5 Signs That You Need to Hire a Virtual Legal Assistant

The legal profession can be extremely stressful, especially for small law firms and solo attorneys, as they have to juggle multiple cases at once, work long hours to meet deadlines and keep the firm running. But should you accept it and go with the flow until you notice serious damage done?

The answer is ‘no’.

And that’s why you are thinking about delegating some of the administrative tasks (that many times outweigh the legal work, doesn’t it?).

But if you have never outsourced these tasks before, you would have doubts whether a virtual legal assistant (VLA) has enough relevant knowledge to carry these tasks properly.

Don’t worry.

Virtual legal assistants (who are not exactly the same as paralegals, but their work overlaps) understand the distinct needs of law practices, and are here to help you with important administrative and clerical tasks (more on that later) and keep your firm’s day-to-day operations on track.

So, what are you waiting for? Signs from above?

Well, the signs may have already popped up and been bothering you since. No matter, we present you 5 signs that you can benefit greatly from having a virtual legal assistant.

Before we move forward, let’s make sure that we are on the same page when talking about legal assistants and their virtual counterparts.

Legal assistants support attorneys by organizing legal documents, communicating with clients and other parties, scheduling court dates and appointments, etc. While they do not represent clients in court or provide legal advice, they may assist the attorney with drafting legal documents and legal research. Generally, legal assistants specialize in a particular area of law or at least have a degree or certificate in legal studies or a related field.

In simple words, your virtual legal assistant is someone who will provide (mainly) administrative and organizational support and help you with the daily operations of the firm from a remote location.

Now let’s take a look at the signs you want to clearly identify before making a decision:

High-value work like case prep or legal research needs time and your best attention. But are you rushing these critical tasks nowadays? Maybe your time and energy is consumed by admin work or all the maneuvers you have to make to meet deadlines. And at the end of the day you have no other option left but to race through your critical tasks.

By hiring a virtual legal assistant you can save a lot of time by letting them take over the low-priority (but needs to be done) tasks. It will allow you to slow down and focus on things that require your most attention.

You are not updating your client regularly, you are slow to respond to emails, and you are missing calls. Gradually, it’s going to affect the relationship with your clients, they are going to feel neglected, and your firm’s reputation is going to go down. Or, is it that bad already?

Well, you have to take it as a sign and seek help from a professional (read: virtual legal assistant) who can help you fix what’s broken and maintain effective communication.

Both literally, and figuratively, this is dangerous. Ask yourself. Are you misfiling documents, missing deadlines, getting inaccurate here and there, and cannot manage to stay sharp where you need to be? You cannot wing it anymore.

Accuracy is paramount in law practice. Therefore, you should let a virtual legal assistant take care of works like appointment scheduling, document drafting, managing the mailbox, billing and invoicing and help you stay focused on high-priority tasks.

To grow your law firm you need to stay ready to grab opportunities that suddenly present themselves. For example, new partnerships, practice areas, clients, or bigger cases may open new possibilities for your law firm. But are you missing these chances because your day-to-day grind is too much to handle already?

It is high time you bring balance to the situation by introducing a virtual law assistant. They can accomplish your specialized and administrative tasks and let you save mental energy and time to pursue growth.

You are working hard, but you cannot manage sufficient time for yourself and your close ones each passing weekend. If this is becoming a norm, you are clearly eating more than you can chew. And it is going to affect your business in the long run too.

You can let your VLA handle the administrative tasks and any other roles and responsibilities your firm may choose to delegate and reclaim your energy and time. This will allow you to regain the control you once had or wish to have in the future.

Let’s take a look at some task ideas and areas where a VLA can help you:

Pause right here, and think hard for a minute on how much time you spent replying to emails and managing your calendars. Yes, it’s a lot. You can have your assistant handle these tasks and spend your time doing something more meaningful.

Yes, client acquisition is an area that is highly necessary but it does not directly generate income and yet gobbles up a huge amount of time. If you delegate this task to someone who is skilled at outreach and various marking techniques you can get it done without sacrificing anything.

A contract is a legally binding set of promises that ensures that the parties involved will stay true to what they are agreeing upon. You can delegate this task to your virtual legal assistant instructing them to keep it accurate and clear to be understood.

As a lawyer you cannot afford to misplace or lose even a single piece of document. Instead of worrying about handling all the files yourself you can give this task to your assistant who will keep all the files organized and accessible from all relevant devices.

To do your accounting and bookkeeping right you have to put a lot of your mental energy (focus) into it. However, other tasks are clearly more deserving of this. So, you can ask your assistant to take care of these tasks so that you do what you do best.

Well, these are only some of the tasks that you can outsource to a remote expert. To know what other tasks you can delegate contact your service provider.

If you choose to hire a virtual legal assistant, it would save you considerable money and time. They can support attorneys in various ways including managing administrative tasks and even legal research.

However, before you pair up with a service provider and hire an assistant, you should ensure that they have certain skill sets. For example, your VLA should be able to identify the smallest errors in schedules and documents, communicate (with colleagues and clients) clearly both verbally and in writing, manage multiple tasks, and keep everything in order.

One other crucial thing you must ensure is that the service provider should have a robust data security protocol at place. You cannot make this excellent decision without the guarantee of data protection.