Virtual Assistants for Law Firms - Do you really need coffee brought to your desk?

Greg - a leading Virginia lawyer – gets to his office at 8am. Greg checks his email for a status update from his assistants Bob and Laurie. Laurie’s email has a statement which includes details of hours billed and invoices waiting for Greg’s approval. Greg IMs Laurie to pay off all invoices, and IMs Bob to prepare and fax client representation letters to court. He then queries Bob about a new client and asks him to prepare a pleading.
Laurie transfers money for hours Greg billed his clients from his escrow to operating account. Laurie also pays off invoices using online Bill Pay, and notifies Greg via IM. Bob prepares letters and pleadings per Greg’s request and forwards them for review.
Where exactly are Bob and Laurie? Bob and Laurie are virtual assistants – virtual paralegal and virtual bookkeeper to be specific - working from India for Maxim Liberty, Inc. based in Vienna, Virginia. As Ms. Prabhukumar, President of Maxim Liberty - an outsource Bookkeeping Services provider - remarked, “We are our client’s best kept secret. Every firm has tasks that can be handled via virtual assistants. And, if these tasks can be done as well as or better than in-house assistants at a fraction of the cost, virtual assistants are really a no brainer. Further, our virtual assistants work with many law firms and bring to table the best practices of operating a law firm.”
Virtual assistants are an outsourcing strategy that can be a key weapon for lawyers to gain competitive advantage. As of late, they have shot to prominence and have generated a buzz amongst law firms of all sizes. Even the ABA has approved the use of virtual assistants. Further, the recession has made lawyers more prudent about how they spend their operating budgets.
Hot coffee on your desk is still a challenge but a virtual assistant can do just about everything else an in-house assistant can do. Many a times, even with full-time in-house staff, the work load can get too much to handle. The in-house staff can, at that point, off-load work to a Virtual Assistant who can act as an overflow buffer for the in-house staff.
Lawyers often find that it takes a long time to train a paralegal or assistant to do things the way that they should be done. The effective pay rate for their assistant gets quite high especially if the assistant is not kept busy all the time. Having more than one assistant can be a daunting proposition especially for a solo or upcoming law firm. Dealing with rogue employees can be a problem as well.
Lawyers cannot do everything efficiently on their own. It would be in their best interest to utilize a team which consists of specialists such as bookkeepers, paralegals and administrative assistants. Such a team would allow the lawyers to focus on their core competencies. Now with technology paving the way, even solo and small law firms can afford to hire virtual specialists as a cost effective alternative to a full-time or part-time jack-of-all-trades in-house assistant. That is, if you don’t need coffee brought to your desk as well!