Legal Practice
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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Secretarial Services vs Virtual Assistant
I know this topic has been done to death – what should we call ourselves, is a virtual assistant a good name etc. I’ve addressed it before myself and I’ve never really been able to come to a satisfactory conclusion although obviously I did choose my business name as Halo Secretarial Services not Halo Virtual (although I do own domain names for both, lol!) I even had a great suggestion not long ago to call myself a practice project manager after I wrote this post on project management for lawyers (hat tip to @matthomann for that suggestion – still thinking about it!)
I had someone find, and hire, me today though by doing a local search for “Spruce Grove Secretarial Services”. Awesome!! I rank #1 on Google for that (not exactly shocking – it’s a small city), but I realize I don’t rank so highly for Spruce Grove Virtual Assistant, let alone just “virtual assistant”. Partially just because I’ve mostly marketed online, not in my own town. I did send out post cards to lawyers in Edmonton and elsewhere in Alberta to let them know that a local virtual legal assistant was available, haven’t had any response from that yet. I also think though that despite the fact that many who do admin work don’t like to be called a secretary, it is still a very well known and widely used title. And ultimately, as long as my clients understand what I can do for them and happily pay a fair rate for the work I do, that’s enough for me. A title is just a word and words can be so limiting. So call me a legal assistant, a secretary, a practice manager, etc. etc. – it’s all good!
Anyway – just wanted to share my excitement about the search results and the new client. I’ve had a great couple of weeks for new clients and I’m so thrilled my practice is growing.
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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Solo Attorneys See This
I just read the tuition announcement from Solo Practice University (courtesy of founder Susan Cartier Liebel via Twitter).
I’ve been keep an eye on all the amazing faculty announcements and developments happening over at SPU recently and I have to say it sounds like such an amazing concept! I can’t imagine a better way for new lawyers to learn about running a solo law practice. Topics that will be covered include blogging for your law practice, business strategies, virtual law practices, marketing for attorneys, technology, along with many in-depth courses on specific legal areas like accident law, trial law, entertainment law, estate planning and so many other great topics!
I also was so impressed to see that a virtual legal assistant will be on the faculty. Aretha Gaskin is the owner of The Virtual Legal Assistant and a respected member of the virtual assistant community. Having a professional virtual legal assistant educating new solo attorneys on the benefits of utilizing virtual legal assistants and virtual paralegals can only be good for our industry.
I think Solo Practice University is a model for virtual education and I personally would love to see something similar in the virtual assistant industry! There are plenty of learning programs, books, and certification processes available, but most are over-priced and several offer little value at all. There are definitely some good (and reasonably priced!) books available, but to have an interactive community of learning and support like what SPU is offering would be amazing. And if the legal community can provide it at such a reasonable price, the virtual assistant industryshould be able to offer it at a price that is affordable to those just starting out or considering their options.
Anyway, if you have recently hung your solo practice shingle, or if it’s a move you are considering, I highly recommend you check out Solo Practice University!
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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Project Management for Lawyers
I wrote a guest post about Google Notebook replacements and project management systems that went up today over at the Small Business Idea Generator Blog. If you are looking for a great project management system, I recommend you check the post out – it’s full of details about several leading systems.
If you are a lawyer looking for a project management system, or like me you offer services to lawyers, just make sure you take into consideration security. Not all systems include ssl encryption, particularly free versions or the lowest paid plans. Currently I’m using Zoho Projects for my virtual legal assistant business, but also love the TeamWork project management application. The reason I’m not using TeamWork for my client work is that they don’t offer ssl encryption on their less expensive plans (only at the $49/month level) and I don’t need the project space offered in the more expensive plan.
Project management applications like TeamWork and Zoho (also Basecamp if you are familiar!) are fabulous tools when you work virtually with your clients. It allows the service provider and client to share documents, make comments, set deadlines, etc all within a secure environment. Email is often not an ideal choice for document sharing, due to both security issues and size limitations on attachments.
Have a great day!
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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Recession and Balance
Do you think the recession is good or bad for work life balance? Obviously some think that the recession will make some lawyers work harder in hopes of avoiding being laid off. Wow, what a set back that could be for finding true work life balance!
My take is that the recession can be great for giving you some extra time in your day, if that’s what you want. If you know your employer needs to cut costs it might be better to offer to work part-time and lose some of your pay, rather than end up completely unemployed if your employer starts laying people off. Already some companies are speaking with their employees about taking pay-cuts to avoid layoffs (Fed-Ex did it), so why not go that one step further and say here is a way to save money, and we’ll work as hard as we can while we are here, but we want more time off as a benefit of the pay cuts. Maybe you want shorter days, a shorter work week, or even just one extra day off per month. Time is a gift and may be worth the financial cost.
Yes, I definitely think this is a great time for firms to truly embrace part-time and flexible schedules. I left my paralegal position because I wanted and needed more flexibility in my life. For me being an entrepreneur was the right answer, but I had many colleagues who would have given up money for a part-time position. Unfortunately, in every law practice I’ve worked at it was very difficult to work part-time or flex-time. Many claimed to have flexible work arrangements available, but they weren’t easy to access and sometimes meant as little as working 30 minutes less every day so you could go home “earlier”. Let’s hope that one benefit of a recession is a little more appreciation for the people who want it all – careers and time to enjoy their life!
Oh and if you are concerned about work life balance maybe you should check out this conference in Chicago – the Get a Life Conference for attorneys – looks pretty cool!
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