run conflict checks on new inquiries
  • Prepare invoices and chase outstanding balances
  • Maintain the team calendar and travel bookings
  • Maintain filing and document systems
  • Prepare, format and proofread legal documents and correspondence
  • Track court dates and filing deadlines on the attorneys' calendars
  • Prepare filings and exhibits for attorney review

Requirements

  • Experience as a legal secretary, legal assistant or in a professional-services office
  • Precise with documents, formatting and proofreading
  • Organized with calendars and deadlines — and able to keep several attorneys' straight
  • Absolute discretion with confidential client information
  • Comfortable with document management, calendaring and billing software

Nice to have

  • Familiarity with court filing procedures in our jurisdiction
  • Experience with legal billing and time entry

Legal Secretary skills to screen for

Document preparationDeadline managementProofreadingDiscretionClient communicationCalendar management

Be honest about the phone

A legal secretary is often the first voice a client hears, and clients call about deadlines that matter to them. Those calls arrive while a filing needs finishing, and both need doing properly.

Worth writing into the description rather than leaving as a surprise. Candidates who are good at it will recognize the description and apply; the ones who would have quit in month two will screen themselves out, which is the cheapest screening you will ever do.

What the hire actually covers

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook puts the median wage for legal secretaries and administrative assistants at $55,570 a year as of 2025, before employer payroll taxes, benefits and paid time off. Source.

Either way you get 40 of the 168 hours in a week. The remaining 128 — evenings, weekends, lunch cover, sick days, holidays — are hours our firm still takes calls, and nobody is on the desk for them.

Hire the person. Just budget for the gap too: the employee cost calculator shows what the hire really costs once taxes and benefits are in, and the missed-call cost calculator shows what the uncovered hours cost.

Legal Secretary FAQ

  • What does a legal secretary do?+

    Supports attorneys with the administrative and document side of legal work: preparing and proofreading documents, keeping court dates and deadlines on the calendar, preparing filings, managing client files, answering calls, and helping with billing and intake. The exact mix depends on the practice area.

  • Legal secretary vs paralegal — what's the difference?+

    A paralegal does substantive legal work under an attorney's supervision — research, drafting, case preparation. A legal secretary handles the administrative and document side. Small firms often blur the line; if your role includes paralegal-type work, say so and pay for it.

  • What makes a good legal secretary?+

    Precision and a healthy respect for deadlines. Formatting and software can be taught; the instinct to double-check a date, and to raise a problem before it becomes a missed filing, is what you're hiring for.

The other 128 hours

Make the hire. Cover the rest of the week.

RingOwl answers the calls your front desk can't — after hours, at lunch, and on the second line when the first one's busy. It books appointments into your calendar, takes messages, and emails you a summary of every call.

Start 7-day free trialSee pricing

7-day trial · 30 minutes included · No credit card.

Other roles