One big concern a lot of lawyers might have with hiring a virtual paralegal or virtual legal assistant is how privacy and confidentiality will be handled.

Even with in-house staff this is a legitimate concern that must be managed carefully. The ABA had an article that discussed some potential pitfalls in this regard. I think that hiring a virtual legal assistant would actually assist in this aspect, as if you hire a virtual assistant from another state or even another country, she is less likely to have any involvement with the principals of your specific litigation.

Once you have decided to retain a virtual legal assistant you can do a couple of things to protect your interests. First you can have her perform a conflict search of her current client list to see if there is any reason for concern. If there is a conflict she can refer you to another LVA who will be able to assist you. Second, have her sign a non-disclosure agreement as part of her contract. These safeguards should lessen your worries and set you up for a successful partnership.

This is Part 1 in a series about the most common concerns with regard to hiring a virtual assistant to help you in your business/law practice. Feel free to suggest concerns you would like to see addressed.

I’ll address actual monetary concerns first in this series, as I suspect fear of the cost is one of the biggest holdbacks for most people. Fortunately, it is actually affordable and cost-effective to hire a virtual legal assistant for your practice!

First let’s take a look at what an in-house paralegal or assistant would be paid. The numbers are going to vary of course depending a lot on where you live and how experienced you want your staff to be. Altman Weil, Inc. reports in a recent survey that the 2007 national average salary (including bonuses) for a paralegal was $59,973. For a specialist the amount is significantly higher coming in at $84,000. Payscale.com suggests the averages are a bit lower, ranging from approximately $39,000 to $51,000, depending upon years of experience.

Of course after you pay your paralegal her salary there are further costs associated with having an in-house assistant – computer equipment, desk, telephone lines, gifts on Secretary’s Day, and on and on it seems to go.

Sounds like a lot of money, doesn’t it? Especially if you are trying to keep your overhead down, you’re just starting your own firm, or you don’t even need full-time help.

Now let’s look at the cost of a virtual assistant. Most virtual assistants are paid on an hourly basis, charging their time in increments of 6-15 minutes. Others are happy to work on a project basis for a set fee. Beyond that most virtual assistants will charge for significant disbursements, for example if you need something couriered out to 20 people, you will be responsible for the courier charges. You may also pay a surcharge for rush or weekend work, although a lot will depend on your needs and your virtual assistant’s schedule. Other than that, there are generally no extraneous costs associated with hiring a virtual assistant. She will take care of her own taxes, equipment and benefits.

So how do the two compare then? In the case of the VA, you probably only have her work 48 weeks out of the year or less (you won’t pay her when she takes a 2 week vacation, or a few days at Christmas, etc). You only need your VA for 20 hours a week (or even fewer) because in the 20 hours you are paying her she is working literally every minute, or she isn’t charging you. Your in-house assistant is paid for 52 weeks in the year (you have to pay her during her vacation, sick days, etc) and while she may show up for 8 hours a day, she will during her paid time take coffee breaks or chat with friends or surf the internet. So how many hours a day is she truly productive?

So your basic costs would be a yearly salary of perhaps $44,000 for an in-house assistant. Add an additional estimated 10% a year for overhead costs and you have further costs of $4,400, for a total of $48,400. For a virtual assistant being paid $30 per hour, your yearly total would be only around $28,000.

I bet you are realizing that a virtual assistant is a very cost-efficient solution to your staffing needs. You have other concerns though – and we’ll address those in part two of this series – stay tuned!!!

Well usually Grant Griffiths hosts The Links, but Grant had offered up the option of someone else hosting it this week and I grabbed the opportunity – thanks Grant!!

It’s an Olympics week, and I’m Canadian, so the “links” pic above is of Chateau Whistler in BC, Whistler being the locale where part of the 2010 Olympic Games will be held.

And now, for the part you all have been waiting for, this week’s links to you simply must check out!

Posts from some of my favorite Canadians

Jordan Furlong from Law 21 says The Web Is Bigger Than You Think as he suggests that lawyers need to make changes in how they deliver their services (we suggest working from home!)

Quest for Four Pillars shares about his Last Will and Testament

Hull and Hull on their law blog feature a post about Cecil Rhodes – The Lion of Africa

Canadian Capitalist has a timely post on Saving Money on Textbooks

Great posts from all around the blogosphere

From Fresh Focus we have a post which gives us a neat-looking meeting planning tool.

From Sparkplug CEO we have 9 Blogs Gone Wrong – a fascinating look at the ever-changing world of blogging.

Inquistr has a great post concerning the growth of social network platforms – the prediction from Inquistr is that Ning is a strong contender (I just signed up for Ning myself this week and set up a small forum – very easy to do!!)

From Tina over at Home Office Warrior we have Virtual Road Warrior – a great example of how mobile you can be as a virtual assistant.

From Yellow Highlighter VA we have Are You Tweeting Yet?

Susan Cartier Liebel shares the new home page for Solo Practice University over at her blog.

WAHM 2.0 has a great post called I Need To Make More Money Now – about why virtual work still is WORK, not quick cash.

the Perlmutter & Schuelke Blog had a very interesting post on another way social networks are being used – you might be surprised!

