Partnering With a Virtual Legal Assistant, Part 3

Posted by Laurie on April 7, 2009 in Legal Practice, virtual legal assistance | Comments Off

Yay! You’ve selected the perfect Virtual Legal Assistant for you. She knows her stuff and you are more than ready to hand over some of the work. But how, exactly, do you get started? I can tell you from experience that for some of my clients this has been the hardest part!!

Well the first thing to do is to get a contract signed. Personally, I offer a standard Contract for Services to my clients, which sets out my fee for services, the types of services I’ll be performing, clauses about confidentiality, etc. Personally I’m open to signing a client provided contract if they prefer, or making some changes to my contract as needed. I would not work with a virtual legal assistant without a contract, especially as pertains to confidentiality agreement clauses.

After you’ve signed the contract you’ll want to give your VLA her first project or two. I recommend you start slow. Give one or two very simple projects. Ask for a weekly time report or a per project time report, to make sure the time spent matches your expectations.

Have a weekly telephone call or email check-in to discuss what is coming up in the next week so you can both be on the same page. Share your calendar or details of upcoming travel, conferences etc. Ask questions to clarify as carefully as possible. Be prepared to promptly answer questions so that your virtual legal assistant isn’t left hanging while a deadline looms.

Probably the most important thing to realize is that the relationship is likely to evolve and grow as you work together over time. Trust takes time to build. You may find you planned to have your new virtual legal assistant perform just a few hours of assistance per month and as time passes you realize how much of a benefit it is and start to use significantly more time.  This is a great time to check and see if she offers a discount for retainer clients or for clients who use a minimum number of hours within a month.

Do you need a reminder of what types of work your virtual legal assistant can do for you? I’ve written on the topic before, and really your VLA can probably do anything you would have an in-house assistant do, but here’s a quick reference list for you:

• Research (case law, marketing research or even interesting links for use on your blog!)
• First drafts of legal documents – everything from court pleadings to wills
• Correspondence
• Document review
• Project management
• Scheduling of appointments
• Email monitoring
• Updating your calendar
• Reviewing and organizing trial materials

And don’t forget to consider how you are sharing information with your virtual legal assistant. Send her things by courier, fax or secure workspace – don’t send confidential information simply via email! I love my project management application for this – I now exclusively use TeamWork PM for my clients and it’s fabulous for sharing documents, sending messages and managing deadlines!

Next week will be the last installment in my series on partnering with a virtual legal assistant. I’ll be addressing some miscellaneous concerns and answering any questions that have come up – please let me know if there is anything specific you want to see!