Partnering With a Virtual Legal Assistant, Part 4 (last one!)

This is part four of my series on partnering with a virtual legal assistant. Check out parts 1 (where to find), 2 (the interview process) and 3 (getting started) if you haven’t already!

Ok this is it – hopefully your relationship with your new virtual legal assistant is working out wonderfully! But sometimes it doesn’t. Maybe you’ve had someone misrepresent themselves, maybe the VLA has had an unexpected major life change and cannot continue the relationship, maybe you just don’t like them.

The best part of working with a virtual contractor rather than an employee is that you don’t have to continue the relationship if it isn’t working. Look at your contract to confirm, but you can probably simply stop working with them at any time. You’ll need to pay your last invoice and then you can re-start the process of finding the right virtual legal assistant for your practice, probably with a better idea of what you want and need.

This seems like a good time to address a couple of miscellaneous ideas that occurred to me as my series progressed:

• Sometimes a virtual legal assistant is NOT your best choice. If you need someone full-time, if you prefer someone available at your beck and call or you really want someone in your office to answer the phone and greet clients – you probably should hire an in-house legal assistant rather than a virtual one.
• I’ve addressed the use of a virtual legal assistant in a rather broad manner. Realize that not all individuals who call themselves “virtual legal assistants” are capable of the same things. Some people have more experience or more ability than others.
• The world of work is constantly evolving. I hope that some of my thoughts on partnering with a virtual legal assistant may be applicable to telecommuting assistants or paralegals (ones who are “employees” rather than business owners) although in my experience few such arrangements are truly available to support staff at law firms or government agencies.
• I cannot stress the importance of good communication in a virtual relationship enough – check, re-check, clarify and clarify again as needed. Better safe than sorry!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my series on partnering with a virtual legal assistant – please feel free to email me or comment if you have any questions (or if you want to discussing partnering with Halo Secretarial as your VLA!!)

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Laurie Mapp, Owner

Halo Secretarial Services

Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!