Top 12 Legal Administrator Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's competitive legal landscape, a well-crafted resume highlighting strong legal administrator skills is crucial for standing out to potential employers. Possessing a blend of technical know-how, organizational prowess, and interpersonal abilities can position candidates as top contenders for administrative roles within legal settings.

Legal Administrator Skills

1. LexisNexis
2. Westlaw
3. Case Management
4. Document Drafting
5. E-filing
6. Microsoft Office
7. Timekeeping (e.g., Clio)
8. Legal Research
9. Billing Software
10. Document Review
11. Client Relations
12. Compliance Tracking

1. LexisNexis

LexisNexis is a global provider of legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics, offering a vast online database of legal resources—case law, statutes, docket data, treatises, and news—so legal teams can research and manage matters efficiently.

Why It's Important

For a Legal Administrator, LexisNexis centralizes authoritative sources and smart research tools. Faster answers, stronger citations, cleaner workflows. It sharpens decision-making and keeps the practice on solid ground.

How to Improve LexisNexis Skills

1. Training: Take vendor or in-house training on advanced search, filters, and alerts. Master connectors, segments, and post-search analysis.

2. Personalize: Set up saved searches, topic alerts, and shared folders tailored to your practice areas and jurisdictions.

3. Integrate: Use available integrations with Microsoft 365 and document tools to streamline cite checking and drafting.

4. Stay Mobile: Use mobile access for quick lookups and keeping alerts flowing when you’re away from your desk.

5. Refine Continuously: Maintain research templates and quick-reference guides for common issues; update them as team needs evolve.

How to Display LexisNexis Skills on Your Resume

2. Westlaw

Westlaw is a comprehensive legal research platform offering case law, statutes, regulations, secondary sources, dockets, and analytics to support thorough research and smart case strategy.

Why It's Important

Legal Administrators rely on Westlaw for dependable, current authority and tools that cut the time from question to answer. Better drafts, fewer surprises, tighter processes.

How to Improve Westlaw Skills

1. Level Up: Attend periodic feature refreshers. Learn search syntax, Key Numbers, and citator workflows inside out.

2. Customize: Tweak preferences, homepages, and alerts for courts, topics, and jurisdictions you touch every day.

3. Connect Systems: Where available, link Westlaw to your document tools or case management system for smoother handoffs.

4. Use Analytics: Apply litigation analytics and judge/court insights to support timelines, budgets, and expectations with data.

5. Feedback Loop: Collect team feedback on searches, alerts, and folders; refine standards to cut waste and duplication.

How to Display Westlaw Skills on Your Resume

3. Case Management

Case management means coordinating every moving piece of a matter—deadlines, documents, communications, tasks, and compliance—so nothing slips and everything lands on time.

Why It's Important

It’s the backbone. Clear visibility, consistent processes, faster throughput. You reduce risk, tame chaos, and lift outcomes for clients and counsel alike.

How to Improve Case Management Skills

1. Adopt a CMS: Use a robust case management system (e.g., Clio, MyCase, Legal Files) with calendaring, tasks, and document organization.

2. Secure Cloud Access: Centralize files with permissioned cloud storage for fast, safe collaboration (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox).

3. Clarify Channels: Standardize team communication using tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams; set norms for updates and handoffs.

4. Automate Routines: Automate intake, reminders, and recurring tasks with your CMS or automation tools to reduce manual errors.

5. Document Standards: Create naming conventions, folder structures, and checklists. Enforce them.

6. Train and Audit: Provide training, then audit timelines, tasks, and docketing regularly. Course-correct quickly.

7. Visualize Work: Use lightweight boards (e.g., Trello, built-in CMS kanban) to surface bottlenecks at a glance.

How to Display Case Management Skills on Your Resume

4. Document Drafting

Document drafting is the careful creation of legal papers—engagement letters, pleadings, contracts, notices—using precise language aligned with law, facts, and client goals.

Why It's Important

Words build rights and obligations. Good drafting minimizes ambiguity, prevents disputes, and signals professionalism to courts and clients.

