The Evolving Role of the Legal PA
Having spent much of my early recruiting career focused on Legal Secretaries, Junior Legal Secretaries, Office Juniors, and Pool Typists, I have witnessed dramatic changes in legal business support roles over the past 15 years.
The 2008 recession was a pivotal point. With client work declining, law firms focused aggressively on raising their competitive edge through branding, marketing, and business development. This drive for efficiency led to leaner, more transactional ways of working. Firms stopped recruiting Junior Legal Secretaries—that role simply disappeared.
The impact was felt acutely post-COVID when demand for skilled Legal PAs soared, but the candidate pool had dwindled. Firms started hiring candidates without legal experience to fill gaps. Many Legal PAs I know have seen their roles morph to 40% billing-focused work, which they do not enjoy. Top talent has left for non-legal roles aligning better with traditional PA duties.
Recently, I have spoken to talented Legal PAs with 10+ years of experience at their firms. But with billing work now 60% of their role, they felt their true PA skills were neglected and wanted out. Firms continue expecting PA skills while shifting these roles to be primarily financial. This disconnect is driving turnover of seasoned PAs.
A solution may be keeping expert PAs in their specialised role of supporting fee earners and hitting billing targets, while adding dedicated Billing Executives to the team to handle financial analysis. With complementary strengths united on teams, firms can provide personal executive-level service while optimising each role. Preserving PA skills while adapting to change is key, so the PAs and Billing Executives should work side-by-side on collaborative teams. This unified approach allows PAs to focus on providing exemplary service to fee earners and clients, while Billing Executives manage the financials – playing to each role’s unique strengths.
Having both talents together on integrated teams, yet focused on their distinct areas of expertise, enables law firms to deliver high-touch support while keeping pace with billing and revenue goals. Blending the PA and Billing Executive roles onto cohesive units aligns skills with responsibilities and priorities for the future.
The legal PA role has transformed rapidly. Navigating further evolution requires valuing talent and aligning skills to meet demands of the future.