The last few years have seen a big increase in the number of people offering remote business support. Much of this is generalised support, focusing on admin or PA duties. However, the reality is, that’s not enough for most law firms.
The legal sector is complex. It has its own terminology, software, processes and ways of operating. It isn’t a standard sector to work in, and in most cases, a standard business support solution won’t work.
Why you need to work with a legal VA
Legal VAs and PAs are used to working to challenging deadlines. We’re responsive, and good problem solvers. I’ve been working in the legal sector for over twenty years now. I know what it’s like and have worked those late nights and weekends to get documents ready for court or bundles of documents out for signing.
Most importantly, a legal VA understands lawyers. We know the language of the law firm, and how it works. So, you don’t have to try and teach a legal VA about the industry, and they can get started helping you right away.
What support can a legal VA provide?
A legal VA can help your law firm with a broad range of services covering both general business support and specific legal activities, including:
- Legal document and file management
- Organising documents for e-sign
- Client onboarding
- Raising and chasing invoices
- Dataroom use and organisation
- Organising travel bookings and trips
- Diary management
- Document formatting
- Event organisation
- Creating PowerPoint presentations
- Liaising with other providers (IT, marketing, finance).
What to look for when hiring a legal VA
- Experience – Look for a VA with legal experience. LinkedIn is a great tool for seeing employment history and what firms a VA has worked for. At least 5+ years of legal experience is a good starting point.
- Recommendations – Check for recent reviews or references. Alternatively, if any of your colleagues or peers have worked with a VA before, a personal recommendation is great for increasing confidence in a new hire.
- Knowledge of legal tools – Ask your potential new legal VA what software and tools they use, from legal CRMs to document signing and collaboration tools. If you’re interested in finding out more about essential tools and technologies for your law firm, download our FREE eBook: 11 Essential actions to make you and your law firm more organised
- Practice area experience – Law is a broad sector, with different specialisms and niches. Work with a legal VA who has experience in your practice area.
- Legal document skills – Document work makes up a large part of the admin requirements for most law firms. Your new VA should be comfortable with formatting, inserting cross-references, creating bundles and managing electronic document signing.
Legal VA specialisms and niches
Sometimes, your firm needs more targeted business support and expertise. When hiring a new VA, be realistic about the support you need.
For instance, marketing and business development is an important activity for law firms. However, it is often neglected due to a lack of time or resources. If you want help in this area, then this is specialist support and requires a VA with these specific skills and experiences.
A legal VA with marketing and business development experience will understand how to organise, market and communicate the work of law firms to potential clients including:
· Organising and reporting on pipelines of new work
· Customer relationship management
· Event organisation
· Preparing marketing materials (print and digital)
· Social media posting
· Blogging and writing newsletters.
If your firm needs specialist support in an area like this, you may need to be more targeted in your search for a VA, or consider working with a larger legal support firm…
How Kellie Simpson Virtual Business Support could help your law firm
Our team of virtual assistants have legal experience and expertise, meaning they can easily fit into your firm and start helping you with your legal business support and admin.
We have a strong team, each with valuable skills to bring to your firm. Returning to our marketing and business development example, we’re large enough to provide this niche support. Katryna is our specialist Business Development Coordinator and can help with a broad range of BD activities. However, we also have VAs who can support with social media, preparing PowerPoint presentations, blogging, and more.
We can work flexibly with your firm, providing you with one, two, or more VAs. You only pay for the support you need and have none of the usual on-costs like accommodation, holiday pay, sick pay etc.
To find out more, book a call today
