Posts made in March, 2009
Partnering With a Virtual Legal Assistant, Part 2
Now that you’ve read Part 1 of Partnering With a Virtual Legal Assistant, I bet you’ve made a short list of virtual legal assistants to contact but you aren’t exactly sure how to proceed next. How do you decide who is the best choice for you? Do you interview them? Do you telephone, email, instant message? Do you just jump and hope it works out? What questions should you ask?
First, I’d recommend you carefully review the potential virtual legal assistant’s web site and/or blog. A lot is revealed about someone in their website and if they have a blog it will likely be a fabulous source of information on their practices and opinions. For example, one of my clients had questions about how information would be protected, but before she asked me she read my blog post about using a project management system with SSL security and realized I had it fully under control!
I also definitely recommend going through some sort of interview process or discussion to see if the virtual legal assistant is a good match for you. Here are some questions you may want to address:
How much experience does the VLA have (in legal in general and as a virtual legal assistant specifically)? Does the VLA have any certifications – paralegal diploma, virtual assistant certifications, ethics check? What kind of hardware/software set-up does the VLA use? Does she use a PC or a Mac? How does she charge fees – hourly, by the project, retainer? Is there a monthly minimum? Does she like to be paid by paypal or other? How do you get instructions and documents to the VLA? Does she truly understand about confidentiality and protecting both your and your clients’ information?
The answers to these questions will definitely help you determine if the particular virtual legal assistant has the capability to meet your needs. There is more to the decision though. At least in my opinion, one part of equation is going to be chemistry. That’s why an initial phone call may be helpful to see if you think your personal style will mesh will with the assistant’s. Our gut instincts are often very accurate in helping us decide if a relationship, business or otherwise, is going to be successful.
Another, possibly controversial, step you may want to take is doing a quick google search of the prospective virtual legal assistant. Now, a virtual assistant is a contractor, not an employee, but still you may want to read Donna Seale’s series about using social networking sites as part of the hiring process while you’re at it.
Any other questions about the actual choosing of a virtual legal assistant? I’d love to answer them! And stay tuned, next week’s installment of this series will address contracting the VLA and establishing a good working relationship!
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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Practice Management
As usual I was spending a little time after dinner tonight catching up on some Twitter. I read this tweet from @SamGlover which sent me on over to the recently re-launched Lawyerist. There are tons of interesting posts to read there, but the one that really caught my eye tonight was one that talked about what applications, software etc Sam uses to run his law practice.
I not only enjoyed reading what Sam uses for his legal practice, but also the different choices made by the commentors. So I decided to put together a quick post outlining the various applications/software I use to run my virtual legal assistant practice.
- Calendar: Google calendar/wall calendar combo
- Tasks/to-dos: Teamwork PM
- Contacts: Gmail
- Email: Gmail/mobile Gmail from smartphone while on the go
- Word processing/documents: Word 2007, Open Office, PaperPort
- PDF Creation: Adobe/CutePDF
- Timekeeping/billing: Quickbooks
- Bookkeeping/accounting: Quickbooks/accountant
- Backup: External hardrive and SugarSync (love how SugarSync securely lets me access all from laptop/desktop/mobile phone)
- Client/Project Management: TeamWork PM (256 bit SSL)
- Blogging/Website: WordPress self-hosted
Like Sam and several of his commentors I’m a big fan of cloud computing. I like to be able to access my work from anywhere – my main computer is a laptop for that very reason! And while I know not everyone trusts “the cloud”, I research applications quite carefully before choosing them and feel pretty confident that I’ve made choices that will protect my clients information and my own.
So how does your office run? Does your work live in the cloud at all?!
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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Partnering With a Virtual Legal Assistant, Part 1
Welcome to my series on partnering with a virtual legal assistant! If you are a solo lawyer, or part of a smallish law practice, and you know you need some administrative help, this is a great place to start.
