Home Office Lawyer

Do You Need Another You?

There are lots of tools and gadgets that a home office lawyer can use to great advantage. But even the biggest technophiles can only save so much time with gadgets. Recently I read a post from someone who said she wished she could “clone” herself so she could get more done in a day.

Cloning might be a rather expensive solution though, and frankly I'm not sure when all is said and done if it would be worth the hassle. If you need another set of hands and some true human intelligence to go with it, you may want to consider the much easier option of hiring a virtual paralegal or virtual legal assistant. And you won't even need to feed her like you would the clone (an occasional Starbucks card isn't a bad idea though....just kidding!)

The list of tasks you can get a virtual legal assistant to help you with is impressive. You can have her do a rough draft of affidavits or agreements; proofread and format documents; conduct legal research and provide a summary; liaise with clients; transcribe from audio or digital files; or any number of administrative tasks. You can also get assistance with your online profile, blog research, blog comment moderation, monitoring of google alerts or email management.

Another great way to utilize your virtual legal assistant is as backup when you take time off for vacations, maternity or sick leave, or to attend conferences. Your virtual legal assistant can monitor your email and voice messages for you and contact you only in truly urgent circumstances. It gives clients a point of referral when they feel the need to speak to a real person in your absence, instead of just getting an “out of office” message.

So next time you find yourself wishing for a clone, or just a whole lot of help, consider a virtual legal assistant. I think you'll find it to be a wonderful tool for your practice!

Laurie Mapp, Virtual Legal Assistant

Halo Secretarial Services

Halo Secretarial's Blog

Virtual Assistant for a Virtual Law Practice

There has been a lot of discussion lately concerning using VA's and also running a virtual law practice.  VLOtech has  a very timely post called Virtual Assistance for a Virtual Law Practice. Stephanie discusses how using a VA fits with their practice model, the Virtual Law Office.

Key points in her post include professional conduct concerns and how a VA in the VLO may be affected.

With any virtual assistant relationship, the VLO attorney must comply with his or her state bar association’s rules and regulations for professional conduct regarding management of nonlawyer assistants.  Appropriate instruction and supervision should be given to any virtual assistant hired to work in a VLOTech virtual law practice.  One of the safest law office practice methods for the VLO attorney to protect him or herself is to keep digital records of any communication of instructions to the virtual assistant from the beginning of the relationship.

And just as important, nondisclosure and security for the VLO clients.

If the virtual assistant will be working through the web-based VLO application, the attorney needs to emphasize the importance of nondisclosure and security for the VLO clients and that the virtual assistant should closely guard their username and password to their permissions-based VLO access.  Again, most professional virtual assistants, especially those with legal training and experience, are more than aware of confidentiality and nondisclosure issues when working for a law practice.

It also appears that VLOtech will be dealing with using a VA in future development of their application.

Virtual Assistant -- Is it good for you?

New at Home Office Virtual Assistant is the most recent post in the series, Part 4: Is it good for you?

Home Office Virtual Assistant

As a side note to my most recent post on Outsourcing in the Law Office, over at Home Office Warrior we have a blog in our network called Home Office Virtual Assistant. Tina Hilton at Clerical Advantage is doing an outstanding job providing all kinds of information concerning using a virtual assistant.

Outsourcing in the Law Office

Jay Fleischman had a very good post the other day called, What is Legal Process Outsourcing?

From my conversations with Jay, I know first hand he outsources work for his own law practice. And "legal process outsourcing" is something that is a natural fit for the home office lawyer. For that matter, for anyone that works from home.

Jay suggest not just outsourcing data input or document production. But those processes that actually require someone with specific skills.

The task suggested are:

Legal Research

Document Drafting

Legal Billing

Paralegal Services

Administrative and secretarial activities

Of course this list is not just limited to those above. Anything you use staff for, could be outsourced. But, keep in mind, the word outsourcing doesn't mean you are sending work overseas. You can outsource to those dong this type of work right in your own backyard.

Consider for yourself if you could use outsourcing to take some of the burden off you and your firm.

Leveraging Your Time - Part 2

The Virtual Lawyer put up a followup to How can lawyers leverage their time this week, called Leveraging Your Time - Part 2. In his post, Roger, the "V-lawyer" mentioned one tool I do use and that is a virtual assistant. Take a look at Roger's post HERE. It is a good one and I hope just the 2nd in a long series of leveraging your time.

4 Ways to Leverage More Time

The Virtual Lawyer has the start of what appears to be a great upcoming series of post on “How can lawyers leverage their time?”

In his post Roger suggest four things we can do to leverage:

1. Other People’s Time
2. Knowledge (Information)
3. Technology
4. Packaged Services

If we take these one at time, the first one is something most of us do already. However, the home office lawyer may take this one step further. In my own office, I use a virtual assistant. Someone that is off site that does work for me on an as needed basis. This type of arrangement is great as it saves you both time and money. Not only do I save money by the fact I don’t have to supply office space, office equipment and supplies. I did not have to spend the time to train this person. Most if not all VA’s are experienced and can jump right in helping you accomplish your goals.