How to Improve Document Drafting Skills

1. Purpose First: Clarify the objective, audience, and governing law before a single sentence hits the page.

2. Structure Cleanly: Use headings, defined terms, and consistent numbering. Make it navigable.

3. Plain Language: Prefer clear, tight sentences over jargon. Precision beats puff.

4. Check Authority: Verify citations and required clauses against current statutes, rules, and local practice standards.

5. Template Smart: Maintain vetted templates and clause libraries with version control and change logs.

6. Review Ruthlessly: Deploy checklists for parties, dates, exhibits, cross-references, and defined terms. Proofread, then proof again.

7. Leverage Tech: Use document automation, comparison, and style tools to speed drafting and reduce errors.

How to Display Document Drafting Skills on Your Resume

5. E-filing

E-filing is the electronic submission of legal documents to courts or agencies through approved portals, replacing paper runs with secure, trackable uploads.

Why It's Important

It accelerates filings, curbs clerical errors, and preserves a clean audit trail. Deadlines don’t forgive; e-filing helps you meet them.

How to Improve E-filing Skills

1. Standardize: Build step-by-step filing checklists by jurisdiction, including naming conventions and required forms.

2. Prepare PDFs Right: Use reliable PDF tools for OCR, bookmarking, and page limits. Validate file sizes and redactions.

3. Quality Gate: Implement a pre-submission review for captions, exhibits, signatures, and service lists.

4. Harden Security: Enforce strong credentials, MFA, and secure storage for credentials and filing receipts.

5. Keep Current: Track court rule changes and portal updates; refresh procedures promptly.

6. Backup and Log: Store stamped copies and receipts in a centralized, searchable location with clear matter links.

How to Display E-filing Skills on Your Resume

6. Microsoft Office

Microsoft 365 (Office) provides the daily toolkit: Word for drafting, Excel for data and logs, Outlook for email and calendars, PowerPoint for visuals, plus OneDrive and SharePoint for collaboration.

Why It's Important

It’s where most legal work lives. Smooth command of documents, data, and communication keeps the engine humming.

How to Improve Microsoft Office Skills

1. Customize the Ribbon: Pin your must-have commands and styles for fewer clicks and fewer mistakes.

2. Build Templates: Create letterheads, pleading paper, and clause libraries with locked styles and quick parts.

3. Master Shortcuts: Learn high-impact keyboard shortcuts in Word, Outlook, and Excel to speed through routine work.

4. Co-authoring and Versioning: Use OneDrive/SharePoint for live collaboration and tracked changes with permissions.

5. Excel Power: Apply tables, PivotTables, and Power Query to clean and analyze matter data and time logs.

6. Automate: Use Quick Steps in Outlook and macros where appropriate (governed by policy) to cut repetitive tasks.

7. Protect Data: Apply sensitivity labels, password protection, and restricted access for confidential materials.

8. Stay Updated: Keep apps current and periodically review new features that shave minutes off daily work.

How to Display Microsoft Office Skills on Your Resume

7. Timekeeping (e.g., Clio)

Timekeeping captures the hours spent on tasks and matters for billing, productivity tracking, and compliance. Tools like Clio make it easier, but habits make it accurate.

Why It's Important

Accurate time records drive revenue, transparency, and trust. Without them, write-offs pile up and analysis gets fuzzy.

How to Improve Timekeeping (e.g., Clio) Skills

1. Define Rules: Create clear, firmwide standards for descriptions, increments, and billable vs. non-billable time.

2. Train Often: Provide bite-sized training on timers, mobile capture, and matter selection to reduce misentries.

3. Enter Promptly: Log time the same day. Better yet, use live timers and convert tasks to entries immediately.

4. Audit Regularly: Review entries weekly for compliance with narratives, UTBMS codes (if used), and approvals.

5. Use Reports: Monitor realization and utilization; spot gaps, coach individuals, adjust processes.

6. Integrate: Connect timekeeping with your CMS and billing system to cut duplicates and reduce leakage.

How to Display Timekeeping (e.g., Clio) Skills on Your Resume

8. Legal Research

Legal research is the hunt for governing law and persuasive authority—statutes, rules, cases, secondary sources—to support decisions, drafts, and strategy.

Why It's Important

It keeps work product accurate and defensible. No guesswork, just grounded answers.

