I just read this post by Jordan Furlong over at Law21. I know it doesn’t seem like it at first, but it is a post about hope and about change. And I was honoured that Jordan mentioned Halo Secretarial as being a legal secretarial service that is ready for the changes that are (hopefully) coming in the future to law firms. Being included with the likes of game changers like Solo Practice University, JD Supra, or Virtual Law Office is so rewarding.

Change is exactly what I was after when I started my virtual legal assistance practice. Change for me personally but also with an awareness that if I could do this, so could so many other people! I have many friends who are paralegals, legal assistants and legal secretaries who feel trapped in the world of big law. They hang on to the ideals of pension plans, benefits and employer provided equipment. They love the idea of having flexibility, but traditional law firms think flexibility is letting you start at 9 am instead of 8:30 am!

Being a virtual legal assistant allows me the ability to create my own future – one where my days are about finding solutions for my clients, not just about putting in my time. If my clients are having a slow month, or are taking a vacation, I’m not going to bill them just to protect my own income. I believe in results oriented billing – when I am doing work for you, then I deserve to be paid a good rate, but when I take a break and go for an hour long walk, that’s on my dime! That’s why I didn’t even go with the traditional virtual assistant model of offering mostly hourly billing or retainer only. I don’t worry about minimum hourly requirements. I simply provide whatever level of assistance my clients need – an hour a month, an hour a day, or working on a project by project basis.

I plan to keep evaluating the changing legal world too – I sure hope I always have the vision to keep up with the changes that are sure to come and the wisdom to know that the best way to get ahead is to be an early adopter of whatever new systems and technologies seem to be the most valuable.

I’ve seen a lot of chatter on Twitter lately about needing a virtual assistant. I think the start of a new year encourages people to plan for their coming business needs and Twitter is a great way to find a VA to help you streamline and grow your business.  I personally love finding clients on Twitter and I know many of my colleagues also respond to tweets about possible virtual assistant opportunities!

I do think it’s important though not to get caught up in the ease with which you can find a VA (on Twitter or otherwise) and make sure you stop and really think about what you need from a VA and be sure to choose one who meets all of your qualifications. You may want a virtual assistant with a particular skillset, a certain personality, or one who is familiar with your industry.

To get you started, consider these virtual assistant niches and how they might (or might not!) be appropriate for your needs:

• Marketing virtual assistant
• Speaker’s virtual assistant
• Virtual bankruptcy assistant
• Author’s virtual assistant
• Coach’s virtual assistant
• Virtual assistant catering to Web Designers/Technology Gurus
• Real estate virtual assistant
• Construction virtual assistant
• Virtual assistant to insurance industry professionals
• Bookkeeping virtual assistant
• Virtual receptionist
• Virtual assistant to wedding professionals
• Virtual legal assistants/paralegals (like me!!)

As you can see, there are many virtual assistant niches and if you are, for example, an accountant who needs some general virtual assistance and someone who can help with your Quickbooks work, your best bet is probably a virtual bookkeeper. But, if you need email management you may want a virtual assistant generalist, or you may find that a virtual assistant familiar with your  industry would be your preference. Of course there is a lot of overlap between the services offered by virtual assistants, as most virtual assistants offer some general administrative work.  If what you need is highly specialized or requires some training don’t feel that means you can’t hire a VA, as you will find that most VA’s love to learn new skills!

And if you are finding or vetting your virtual assistant choice via Twitter, do make sure to read through their tweet history. Does he or she seem professional? Friendly? Thoughtful? It’s a great way to get some insight into the person you may be working very closely with!

Take care!

I know, it’s not Christmas for a few days yet. But I’m not really planning on blogging much, or even – gasp – Tweeting that much, over the next few days. I am doing work for my clients and some research for a project, but otherwise this week is about family. I’ll be enjoying my children, getting together with friends, and doing even more baking in preparation for dinner on the big day (next on the agenda is homemade pie!!)

In fact today, I actually kept my laptop off for several hours (I hate to have it off during the day, lol) and put together a gingerbread house and gingerbread Santa sleigh with my older boys. It was a wonderful afternoon and I hope you all are able to enjoy your family and friends as 2008 draws to a close.

So Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Holidays!

p.s. I will have posts up next week – be sure to check in!!

This year is rapidly coming to a close and it’s that time when many of us business owners decide to spend some time reflecting on the year past and planning for the future.

This year was my first year in business as a virtual legal assistant and it was a great year in my opinion! I started out last January with a 6 week old baby plus two older boys and the knowledge that things really had to change. I had already been researching virtual assistance for a while and really felt it was the right choice for me.

So I spent the late winter and spring months making plans, starting very slowly to blog and hanging out at a couple of my favourite VA forums (Virtual Assistant Forums and VAnetworking) to learn all I could about starting my business. Thank goodness for all the wonderful virtual assistants on those forums – they really helped me figure out where I wanted to go with my business!

Sometime in the spring I discovered one of my favourite blogs – Home Office Warrior. Grant Griffiths (also of Blog for Profit) has so much great information on his blogs! Lots of info about technology, blogging and networking and running a homoe office (particular emphasis on lawyers since Grant is a lawyer!)

Spring turned into summer and I excitedly went and registered my business name at the local registry office. I found someone to help me customize my site/blog and I designed some business cards. August in particular was a great month – I did my first guest post, found my first client and got quite involved in my favorite networking site – Twitter!

Then it was fall. My darling oldest son went off to grade one, I went for my first getaway weekend since having baby #3 and I got another client! Slow progress in the client department, but I knew that good things were coming!

And now it is winter. Not generally my favorite season and yet, as we move into 2009, I feel a real sense of achievement in this year and so much excitement for the year to come. I’ve gotten one more client recently and hope for many more next year. In the summer of 2009 I’m going to my first blogging conference and next fall my middle child will go off to kindergarten, adding some room in my schedule. I’m going to make a big list of my goals for 2009, but that is another post!

And now, time to go do some more work and then make some Christmas cookies! Take care!

So recently I was contacted by a couple of very nice ladies that actually live quite close to me. They had found me through my blog! They recently started up an independent paralegal practice, providing document preparation services for the general public, including things like uncontested divorce documents, dependent adult applications and will preparation.

And I have to admit that my first reactions to their business were “cool!” and “trouble” all at the same time.  What can I say? I’m a rule-follower, I like to colour inside the lines most of the time. The idea of running an independent paralegal business and risking being charged with unauthorized practice of law isn’t so appealing to me, although I do think independent paralegals can offer a cost-effective benefit and if they were regulated and insured they would be a viable alternative for some people.

In Alberta, where I live, there is very little that an unsupervised paralegal can do on their own.  In Ontario though, they’ve recently allowed paralegals into the law society on a limited basis.

What are the rules like in your province/state/country? Do you agree? Do you think there are better options? I read a report from 2005 about reform in Alberta’s system which discussed mechanisms that might give litigants more choices (unbundled services, pro bono requirements for lawyers, better information for self-represented litigants) but no solution will be perfect for everyone.

And for the record, personally I provide virtual paralegal services to lawyers – not the general public! This way I get to do work I love but my work is always supervised by a lawyer, and therefore completely “by the rules” so to speak! I do provide general virtual assistance to business owners and entrepreneurs, but not legal assistance!

Sometimes life is so interesting. Last week I posted about my favourite Canadian law blogs and the 2008 Clawbies nominations. I received several comments in response and was told that although I referred to myself as not being a real law blogger, I was of course a law blogger. The comments were much appreciated and a reminder to myself to not disparage my place in the blogosphere. I’m not a lawyer, but I serve clients in the legal field and I (sometimes) blog about legal topics, therefore I guess I am a legal blogger!

This little situation also is a reminder to me that non-lawyers have an important place in the legal world, whether we are talking about “in real life” or online.  I follow plenty of non-lawyer law bloggers in fact in my RSS feeds and I think of them as “real” law bloggers, even though I wasn’t identifying myself that way! Some of my favourites include the blog at Stem Legal, Law Firm Blogger, and Connie Crosby’s blog! And of course two of these blogs are run by fabulous Canadians (Steve Matthews of Stem Legal and Connie Crosby). Canadian law bloggers definitely are heavily involved in the blogosphere!

