Market Areas > Practice Management > Virtual Legal Assistant

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Virtual Paralegals and Legal Assistants: How to Maximize Cost Savings & Increase Client Value

Course Description:

Why not consider turning to a Virtual Assistant (VA) to cut costs and increase your firm’s value? With the economic recession in full swing, today’s law firm faces increasing client pressure to build greater value and efficiency into their firm’s legal services cost structure. 

Virtual paralegals offer a tremendous advantage to both law firms and in-house legal departments.  They can help lawyers keep costs down while keeping production up. In fact, hiring just one VA could save you over $60,000 a year.  That’s as much as 80 percent lower than the traditional in-house office style set-up. 

In addition to the obvious cost savings, consider the following benefits VAs offer:

• VAs only get paid for their support services on an ‘as needed’ basis. No overhead expenses, no cost in paying benefits, taxes, workers’ compensation, sick and holiday pay.

• Training is now a thing of the past.  With so much fierce competition in the virtual market place, savvy lawyers who know what they want can pick and choose the perfect addition, with a skill set that is up to par with expectations.

• Heavy workload and need a quick turn around.  You can tap into your virtual worker pool and kick things out quickly and easily.

VAs also serve as a valuable resource to your existing administrative team.  They provide an accurate work product in a timely manner, which maximizes clients’ productivity and save clients’ money.

Yet, it can be a challenge convincing lawyers that they can trust a virtual contractor to get the work done, to do a great job and not be under their eagle eyes.

Discover how to make a virtual partnership work for you in this invaluable CCM audio conference.  Our expert faculty will present real-life examples of the pros and cons of hiring and managing virtual assistants. Plus, by the end of this interactive session, you’ll also know:

• When outsourcing legal administration makes sense and when it doesn’t
• How to choose the right VA for your firm
• Best practices for managing a virtual assistant or administrator
• How to maximize cost efficiency with a VA.
• Confidentiality and security issues for working with a VA
• Ethics and employee morale issues to watch out for
• How to handle turnover of your virtual workforce

Featured Faculty:

Enrico Schaefer, Attorney, Traverse Legal, PLC

As the founding attorney of Traverse Legal, PLC, Mr. Schaefer is a seasoned trial attorney practicing internet, domain and trademark, class action and mass tort law on a global basis. Mr. Schaefer has first chair trial experience in a wide variety of litigation matters, including class action litigation, mass accident, internet and domain law, cybersquatting actions, intellectual property, commercial and fiduciary litigation, UDRP and IP licensing. He has represented some of the largest companies in the world in litigation, domain name, trademark and related matters. He has multiple million dollar plus verdicts to his name. He is a frequent author and presenter on issues related to protecting business interests in a global internet economy. Mr. Schaefer represents personal, company and business interests from around the world and provides practice advice on technology issues for law firm and alternative billing practices at the Greatest American Lawyer blog.

Brian A. Hall, Attorney, Traverse Legal, PLC

Mr. Hall is a 2002 graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and received his Juris Doctor degree cum laude from Michigan State University College of Law in 2007.  His practice areas include general civil litigation, business law, and intellectual property, including trademarks and domain name disputes.  Like his partner, Enrico, Brian seeks to change the way law is practiced by defining strategy and deliverables at the outset in order to deliver value to his clients.

Aretha Gaskin, Proud Founder and CEO, The Virtual Legal Assistant and Bankruptcy Forms Processing

Aretha Gaskin is the proud Founder and CEO of The Virtual Legal Assistant and Bankruptcy Forms Processing, two companies that are designed to be full service administrative tools for solopreneurs and small business professionals in the legal and non-legal arenas worldwide.

Aretha has over ten years of legal administrative management experience, has worked with some of New York's largest law firms and is well-known in the legal and VA communities. She is also a faculty member of the prestigious Solo Practice University, teaching the course “Virtual Assistants and Solo Practitioners” and serves on the Membership Committee of the International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA).

With numerous retainer clients and a wealth of contacts and experience, Aretha is well equipped to provide professional support to your solo practice or small business.

MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE:

Pricing:

Your CD recording includes the complete audio conference presentation, audience Q&A and presentation materials.

CLE:

CCM provides audio conference attendees with CLE credit processing services. To expedite CCM processing your CLE request, please complete and submit the evaluation form available from CCM at the conclusion of the audio conference. It will be necessary to enter the following information: name of each attorney requesting CLEs with full contact information, including e-mail address, bar number, and the state in which the attorney wants credits. Each attorney requesting credits must submit an evaluation.

Please be advised CCM audio conferences are subject to approval from each CLE issuing organization and approval is not guaranteed (state bar associations in Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania do not grant CLE credits for audio conferences). The approval process takes approximately 6 - 8 weeks for most organizations but can take as long as 3 - 4 months. You will be notified via e-mail with the final status of your CLE application.

Any person applying for CLE credits must attend the audio conference from start to finish (attendance will be taken for compliance reasons). Requests for CLE credits must be received no later than two weeks following the conclusion of the audio conference or live conference. CLE credits are not available for CD recordings.

If you have any questions regarding CLE credits, contact Jill Adler at 631.368.2082 x 21 or jill.adler@meeting-matters.com.

Each CCM event presents a variety of information and is presented for each organization to develop its own approach and methodology.