By the nature of their work, law firms have much admin to deal with. Moreover, the competition is tough, and firms need to think and act like corporations, which means using all their means to attract clients. This can include a social-media marketing component, and a well-designed website to attract clients and engage with them. However, all these add-ons can be difficult to manage, especially if you lack the time and the knowledge effectively to attend to such. However, this is where one would hire a virtual legal assistant can be a good idea. Such hiring can be done economically. Besides that, you will gain the talent to complete the tasks.
What, however, is a virtual legal assistant?
A virtual legal assistant is a good option for your law firm if you are not ready for additional on-site full-time employees. Therefore, a virtual legal assistant could save the law firm cash. In fact the cost of hiring a virtual legal assistant is well below hiring an additional lawyer or internal worker for your law firm. Instead, a virtual legal helper works remotely, completing any of several tasks assigned to them.
The topmost benefits a law firm can gain when hiring a virtual legal assistant
- Saving you money and time – If you or any of your team are attorneys, the question would be: why would you be involved in social-media management or even HR duties? This is not what you have studied and you are possibly not skilled at. This is not a problem. However, there is help by way of your virtual assistant. When a remote worker completes the above-mentioned tasks, the work is done and done for much less than what it would have cost you or any of your team to accomplish. Moreover, your team can focus on your core work while growing.
- Offer better service – With the help of your assistant, you can provide your clients with more attention while you work on strategic plans to upscale your firm. By means of social media channels and a reliable website, your clients can gain the latest news of your growing firm, and your clients can share their successes with you. Your clients will enjoy the top-notch experience, which will set you apart from your competitors.
- Boost whole business efficiency – Having a virtual legal worker on board means that tasks will be achieved on time, and emails will be answered promptly. In addition, your assistant can conduct legal research and help with client management. All of this will augment the efficiency of the firm.
- Restoring work-life balance – It might seem mundane, but if you are alone in your firm, the workload can take its toll. Overwork can affect your free time and the time you want to spend with your family and friends. Therefore hiring a remote assistant can help to restore this balance cost-effectively.
What tasks can be outsourced to a virtual legal assistant?
The specific work, or the virtual legal assistant jobs, will depend on the firm’s needs, but here are the most in-demand requests:
- Legal writing and research – Research and writing are essential functions in most legal practices and without this type of research, lawyers cannot successfully close their cases. However, researching and writing reports can be a laborious process. Here a remote worker can help – they will have the right degrees and will have the tools to complete the tasks seamlessly.
- Contract assessment and management– legal contracts should be managed with meticulous detail. There cannot be any errors, so the contracts must be properly reviewed. This additional work for your team can mean you need additional help to complete these tasks. Still, a virtual assistant can do this for you.
- Legal accounting – Handling accounting books is not for every lawyer. A lawyer might not have the skills and familiarity to handle accounting books. In such a situation, subcontracting legal accounting to the virtual legal work can be used. Managing finances is multifaceted, arduous, and involves expertise. However, a virtual legal assistant can maintain the books as current and provide access to lawyers to review their statements at whatever time they need.
- Paralegal – Hiring a virtual paralegal assistant can benefit a legal firm. A paralegal completes the task of managing and gathering evidence for a lawsuit, office administration, replying to calls, emails, and so much more. Therefore, virtual paralegal services can manage their tasks within your budget and on time.
- Legal data entry – Data entry is a much-overlooked task. Yet vital for many businesses, legal firms being no exception. Spending your time on the least important work will sooner or later hamper the progress prospects of a legal firm. Consequently, subcontracting legal data entry to a dependable virtual assistant will guarantee that all your data is captured, and saved in the correct format.
To conclude
The benefits of virtual legal assistants are increasing. The two main benefits for law firms are saving money and adding more time for the owner/manager to focus on core work. Moreover, as in other industries, virtual assistants have helped many companies to grow more quickly while increasing their profits.