How to Improve Legal Research Skills

1. Frame the Issue: Define jurisdiction, posture, and key terms before searching. Aim the query.

2. Use the Right Tools: Leverage platforms like Westlaw, LexisNexis, and Google Scholar along with state resources.

3. Boolean Precision: Combine connectors, fields, and filters to narrow quickly without missing the essentials.

4. Start Secondary: Use treatises and practice guides to map the terrain, then jump to primary law.

5. Validate: Shepardize/KeyCite to confirm good law and check negative history.

6. Organize: Store notes, key quotes, and citations in shared folders or research memos for easy reuse.

7. Stay Current: Set alerts for statutes, cases, and regulations that change often.

8. Peer Review: Have complex research reviewed by counsel or senior staff for scope and accuracy.

How to Display Legal Research Skills on Your Resume

9. Billing Software

Legal billing software manages time capture, expense tracking, invoicing, LEDES formats, trust accounting, and payments—purpose-built for law firm needs.

Why It's Important

It shortens the bill-to-cash cycle, improves accuracy, and supports compliance. Clients get clear invoices; firms get healthier cash flow.

How to Improve Billing Software Skills

1. Automate: Use automatic timers, recurring bills, and invoice reminders. Reduce manual entry wherever possible.

2. Integrate: Connect billing to your CMS and accounting platform so data flows once and stays consistent.

3. Harden Controls: Enforce approval workflows, trust safeguards, and role-based permissions.

4. Customize: Tailor invoice templates, LEDES codes, and reports to client guidelines and firm metrics.

5. Analyze: Review realization, aging, and write-downs; adjust staffing, pricing, or process based on trends.

How to Display Billing Software Skills on Your Resume

10. Document Review

Document review is the systematic analysis of case documents to identify relevance, privilege, confidentiality, and key facts. Speed matters, but accuracy wins cases.

Why It's Important

It separates signal from noise, safeguards privilege, and ensures productions are correct and defensible.

How to Improve Document Review Skills

1. Use the Right Platform: Employ review tools with strong search, tagging, threading, deduplication, and analytics (e.g., Relativity, Logikcull).

2. Playbook It: Create review protocols, coding manuals, and exemplar sets. Consistency is king.

3. Train Reviewers: Provide subject-matter context and short calibration rounds before full-speed review.

4. Two-Tier QA: Add second-level checks on privilege, redactions, and responsiveness before production.

5. Communicate Live: Keep an open channel for issue flags and evolving definitions. Update the playbook as you learn.

6. Track Metrics: Monitor throughput, accuracy, and error types to course-correct quickly.

How to Display Document Review Skills on Your Resume

11. Client Relations

Client relations is the steady work of understanding needs, communicating clearly, and delivering reliably so clients feel informed and respected at every step.

Why It's Important

It fuels retention and referrals. Trust compounds, and so does your firm’s reputation.

How to Improve Client Relations Skills

1. Listen First: Ask pointed questions. Reflect back what you heard. Confirm expectations in writing.

2. Be Transparent: Share timelines, risks, and costs early. No surprises. Status updates at predictable intervals.

3. Respond Quickly: Establish response-time standards and backup coverage. Even a brief acknowledgment helps.

4. Personalize: Tailor communication style and cadence to the client. Meet them where they are.

5. Gather Feedback: Use short surveys or debrief calls after milestones. Act on themes, not just one-off comments.

6. Stay Connected: Follow up after matters close with helpful resources or check-ins. Relationships outlast cases.

How to Display Client Relations Skills on Your Resume

12. Compliance Tracking

Compliance tracking means monitoring and documenting adherence to laws, regulations, court rules, and internal policies across the firm’s operations.

Why It's Important

It reduces legal exposure, protects clients, and preserves the firm’s credibility. Missed requirements can be costly.

How to Improve Compliance Tracking Skills

1. Centralize: Use a compliance calendar and unified repository for policies, certifications, training logs, and audit trails.

2. Automate Reminders: Trigger alerts for deadlines—filings, renewals, training, policy attestations—so nothing gets stale.

3. Train Regularly: Provide periodic, role-based training. Track completion and comprehension.

4. Monitor Changes: Subscribe to reliable legal and regulatory updates; review and update procedures promptly.

5. Audit and Improve: Run internal audits, fix gaps, document remediations, and re-test. Iterate.

6. Access Controls: Enforce least-privilege access and log reviews to protect sensitive data.

How to Display Compliance Tracking Skills on Your Resume