Legal Practice
How Virtual Legal Assistance Can Help Your Practice
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!
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 for 2008
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!
And now I’d better go do some real work, instead of enjoying reading more legal blogs!!
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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Guest Post – Using Technology to Boost a Law Practice
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!
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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Lawyers Taking on Twitter
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!
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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Too Much Work? Too Little?
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!
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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Legal Research, Virtually
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.
Laurie Mapp, Owner Halo Secretarial Services Contact us for more information on virtual legal assistance!
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