Practicing Law During the Pandemic

I never dreamed the pandemic would have gone on as long as it has. And now, we are faced with another wave of new COVID cases, with the City of Houston urging all Houstonians to forego their traditional holiday get-togethers in favor of staying in and staying safe.

Many large law firms have laid off staff en masse in order to stay afloat during the first months of the pandemic. Some are just now coming back to full staff; others are still working remotely or on shortened schedules.

So what is a prudent attorney to do who needs to scale back his costs, yet be sure the clients are taken care of? Have you considered hiring a virtual assistant?

Top 5 Reasons to Hire a Virtual Legal Secretary

1. Reduce Your Overhead. Prime office space isn’t cheap, but if you can work remotely, you don’t have to worry about exorbitant parking fees, rent in upscale office buildings, and myriad other expenses. Virtual firms also typically have far fewer fixed staffing and administrative costs by outsourcing many services and using cloud-based
   communications, networks and technology.
2. Let Technology Work for You. Technology has moved swiftly to keep up with the new demands the pandemic has placed on all of us. This includes cloud-based hosting, virtual meeting services, and other tools to help an attorney work remotely. The more remote work you can do, the less your overhead is going to be and the better your bottom line.
3. No Commitment to Hiring a Full-Time Employee. A huge reason to “go virtual” is that you only need to pay for the services you use. By hiring a virtual assistant who can be available at a moment’s notice, you don’t waste money on down time, vacation pay, employment taxes, and the like. You pay a flat rate for the number of hours you use in a month. (Just check out our pricing panel to see how affordable and convenient a virtual assistant can be.)
4. Better Work-Life Balance. For individual lawyers, the biggest benefit of working remotely or as part of a remote team is that you can maintain a work/life balance nearer to what you really want. Of course, it’s still hard work, of course there are still long hours, but there should be more scope for control over when you work and how you work.
5. Virtual Practice Ensures Competitive Pricing In the 21st century most legal services are provided by telephone and email. Many clients never personally meet the lawyers with whom they are working. Lower overhead costs means that the attorney can offer clients more flexibility in how services are provided, whether that be flexible pricing, on-site hours or dynamic teams. Clents are assured that they are paying for legal services from experienced lawyers, not for fancy offices, gourmet coffee, or training junior personnel.

Think We Are a Fit?

I stand ready and able to help you work your virtual legal practice. With over 40 years’ of civil litigation experience as a senior legal secretary, I believe I can tailor a plan just right for your law practice.