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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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Virtual Assistant
Lynn Carroll of Carrollegal.com is a Virtual Legal Assistant specializing in providing virtual support services to SOHO (small office/home office) attorneys.
Lynn informed me today of an Online International Virtual Assistants Convention which is taking place Thursday, May 18 to Saturday, May 20. Since there has been a lot of talk lately about using a virtual assistant for those of us with a home office or a small office firm, I thought I would provide a heads up on this even.
Carrollegal, will be participating in the tradeshow portion of the convention by staffing an online booth. In addition, she will attend several online seminars presented by VA industry leaders covering topics such as podcasting, virtual technology, media relations, and branding. Beginning May 18, Carrollegal’s exhibit and others can be accessed at www.OIVAC.com and clicking on the link at the right side of the page labeled “Visit Convention”.
This may be an opportunity to find out more about what a virtual legal assistant can do for those us who have a home office. As many know, I have been using a virtual paralegal for sometime now and it is great. Not only can you get the help you need, but it also saves on overhead since you don' t have to actually have office space for the assistant. I love it and do not plan to change my support staff anytime soon.
One of the ways that I can provide the service I want to my clients is by using a virtual paralegal. My paralegal was with me when I had a downtown office. She now works at home via email, fax and lots of digital dictation and PDF's. She is not an employee, but is an independent contractor.
I use an Olympus DS-330 to do my dictation. Once the dictation is done, I save it to my computer in a file folder called Transcription. The DS-330 comes with the software to load on the computer for transferring the file from the 330 to my iBook. I than attached the .wav file to an email and send it off to my paralegal.
My paralegal than opens the file with a great software package that even includes the equipment to transcript the file to the document required. Start Stop Universal transcription system is a complete system. Including the software, foot-pedal and earphones.
The file is transcribed and emailed by my paralegal to me in proof form. I than proof, make any changes necessary, print it and do with it what needs to be done. If at all possible, I never print the document, since I can sign them with my computer by pasting my signature into the document. I fax file when I can and fax letters when I can. Or attach them to emails if possible. This is just one step in working towards the paperLESS office.
This system works great. What is even better is I can dictate anywhere I am and email documents to my paralegal as long as I have wifi. And I can retrieve them from my email and, again do with them what needs to be done.
My next purchase will be a Canon Portable printer and of course the Treo 650 I mentioned before.
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Paperless Office, PDF, PaperLESS, Telecommute, Treo 650
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