A virtual legal assistant (aka virtual paralegal or virtual assistant specializing in legal assistance) can provide a truly wonderful solution to a lawyer’s needs. A virtual legal assistant is an independent business owner who will provide basically any services an in-house legal assistant or paralegal would provide, but the services will be provided on a contract basis. You may hire the VLA to work on an hourly basis, a per project basis or some other arrangement that is mutually agreeable. If you need some information about what services a virtual legal assistant can perform take a look at this list.
Part 1 of my Partnering with a virtual legal assistant series addresses a simple, yet clearly critical, question. Where do you find a fabulous virtual legal assistant (aka VLA)? Well, if you’re here anyway, obviously you could just check out my services! But really, you probably want to look at several options so I’m going to suggest some general resources and some individual virtual legal assistants you may want to consider:
Previously I’ve suggested that Twitter is one great way to look for a virtual assistant, and that still applies to looking for a virtual legal assistant. Virtual paralegals are not quite as large of a subgroup on Twitter as general VAs, but there are some great ones who love to Tweet. I suggest using a site like Twellow to find a Twittering VLA.
Another option for finding a great virtual legal assistant is to utilize a virtual assistant directory/forum. Most offer a listing of their members and may note any specialties the VA may focus on, allowing you to weed out any without a legal background. A few of the leading virtual assistant directories are:
Virtual Assistant Forums (by specialty)
VAnetworking Directory (by location, but not specialty)
IVAA’s Member Directory (by specialty)
Similarly, if you want to work with a virtual assistant who belongs to one of the above types of virtual assistant organizations, you can look submit a Request for Proposals (RFP) on their sites, but be prepared for a lot of responses, of which several may be people who want to do legal work, but won’t necessarily have a legal background.
You definitely should consider checking out a few of the following virtual assistants who I happen to know specialize in legal/paralegal services:
Tina Hilton of Clerical Advantage
Dawn Draper of The Virtual Paralegal
Andrea Cannavina of Legal Typist
Kate of Kerans Virtual Assistance
Aretha Gaskin The Virtual Legal Assistant
Marion of The Satellite Secretary
And of course, as with almost any service provider, a good place to “look” for them is to ask your own inner circle. Do any of your colleagues recommend a particular virtual legal assistant? Does your favorite legal blog author recommend his/her virtual paralegal to others? You’d be surprised at the number of people who are familiar in your regular (aka offline!) life who are familiar with the concept and might even know someone who provides such services. Just the other day I was at my local credit union and I was so impressed to learn my banker is familiar with virtual assistance!!
If you have any suggestions to share or questions you’d like addressed in this series in the future, please leave a comment or email me at laurie@halosecretarial.com!
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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Partnering with a Virtual Legal Assistant
I’m preparing to write a post series on how to find and start working with a virtual legal assistant. My general plan for the series is to address:
- Where to look for a virtual legal assistant
- How to interview and choose the right virtual legal assistant for your practice
- How to actually start working with the virtual legal assistant you have chosen
- What to do if your chosen virtual legal assistant is not working out
I’m open to any suggestions or questions you may have on the topic of working with a virtual assistant though – so please feel free to comment or drop me an email (laurie@halosecretarial.com) if you have anything you’d particularly like to see addressed.
Also, if you are looking to work with a general virtual assistant, don’t worry! Most of the tips will be applicable whether your are a lawyer, an entrepreneur or a freelancer!
One part of the series will run each week on Tuesdays, so please check back regularly.
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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Helping A Friend
Yesterday I was able to help a great friend out. I don’t often have the opportunity to do that for this friend, she’s very independent and has things under control. But yesterday she couldn’t afford to miss any meetings at work and she needed someone to sit at her house and wait for a repair person.
Since my laptop is my office I simply took it over there with me and happily worked away. She has a secure internet connection and I had the passcode, so I was all set.
It was a nice change of scenery for me too – which was great! Just another awesome benefit of having my own (very portable!)virtual legal assistant business.
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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