Legal Assistants Description
The role of legal assistants has drastically changed in the last few years. They are no longer just people who handles all attorney or client paperwork and answers phones. Today's legal assistant is much much more. He/she/they are the single entry point of contact within majority law firms. A legal assistant can take the responsibility of front desk receptionist, paralegal, and virtual office assistant on many occasions. In fact, it's the legal assistants who are nowadays responsible for the revenue generation of many law firms.
What Do Legal Assistants Do?
Legal Assistants are more than just people who help lawyers with administrative tasks. The work they do is crucial to the success of any firm. If a law firm wants to be successful, the legal assistants working there must be the best in the business. Law firms are often unaware of how much they rely on their legal assistants to help them with their work. Legal assistants are people who are legally trained to assist in document preparation, physical and e-file files, update and maintain firm calendars, provide client updates, client intake, invoice and billing, database management, etc. They are experts in their field. They are also familiar with court procedures and legal office workflow.
Benefits Of Having A Legal Assistant
Legal assistants complete tasks that sometimes a lawyer cannot complete or does not have the time to do so. There are multiple benefits of having a legal assistant that we will explore below:
Offload Work:
Law firm partners and associates can spend a lot of time on administrative tasks that can't be billed to clients. According to the 2020 Legal Trends report found on Clio.com, Attorneys spent, on average, 2.5 hours per day on billable items. That amount compared to the maximum amount of hours an attorney can work per week is worrisome to say the least. Having a Legal Assistant to handle these tasks in a timely manner can take some of the workloads off of attorneys and law firms and ensure billable time and hours for each employee necessary.
Legal Researchers:
Legal Assistants may also play an important role in legal research. Assisting lawyers in finding precedents, similar case law, past rulings and case similarities may be helpful in firm cases. They can also conduct broader research across statutes, case jurisdiction, commentary on a specific topic, and fact checking in specific cases.
Quality Service:
A legal assistant can help run a law firm more smoothly by taking care of the behind the scene tasks that are crucial and time-consuming for law firms. It is not common for a legal assistant to be asked to assist with organizing training material, employee and client onboarding, timekeeping duties, court fille follow-ups, vendor management, the possibilities are endless. As a legal assistant, he/she/they can provide excellent services by supplying lawyers with the smallest details of the case and an extra pair of eyes for every aspect.
Budget-Friendly:
The cost of hiring a lawyer is significantly higher than the cost of hiring a Legal Assistant to do filing and research tasks. A qualified Legal Assistant can perform these tasks at a fraction of a lawyer's hourly rate without sacrificing quality. This way you can get budget-friendly legal administrative assistance while still making sure your firm thrives.
Connection and Confidence:
A common statement that we've heard over the years from lawyers is that they "just want to be lawyers.". This can mean that, most of the time, in their practice, lawyers have to worry about everything else in their firm while enjoying practicing law gets further and further away from them until they realize, when they submit their 2.5 billable hours for the week, that they have become just another W-2 employee. Legal assistants are a critical part in many firms across the world because they free up those administrative, operations, and business marketing responsibilities to allow attorneys the time and support to connect with and serve their clients the best way they know how!
Conclusion:
A legal assistant is a crucial and critical part of any law firm. They aren’t just a position title you can take lightly. As you’ve learned here, they, in most cases, are the backbone of a lot of firms- ensuring that the day-to-day operations run smoothly, and more importantly, helping attorneys feel a sense of relief and connection with performing their job functions. Legal assistants, a lot of the time, don't get the credit they deserve, but you can be sure that a good portion of lawyers appreciate their assistance.
