Is Legal Secretary a Dying Career?

A legal secretary prepares legal documents — summonses, complaints, motions, subpoenas and other documents — under the supervision of an attorney or a paralegal, and helps with research such as verifying quotes and citations in briefs.

That is the Bureau of Labor Statistics' description of the desk, and it is the definition with federal numbers behind it: BLS keeps the occupation as legal secretaries and administrative assistants (SOC 43-6012), one count, one wage figure and one outlook covering both labels.

Every BLS figure on this page describes that combined group rather than one title.

And one part of the definition matters more than the rest for the question this page answers: document production is the documented duty that the technology reason BLS states for secretaries points at.

If you want the role in full — the duties, the title questions, the pay — the legal secretary career guide covers it.

This page stays on the demand question.

BLS's documented description of the desk comes down to two duties.

The first is preparing legal paperwork — the summonses, complaints, motions and subpoenas BLS names — under an attorney's or a paralegal's direction.

The second is research help, and BLS's example of it is verifying the quotes and citations in briefs.

The common thread is that both duties run through documents, and documents are what BLS's technology reason is about.

The technology BLS cites is one stated reason employment is projected to decline or barely change for secretaries: staff in many organizations can now prepare their own documents — so this occupation's outlook question is really a question about its first duty.

What that pressure does not obviously reach is the legal layer around the typing: the terminology and practices of legal work that BLS says can take months on the desk to learn.

Whether that layer is enough is the judgment call the rest of this page equips you to make.

Honest answer: it depends on what you need from a career, and the federal numbers support a real case on each side.

Start with the cons, which come straight from the projection:

• The occupation is projected to shrink. BLS projects employment of legal secretaries and administrative assistants to fall from 157,600 jobs in 2025 to 149,300 in 2035 — a 5% decline of 8,300 jobs over the 2025–35 projection window.
• The stated reason points at the core duty. "Technology, including artificial intelligence (AI) systems and digital tools, enables staff in many organizations to prepare their own documents without the help of secretaries." BLS cites that technology as a reason employment is projected to decline or barely change for secretaries.

The case for the desk comes from the same federal source:

• The pay benchmark is real. BLS reports a median annual wage of $55,570 for the occupation as of May 2025 — the middle of the occupation, half above and half below, for legal secretaries and administrative assistants together (SOC 43-6012).
• Smaller is not gone. The 2035 projection is still 149,300 jobs. Obsolete would describe an occupation disappearing; a 5% decline describes one contracting around its edges. If you are asking whether the desk will exist at all in ten years, this projection does not say no.
• The work has a legal layer. BLS describes a ramp of several months to learn industry-specific terminology, which it contrasts with the few weeks of on-the-job training it describes as typical for general secretaries — and that legal layer is one marker of this being a legal career rather than a generic office one.

Read together, the numbers describe a smaller-but-still-substantial occupation: 149,300 jobs projected for 2035, at a median wage of $55,570 as of May 2025, with the technology reason BLS states for secretaries aimed at document production.

Which way that cuts depends on what you weigh.

If you need a field with a flat or growing forecast, this projection argues against it.

If you want a legal-team desk and the work itself suits you — document production and research support under an attorney's or a paralegal's supervision — the field is still one you can enter: current openings are on the legal secretary jobs page.

And if the adjacent desk is part of the comparison, the paralegal vs legal secretary breakdown puts the two side by side.

The documented fact about getting in is the ramp: BLS says legal secretaries may train for several months to learn industry-specific terminology, compared with the few weeks of on-the-job training it describes as typical for general secretaries.

The ramp runs after hiring, at the desk — which means the preparation you control before day one is the layer underneath: fast, accurate document work and the deadline reliability that gets it used.

The full route — education, skills, certification and the first-job steps in order — is its own guide: how to become a legal secretary.

Read it alongside the projection above rather than instead of it: the route is real, and so is the outlook.

Career information, not legal advice. The outlook, wage and training facts on this page come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook for legal secretaries and administrative assistants (SOC 43-6012) — May 2025 wages and the 2025–35 projections; check bls.gov for current figures.