The rest I will discuss as The Virtual Lawyer post the next in his series. But, be thinking about the next three and post any comments you have here. This looks to be a great topic that should generate some great conversation.

Managing Telecommuters

As many of you know, my paralegal works for me as a virtual assistant. She works out of her home just as I do. In a sense, she is a telecommuter. One comment I get a lot is how you make sure she has your interest at heart and is working on the projects you give her. And quite honestly, I have never worried about it. But, I know there are others that do.

I was pleased that in today’s RSS feeds I received a great post called Managing Telecommuters from a great blog called Management Craft. What a timely post.

Lisa Haneberg points out a key point in her post when she states,

I believe that the KEY - the key - to telecommuting situations is connection, engagement, and relationship. An invested employee works hard and is more likely to exercise good judgment.

One thing we have to remember is that we don't have control over how our telecommuters/virtual assistants work. In fact, that is key to the arrangement I have with mine. In fact, she is not an employee, but an independent contractor. And I get value. She gets paid for the work she does for me and not by the hour. She doesn't get paid unless she deliveries results and that is finished work.

Our only hope to get value from this arrangement is connection and engagement - true partnership and collaboration. Treat these people more like you would a trusted and valued contractor.

And that is just how my arrangement with my virtual assistant works.

The Connected Lawyer - A Virtual Phone System Keeps You in Control

I recently had a great phone conversation with Jay S. Fleischman, Esq, about his law practice and how he operates his practice. When I phoned him, I was directed via a great answering system that I had to know more about. Jay agreed to provide me with the following guest post. For those of you that don't know, Jay has the Debt Relief law Center of New York. In addition he recently introduced MyThirdWave, a comprehensive practice management specifically for consumer bankruptcy lawyers. Jay also has a great blog called Bankruptcy Practice Pro, and in his spare time he does some very good Debt Podcast.

By Jay S. Fleischman, Esq,

I've had an answering service for about four years. They're very good, and they handle all of my appointment scheduling. I've grown used to not having to worry about these phone calls, confident that they are handled expertly 24/7. But about a year ago the problem began to surface of how I could possibly handle all of the other phone calls that came into my office day after day.

Depending on the day of the week - indeed, the time of day - I may be in a number of different places. Perhaps I'm in the office preparing for a client meeting. Or maybe I'm in my home office, catching up on work and answering e-mails. Better yet, what if I decide it's a really nice day and take my laptop out to the park to be productive and get a tan at the same time? How would people know where to reach me?

I originally did what many traveling professionals do - I turned on call forwarding, and made sure it was set to whatever phone happened to be closest to me. But that solution didn't really make me happy, because callers would then bypass my gatekeeper, the auto attendant. Creditors would call to verify information on my clients, new callers would reach me directly, and I wouldn't have any reliable way of routing calls effectively.

Enter GotVMail. This handy web-based virtual PBX allows me to have all of the convenience of a sophisticated voice mail system without having to be tethered to a physical location. I can program any extension to ring in specific places at different times of day or days of the week, and can change those settings on the fly through a web interface. Call into my office and you'll have the option of making an appointment (this gets trunked out to the answering service), getting directions, contacting me, or any other member of my team. Depending on my whim, you may get me in any number of places.

And to make things more useful, the system can be set up to announce the name of the caller when you pick up the phone. That means I can have my office line ring my home phone and automatically know that it's a work call when I pick up - no more worries about answering the phone unprofessionally!

In the interests of full disclosure, the link to GotVMail is an affiliate link. But fear not - you do not get charged a dime extra for signing up through this link. All income goes towards hosting costs for my consumer bankruptcy practice management and technology blog, Bankruptcy Practice Pro.

Working from a Home Office

Danielle Keister of The Relief -- Virtual Assistance provided me with her take on the home office. First of all, Danielle provides a great service that anyone running a professional practice out of their home should take a look at. Her website at the above link provides information about her services. Here is her guest post. Danielle also started a Virtual Assistant Professional Association earlier this year called the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce. One of its stated goals is to help connect business owners with only the most professional VA's.

I hated working in an office, especially a corporate one. I hated having to wear uptight, stuffy clothes. I hated being interrupted by noise and coworkers and everything else when I simply wanted to work and concentrate on what I was doing. And being in an office, the temptation and distraction for me were other people because there was always someone to gab with about something.

I have a home-based office, but that's not something I emphasize or promote. The fact that my office happens to be in my home, to me, is of absolutely no relevance or consequence to the services I provide to clients. In fact, I believe it helps me deliver more value and service to clients. I'm much happier, more focused and more productive in my own environment than I ever was having to go to an office. I, personally, don't find it a challenge to be disciplined because I thoroughly enjoy my work, and the experience of working from my own office, and look forward to it each day. My home office also helps keep overhead costs low.

If I was forced back to anything resembling the constrictive, inhibiting, soul-draining grind of commuting and working in an office 9-5, I would have to give up being a business owner (or more accurately, shoot myself), because a large part of the reason I wanted start a business was more control over the quality of my life. Here, I can sit looking out at the water (we live on waterfront property) as I happily work with nothing more distracting than the waves bouncing against the shore when the tide is up.

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