Congressional staff

Members of the United States Congress (both in the House of Representatives and Senate), as well as most members of other legislative bodies of sub-national subdivisions (states, cities, counties), have multiple legislative assistants who at the basic level are tasked in handling research and briefing (both verbal briefing and written memoranda) duties while legislative assistants that are advanced in their education or careers will advise on issues related to their particular expertise (e.g. education policy, environmental policy, tax policy). Often the assignments will be connected to the committee assignments of the specific elected member for which they work for in a semi-political partisan capacity. The research, think tank, and library divisions of legislative bodies, such as the Library of Congress and the Congressional Research Service at the national level also utilize legislative analysts and legislative research assistants in providing non-partisan and at times confidential research and advice to members of the legislature and their (immediate) staff while not working directly under the direction, supervision, or authority of a specific elected political-partisan legislator or as committee staff but working on behalf of the legislature as a whole in a non-partisan capacity.

In most offices that report to a specific legislator, there is one staffer, variously called a legislative director (LD) or senior legislative assistant, who is in charge of all legislative assistants in the office. A person holding an internship level position while performing the duties of a legislative assistant is known as a legislative intern.

Some practitioners have questioned the lack of a federal congressional clerkship program equivalent to the counterpart position of law clerk within the judiciary, finding that few top law school graduates seriously consider becoming a federal legislative lawyer (legislative attorney or legislative counsel similar to that of parliamentary counsel) working as a legislative aid with a license to practice law, a Juris Doctor (JD) degree, or comparable law school education to gain practical lawyering skills after graduation, although positions albeit not in the form of a clerkship, still exist.^[3]

Legislative Affairs

Government agencies and cabinet departments in the United States have subsidiary offices of legislative affairs or congressional relations, that act as a liaison between government agencies and a legislature, to advocate on behalf of the agency, and to analyze legislation to bring the agency into compliance with new directives, laws, and regulations set forth by the legislature. Some possible positions within an "Office of Legislative Affairs," that participate in legislative assistance are legislative affairs specialists, legislative affairs analysts, congressional affairs specialists, congressional relations liaisons, legislative affairs paralegals, lawyers, and program analysts to name a few.

Private Sector, Think Thanks, and Lobbying

The private sector and voluntary sector including both for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations, make use of legislative assistants, legislative associates, legislative researchers, legislative paralegal specialists, or adjacent positions such as government relations specialists, specialized secretaries, administrative support specialists, program assistants, program analysts, paralegals, legal secretaries, policy analysts, policy assistants, public policy coordinators, executive assistants, administrative assistants, project assistants, program coordinators, program support specialists, management analysts, research assistants, or lawyers within their advocacy, government relations, lobbying, regulatory affairs, public procurement (PP), public-private partnership (P3), and business-to-government (B2G) divisions as well as in think tanks, consulting firms, law firms, research libraries, law libraries and trade associations whether it be in a politically-partisan or non-partisan capacity in service of the employing organization’s needs.