Find out why law firms are increasingly relying on virtual legal support and what to look for in a virtual assistant.
Advances in technology and consolidation in the global legal market have made process efficiency a constant item on the agenda of legal industry leaders. Long gone are the days of rooms full of legal secretaries in expensive city offices. Smart law firms are switching to more efficient processes, combining remote workers, technology and expertise from across the world.
Copyright: Exigent Group Limited
Why should you consider outsourcing your secretary?
- Time and cost
Finding a secretary or PA that ticks all your boxes takes time and, as well as salary costs, you need space and IT support. In addition, they need training and managing, but do you have the time?
- Ensuring productivity
You need an onsite secretary to be fully productive and utilised to get true value; if a secretary is not busy they may leave but you then run the risk of having no support when work picks up. People who need secretarial support are busy; they do not have time to check and manage the work quality and get the true value of the support.
- Business demands
An 8-hour day doesn’t equate to 8 hours of output and professionals requiring secretarial support rarely work just an 8-hour day.
Additional hours can be the norm, with a corresponding need for appropriate secretarial support. How would you seek support in such an environment?
Choosing your Ideal virtual support partner
Exigent has been providing administrative support to businesses for more than 14 years. We know what works. This is how your virtual support firm/provider should be:
- Professional: your virtual assistant will be representing you and your business so you should be comfortable that they are able to deal professionally with your clients and colleagues.
- Security conscious: your virtual assistant will be your right hand and, as such, will have access to confidential information, so ensure that trust/security can be tangibly demonstrated.
- Flexible: have the ability and capacity to increase hours available to you when you need them – month/financial year end, marketing campaign time or deal-closing, for example.
You’ll need:
- Scalability, resource and cover: deploy a ‘follow the sun’ approach with 24/5 or 24/7 support available as required. In addition, your partner should ensure a team of virtual assistants is available to cope with peaks in workload.
- Specialized skills: one size doesn’t fit all and a provider should give you the appropriate support you need; the right skills for the job.
- Complementary services: additional support should be available including document services, creative design, document proofreading/editing and translations.
- Account management: experienced account managers ensure smooth service delivery (measured against clear SLAs) and robust account governance, including service reports and insights.
- Technology: You’ll need a technology-oriented business that can ensure seamless integration into your business utilising the most appropriate technology.
These are some of the principles you should follow to make virtual legal support work for you. At Exigent, we know it isn’t always so simple. Our virtual support for law firms includes analyzing the challenges from four perspectives ‑ people, process, technology and financial ‑ before designing the optimal solution for your firm. Our consultants offer a range of solutions rather than assuming that outsourcing is the optimal solution.
