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!!

I’m starting off this week, with my first ever guest post. Attorney Sergei Lemberg, who specializes in lemon law, kindly shared a post on using technology to boost your law practice. Here’s the post in Sergei’s words:

After I graduated from law school, I went the typical route and spent five years working for a series of major law firms. Eventually, though, I realized that I wanted to run my own shop, be my own boss, and handle my own cases. After deciding that lemon law would be my niche, I went about the process of building my practice, a process that was helped tremendously by technology and online tools.

Although I started by subleasing an office from another lawyer, my practice is largely “virtual.” I have clients from all over the country and rarely see them in person. I use VOIP for my office phone system for onsite and off-site staff, which gives the impression of everyone being under the same roof. I also take advantage of the Web-based Google Docs application for online collaboration, and share practice management software using Citrix.

But one of the most useful tools for building my practice is the Internet itself. I’m a Google AdWords advertiser, and run my AdWords ads in multiple jurisdictions to obtain a highly targeted but diverse clientele. I’ve also used that cornerstone of Web 2.0, blogging (and guest blogging!), to extend the reach of my practice. I’ve extensively optimized my website to make it more search engine friendly, and have expanded it to include genuinely useful content. As a result, I’ve seen my search engine rankings climb.

In today’s increasingly connected world, it’s easier than ever to succeed in a solo practice. By using online marketing methods and technology, office walls become much less relevant and the practice of law becomes virtually boundless.

Thanks for the guest post Sergei, much appreciated! And stay tuned to Sergei’s blog, where I’ll be sharing a guest post on virtual assistance for lawyers!

It’s not even surprising anymore for me to find interesting articles about lawyers and their use of Twitter.  After the great (and still growing!) list over at JDScoop I personally gained several followers from the legal field and found several new people I wanted to follow as well.

Ever since there has been an increasing number of fabulous articles about how Twitter can benefit legal practices.  Thanks to a couple of tweets (hat tips to @StephKimbro’s retweet of a comment by @kevinokeefe!) I just read a very interesting article over at Lawyers USA about the growing number of lawyers using Twitter to network and market.

I know I only recently I was contracted by a new client who tweeted about needing a virtual assistant. I responded and the rest is history! So for anyone who is still just thinking about using Twitter, or who maybe doesn’t feel they are realizing Twitter’s potential, come on over to Twitter, sign up if you need to and follow me!

Oh and if you need a guide to using Twitter I’ve got a couple places you should check out. Darren Rowse (of Problogger fame) has a great site called TwiTip full of fabulous tips for using Twitter. Also, Grant Griffiths has a really great series called Twitter for Lawyers on his Blog for Profit site.

Hope to tweet with you soon!

Do you run a solo practice, but have more work than you can handle? Or do you have a full time in-house legal assistant that can’t keep up with your busy workload? Or even a practice that is just getting going and you need help ramping up so that you do have too much business?  A virtual legal assistant may be just the solution in any of these situations! That’s the beauty of virtual assistance, it is a flexible solution that can fit so many needs.

So for example maybe you are a lawyer who doesn’t think you need a full-time assistant.  Do you do all your own typing? Research? Email? How much time does it cost you every day? In a previous post I addressed this lost time cost and demonstrated the cost effectiveness of hiring a virtual assistant to increase your productivity.

Do you have a full-time legal assistant or paralegal already? Think you don’t need any more help? You know in my years as an in-house legal assistant the most effective practice I worked in was one with one lawyer and three assistants.  So much work got done!! That particular lawyer utilized dictation to his advantage because he realized he spoke far faster than he typed.  Isn’t that true of most of us? And with the digital dictation options available it is very easy to send your virtual legal assistant instructions via dictation or to have them transcribe lengthy memoranda, court documents or agreements.

And if you are just getting started you can partner with a VA who offers some marketing suggestions and works with you to grow your network. I bet she’ll suggest you try Twitter!! Or you can get a good working relationship established and have your VA work just a few hours a month to start and eventually add hours as your practice grows.

There are plenty of other ways to utilize a virtual legal assistant. You may partner with a VLA only for large files or projects, specific research assignments or even vacation or sick leave coverage of your in-house staff. I hope you’ll think about taking advantage of the wonderful resources offered by virtual assistants – and if you are thinking of hiring one, don’t forget to check out my main site!

I love working as a virtual assistant, but there are things I miss from my days in a law office environment.  One of these is the legal research I was sometimes able to assist with.  For me, it was a really fascinating aspect of my job.  Probably partly because I enjoy reading so much that I happily read anything and everything. I also enjoy puzzles and solving things, so reading caselaw to find the nuggets of information that could help or hurt our case was a very rewarding task.

Of course as a virtual assistant I can still do legal research.  I can access online legal databases like CanLii or NexisLexis.  I can search through decisions on some of the court sites (like the Supreme Court decisions). I just need someone who wants me to do it for them!  I even would enjoy going to the law library if the need ever arises.

This morning (courtesy of a tweet from @DToddSmith) I read a Law.Com article by C.C. Holland called Where Are All The Female Law Bloggers?  It was a great article and while the stats are a little discouraging, that doesn’t mean women law bloggers aren’t out there! I personally follow several wonderful female law bloggers, and I know there are many more out there!

If you look at the ABA Journal’s Blawg Directory you will often see a woman’s law blog in the most popular category – in fact one of my favorites often holds one of the top spots in that category – Susan Cartier Liebel’s Build a Solo Practice LLC. And today at least there were a couple of other women in the top ten: Ann Bartow’s Feminist Law Professors and Althouse by Ann Althouse. Daily Kos is on the list and it has a female executive editor and several women who are contributing editors.

If you want to read some wonderful posts by female law bloggers check out this list from Law.Com.  Maybe they aren’t 50% of law bloggers – but they are out there and they are well worth reading!