Legal secretary skills are the abilities the desk runs on: preparing summonses, complaints, motions, subpoenas and other documents under attorney or paralegal supervision, and helping with research such as verifying quotes and citations in briefs — the Bureau of Labor Statistics' own description of the job.
A typing test is one format a skills check can take: a timed look at how quickly and accurately you produce text.
This page covers what the skills involve, how testing fits the hiring picture, and how to show both.
What legal secretary skills and typing tests are
Start with what the job produces, because the skills are what that production takes.
BLS describes legal secretaries and administrative assistants (SOC 43-6012) as preparing summonses, complaints, motions, subpoenas and other documents under attorney or paralegal supervision, and helping with research such as verifying quotes and citations in briefs.
Read as skills, that description asks for: producing the documents themselves, using legal terminology (the subject of legal secretaries' longer training ramp, below), checking quotes and citations, and turning out work that holds up under an attorney's or paralegal's review.
A typing test is the narrowest slice of the picture — a timed check of how fast and how accurately you produce text.
What one firm's test involves is that firm's decision; no standardized legal secretary typing test appears in the sources this page is built from.
What you control is the underlying skill, and it is the same one the document work runs on.
Titles overlap, which changes what a "test" may be testing.
NALA treats "legal assistant" and "paralegal" as synonymous, but firms often use "legal assistant" for a secretarial role, so usage varies by employer.
Read the duties in an ad rather than the title: a "legal assistant" posting centered on document production is describing the desk this page covers.
No standardized test to point to
Why employers care about legal secretary skills
The documents are the reason.
In BLS's description, legal secretaries and administrative assistants prepare summonses, complaints, motions, subpoenas and other documents under an attorney's or paralegal's supervision, and help with research such as verifying quotes and citations in briefs.
That is detail work with a reviewer on the other end of it — which is where accuracy earns its keep.
The full duty list, pay picture and outlook for the role live in the legal secretary career guide.
The outlook sharpens the point.
BLS projects employment of legal secretaries and administrative assistants to fall from 157,600 in 2025 to 149,300 in 2035 — a 5% decline of 8,300 jobs — and cites AI and digital tools that let staff prepare their own documents as a reason employment is projected to decline or barely change for secretaries.
The technology BLS cites reaches the document work itself — staff preparing their own documents — so the practical read for a candidate is to be demonstrably strong at the detail in that description: using legal terminology, verifying quotes and citations, and producing documents in proper form.
How to learn or earn legal secretary skills
Expect the job itself to teach much of this.
BLS says legal secretaries may train for several months to learn industry-specific terminology, compared with a few weeks of on-the-job training typical for general secretaries.
The ramp is documented, and a candidate who has already started it is easier to bet on.
Learn the core documents
The documents BLS names — summonses, complaints, motions, subpoenas — are where recognition starts. Learn what each looks like and how it is assembled where you have seen it.Drill the terminology
BLS ties legal secretaries' longer training ramp to industry-specific terminology. A legal terminology course, or a glossary you build yourself from documents you handle, works on the exact part of the job BLS ties the ramp to.Practice typing on a clock
Practice with accuracy as the goal first and pace second — speed built on uncorrected errors is not the skill a typing test is checking. Any timed practice setup works; what matters is producing clean text at pace.Practice the checking
Verifying quotes and citations is part of the research help BLS describes legal secretaries providing. Take a brief-length document and confirm every quote and citation in it — the habit is the skill.
Certification is a separate question from skill.
If you are weighing a credential as well, the legal secretary certification guide covers that path; this page stays on the underlying abilities.
How to show legal secretary skills on a resume
Name the work, not the adjectives.
"Proficient typist with strong administrative skills" gives a hiring coordinator nothing to picture.
BLS's description of the desk gives them the work instead: preparing summonses, complaints, motions, subpoenas and other documents, and verifying quotes and citations in briefs.
Read each posting's duties section and mirror the documents it names.
Keep the typing line honest.
List a typing speed only if a test established it, and pair speed with accuracy — a speed on its own tells the reader nothing.
If a posting names a score or asks candidates to complete a test, practice for that format specifically rather than guessing at one.
Point to proof wherever you have it: documents you produced, checking work you did, the systems you used, and any test result a posting actually asked for.
For the resume as a whole — structure, sections, wording — the legal secretary resume guide covers the full document; this section is only about evidencing the skills.
When the resume is ready, browse open legal secretary jobs and read what each posting's duties section names — the skills employers list are your checklist for what to emphasize.
Career information, not legal advice.