I recently read this wonderful article from Canadian Lawyer magazine about women in the law. The article featured roundtable discussion from several prominent women lawyers.

It’s interesting to me to note that the concerns facing women lawyers are indeed the concerns facing many women in business. We all have to find ways to advance our careers, we all need to find ways to maintain balance and a personal life and we all have to overcome some obstacles along the way.

I think it was particularly interesting to me as just yesterday I was really thinking about what it means, even in this wonderful modern age, to have children and a career. My husband is a wonderful man who does A LOT around the house and with our kids. Still many things have always fallen to me as the mom – making the childcare decisions and the medical appointments, attending school functions (he comes when he can get away from work, but that is not always), etc. When both parents have careers it gets so hard to juggle all the things that need to be taken care of. And like the women lawyers in the article, you realize some things are going to have to give. Usually it’s your personal time – the time you might have spent with friends or on hobbies.

I don’t know if seeing the problems can help change them – but it is a start isn’t it?

I just have to share this post about lawyers and blogging from Real Lawyers Have Blogs. I loved this post because it really addresses the heart of why I personally like to blog and why I LOVE to read blogs (especially law blogs (blawgs!)

I love how real blogging is – that it puts you right in touch with the writer in a format that often allows for discussion and expansion of the original topic. I love that many blawgs give lawyers a chance to demystify what they do and therefore make a case for how useful and beneficial their work can be. Lawyers often have a bad rap in society, but in my experiences working with lawyers I have seen that they care about their clients and they want to help them. They spent years in school and then usually many more years acquiring the experience to handle the cases and work the courtroom and they generally charge a rate that is in accordance with those years of experience and skill. Yet the average person thinks that they overcharge or underperform and why? Because the communication isn’t real when they face off lawyer vs client in a stuffy boardroom in a downtown office. Blawgging lets clients see the person in the law office – the one who works hard and worries about the outcome and who has a responsibility to the client, their staff and themselves to do the job right, even at a higher financial cost.

So keep the blawgging going – it is a wonderful tool and experience for us all.

Check out this week’s blog carnival hosted by VagabondetteVA – my post on lawyers and technological change is one of the posts featured!

There are several other great posts featured this week – my top two are:

1. Time Thieves from Physician Entrepreneur
2. Webmaster-1’s post titled 5 Reasons Why Blogging is Beneficial

Enjoy!

Christopher McKinney supplied a wonderful guest post over at Home Office Lawyer. The post provides a great explanation for one way a virtual-based office can work for a lawyer. Christopher uses a setup similar to what I’m planning on working with.

It’s funny, although understandable when you look at the sheer numbers of people and logistics involved, but it seems like a lot of sole practioners or small firms are able to work with these more advanced and portable case management systems that aren’t easily available within big law firms or government firms. At least not the ones I have worked with! When I worked with the govt only certain individuals had access to laptops, let alone the software for case management – it just wasn’t in the budget. Now that I’m on my own, I can have a great setup because I don’t need 3 levels of managerial approval – it’s all up to me!

Tina of Clerical Advantage has a great post up on Home Office Virtual Assistant about the mechanics of working with a VA.

Tina’s post really got me thinking – it’s easy to work with a VA, especially once you get over the hurdle of realizing how much can be done off-site from your business location. At first it seems overwhelming to realize how many choices there are – choose a VA, choose a method of communication that works well for you, maybe you need to learn how to use a shared workspace. But once you take those first few steps, think how much easier running your business will be! It’s great to share some of that burden of running a small business and realize we really don’t have to do everything for ourselves isn’t it?

It’s such an exciting and challenging prospect, for me as a virtual assistant and for businesses who can get exactly the help they need.

It can be hard for any of us to embrace new technology, but a recent article from law.com addresses how lawyers in particular have trouble embracing advances that would improve their work experience (and probably their bottom line too!)

It certainly has been my experience that lawyers can be cautious about embracing technology. I know of many sole practitioners who were hesitant to even get internet in their offices – they were more concerned about abuse by employees than the many benefits online access could offer.

Personally, my favorite technological advances are the ones that reduce my dependence on paper! I have found in my years of legal assistance work that the legal system uses entirely too much paper. I want to get away from this when possible and try to go paperLESS (not paper-free)!

I am looking to upgrade my scanner soon to a high quality one so I can scan everything into my computer. I’m going to use an electronic fax system so that I can receive faxes by email and only print when absolutely necessary. I’ll also have an automatic off-site backup system in place soon so that I don’t have to worry about a computer crash causing me to lose everything. I keep my computer drives pretty “clean” and organized, so I know that using my computer for organizing all my documentation is going to be a great system for me!

I’m curious – what is your favorite technological advance? Leave me a comment to discuss!

I just read this article about a large lawfirm in the US that laid off 70 legal support staff – wow! It’s pretty scary for people during these times of economic slowdown, layoffs and paycuts.

This is an excellent time though, I think, to take a chance and change your approach to support staff. Freelancers make it easier to slow down on the amount of work being completed (and thus save some money), but also leave open the opportunity to ramp up quickly when work picks up again. You keep your experienced and professional support personnel near to hand but don’t have to provide busywork when your practice has taken a downturn.

When I first decided to start a freelance secretarial business, I worried it would be a difficult concept to sell. I still worry actually! But when I read this article from Law Practice Today I realized that so many services are already outsourced by lawfirms and businesses that my fears are unfounded.

Virtual assistance (legal or otherwise) may not be a “job” people are well aware of, but for visionary people it’s actually a logical step forward in the rapidly changing business market. After all, what business owner doesn’t need to free up some time? What business owner doesn’t want a skilled and experienced assistant to tackle at least part of their to-do list? And most importantly what smart business person wouldn’t want maximum benefit at minimum risk?

A freelance administrative professional provides all the help a business owner needs in a manner that is time and cost-effective. It’s a smart solution if you can just think a little outside the traditional “box” of in-house secretarial staff.

I first read about the company Fairway Divorce Solutions a few months ago in Alberta Venture magazine.  Now I see an article about it in the Financial Post and I’m so glad.  Divorce is a sad and often ugly process and I love that there are alternatives coming into existence.  I’ve worked as a legal assistant in a couple of firms that did divorce law and I enjoyed certain aspects of it but always felt that mediation would be very helpful to a lot of clients.  It’s pretty tough in an emotional and volatile situation to step back and really come to a resolution that works for everyone but it’s definitely the best choice, especially when children are involved.

I would so enjoy working with a company like this, or lawyers that try to  use a similar approach (it certainly can be done, although the legal process often brings out the adversarial nature of people).

I like to think of virtual assistant and paralegal services as being another way of challenging tradition.  We all need to remember that there are many ways of accomplishing tasks and goals – just because we’ve always done things a certain way doesn’t mean it is the best solution for our businesses or our clients.  Virtual professionals can be so cost effective and efficient it is a wonderful alternative to traditional office models of practice.

I participated in a blog carnival over at VagabondetteVA this week.  I think a va carnival is a great idea and hope more va’s participate next time!  And I better get a good post or two going so I have something to submit!