You really should read the post and WATCH the slideshow from 43Folders on Time & Attention

A great post from Enterprise Nation – 3 reasons to have a home business

Greatest American Lawyer has a post about how RSS is Changing The Way Lawyers and Law Students Learn About the Law

And from my Twitter friends

From @lisasolomon is a post titled Scalia’s Remarks About Legal Writing

@alyssaavant shared a great post about an organizing method

Twitterer @CherylSmith999 was featured on an ABC segment on social networking and business – way to go!

@9ner suggests we check out his “answer” about how many megapixels your digital camera should have

If anyone who works from home is interested in hosting “The Links” sometime please get in touch with Grant via his blog or at twitter!

I was interviewed recently for an article about virtual legal assistance.  The article is now available and I’m very pleased with it, although it’s weird seeing my picture on there!

I just read a great post at Seth Godin’s blog about NOT following the money. What you say, does that mean? Well Seth was talking about how not everything is about money, that we all do things and make choices based on a bigger picture – the picture that is our whole life, not just our financial package.

I liked that because it certainly is true in my life. I’m not making my career choices based on how rich I think I can get (I don’t think it will happen!), but rather on what I think I will both enjoy and will give me an opportunity to be helpful and hopefully give me some challenging things to do. I don’t think being a virtual legal assistant is an easy choice, in fact I think it may be quite difficult to get well-established, to prove the value of providing assistant services from my home-office to lawyers across Canada and the United States, to keep finding things to blog about even!

But I’m doing something I know is the right choice for me and that is a great feeling, no matter how little it adds to my bank account!

I try to read legal blogs regularly – many are fascinating and thought-provoking, some are funny and some are really informative. One of my regular reads is Real Lawyers Have Blogs and he has a post up right now about blog spamming. One thing I really loved in his post was this:

And at all times, add value to the discussion. You went to law school. You have 7 years of college and graduate education. It is actually possible to offer insight and commentary, as opposed to looking for the next get rich/cut corners advertising scheme.

I personally have been working to establish myself as a blogger and as a virtual legal assistant, so I’ve been commenting, linking, etc. I try to either add value to conversations or to congratulate or praise a blogger because their blog has been meaningful and inspiring to me. In my time commenting I have noticed a few of these blog spammers (and had some comment on my site) and think it is really sad that some people hire someone to comment on blogs in this manner. It’s no wonder outsourcing and virtual assistance sometimes has a difficult time getting respect – I’m thinking that it is cheap outsourcing or low-cost (and low-value) virtual assistants who are performing some of these spamming tasks.

If you are trying to establish your online presence go right ahead and hire some help to do it – but think about the best way to do it and what kind of presence you want. As was quoted in Kevin’s post (from Simple Justice’s post Comments as Lawyer Advertising) in reference to one comment linking to a lawyer’s site, that contained broken english and no value,

It makes you look like a blithering idiot. Is that what you are trying to accomplish?

So if you are short on time and choose to hire someone, possibly a virtual assistant or the like, who can research your networking options, help you find relevant posts to comment on, find blogging material for you and generally assist you in growing your online presence – take the time to choose the right helper and make sure they (and YOU) go about building your presence in an appropriate manner. It will help give your business a better reputation.

I did an interview earlier this week for a law journal (will share more when I have a copy!) and one of the interview questions asked me what technical requirements are needed to ensure a good working setup for both the lawyer and the virtual legal assistant. This seemed like a great topic for a blog post to me, as I’m sure some lawyers, especially less techno-savvy ones, wonder if they could make a virtual arrangement work.

A virtual legal assistant has a lot of technology available to her, but as to what is NEEDED, I’d have to say not much. A fast internet connection and email access are pretty critical. A collaborative work space will be very useful, but depending on the security level needed, can be easy to set up. (google offers a free collaborative space – Google Sites). The best set-up would involve an encrypted workspace accessible by both the lawyer and assistant, such as the setup offered by Virtual Law Office Technology.

You don’t have to be virtually based yourself to use a virtual assistant though, many solo lawyers or small practices will benefit from extra assistance, maybe just during a large litigation file, for holiday coverage or on an ongoing basis of 20 or 30 hours a month.

So don’t let technology concerns stop you from getting some much needed assistance – contact us today!

I’ve been working on these off and on for a long while. I waited until my website/blog design was completed though, so that I could coordinate the colors and look. I’d love to know what you think of my final design – any suggestions for changes would be appreciated as I haven’t had them printed yet, but will be doing so very soon!

Yeah!! It’s so nice to be a part of the VA Networking forum and now this blog has been given the honour of Blog of the Week! Thanks everyone!!!

You want to hire a virtual legal assistant or a virtual paralegal, but you are worried about confidentiality issues aren’t you? Well relax, a good virtual legal assistant will have practices in place that protect your confidential information! There is some great information on this topic in this guest post by Tina Hilton over at VLOTech. Tina also has her own blog over at Virtual Assistant Conference Table that is worth checking out. Tina has some wonderful posts about virtual assistance.

As for me and my virtual legal assistance practice, I use several of the noted confidentiality measures to protect my clients’ information. I use portable usb drives for file storage and password protection for both my whole computer and further passwords for specific areas/files on the computer. I address confidentiality in my service contracts and will take any further steps needed to make my clients feel secure.