Non lawyers are important and valuable assets, whether to brick and mortar law firms or virtual practices. In fact in every law firm I have worked at the non-lawyer staff members were a critical part of the success of the team. The secretaries helped manage timelines, completed dictation and often completed the first draft of pleadings.  Paralegals did the research, helped organize large files and oversaw support staff. The library staff were always so amazing, especially when a deadline was looming and the supporting caselaw for a brief had to be quickly found! Oh and let’s not forget the IT staff who made sure our information was all backed up and accessible!

I still remember when I decided to go to school to be a paralegal and a family member asked me why I would do that, instead of trying to go to law school.  It was not easy for me to explain back then, but I know why know.  I am a very nurting person and I truly enjoy being the support person. I love knowing that when I do my part right I make life easier for the people I work with.  I also have to admit that I liked the guarantee of being able to go home on time most nights! The lawyers in my firms didn’t always have that option. Of course now, being a business owner who supports other business owners, my life is pretty different. I have a far greater responsibility to my clients to complete the work and can’t have an exclusively 9-5 work life. I enjoy the overtime and late nights now though (amazing how different you feel about your own business!) I especially appreciate that I have control over how many projects I take on at one time so I can make sure that the work will fit into my timetable and be completed on time (and properly!!)

I’m not a Canadian “law” blogger per se, but I am Canadian, my blog does target the legal field and of course I  read tons of legal blogs (plenty from the fabulous Canadian Law Blogs List!), so I wanted to share a quick post on my 3 favourite Canadian law blogs. I hope they all get recognition from Clawbies!

My absolute favourite has to be Law21 by Jordan Furlong.  Jordan always shares such great information and has wonderful insight into current happenings in the legal field.  And can I say how much I love the look of his blog since his redesign – it’s a great example of how a blog should look in my opinion.

Another Canadian legal blog I really enjoy reading is Human Rights in the Workplace by Donna Seale. Donna has a great conversational tone to her blog and she shares her knowledge about human rights issues in a thoughtful and useful manner.

Another Canadian law blog I discovered some time back that I really enjoy is Rule of Law – Stan shares a lot of helpful information about estate law with just the right amount of personality thrown into the mix!
There are tons of other great Canadian Law Blogs out there to enjoy, but these are my favourites! And now it is time to get on with the weekend (and while I’m a Canadian mom, thankfully my weekend is in a warm soccer complex, not on a chilly ice rink – until next year at least!) I’ll be keeping my eye out for other blog posts about everyone’s choice for the 2008 Clawbies – should give me plenty of weekend reading!

Just a quick note to let you know I have a guest post up over at the Lemon Justice Blog, discussing virtual legal assistance! Hope you get a chance to check it out.  In the meantime, I also want to share that my blog changes are almost complete and the new look should be fully in place this week!

Take care!

I received an email a short while ago announcing the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 for 2008. And although my blog is listed in the paralegal category of the Blawg Directory, there are no paralegal blogs in the Blawg 100, so I just wanted to share a some of my personal favorites from the top 100 list.

News Category

FP Legal Post – I have to read this – it includes Canadian legal news!

Niche Category

Taxgirl of course! I did spend my last few years as a legal assistant in tax law after all!

Technology Category

Real Lawyers Have Blogs – Kevin always has great info to share.

Careers

This is a Category that I personally find very valuable, so much of the info pertains to all business owners!

Build a Solo Practice, LLC – I love Susan’s style!

Law21 – Jordan is a great blogger, I really admire him.

My Shingle – Definitely inspirational!

the [non] billable hour – full of great information

And in reviewing some of the blogs I found a couple of new ones to add to my Google Reader! I think I better clear out some stuff from my poor Reader, or I’ll never find time to read more!

Diary of a Law School Mom

BabyBarista

And now I’d better go do some real work, instead of enjoying reading more legal blogs!!