The Greatest American Lawyer

Virtual Worker Job Board For Law Firms

Every week, we receive dozens of resumes from individuals who want to be virtual law clerks, virtual lawyers, virtual paralegals and general virtual staff.  Clearly, there are a tremendous number of incredibly talented people out there who are offering their service as virtual contractors. 

The Greatest American Lawyer Blog is proud to announce that it has purchased and launched a free virtual worker / job posting board at http://virtualworkers.greatestamericanlawyer.com/.  Virtual workers can upload their resumes in order to seek employment from law firms, corporations seeking to supplement their in-house legal staff and other people and entities interested in contracted workers. 

If you are a virtual worker looking an employer match, feel free to create a profile and upload your resume here. 

If you are an employer who is seeking virtual workers within the legal services industry, upload your job posting here.

At Traverse Legal, we believe that virtual workers will be a significant part of the labor pool for law firms, lawyers and other companies looking for legal professionals.  To all my fellow bloggers out there, we would appreciate if you would announce and link to this new service as we continue to promote the virtual worker model as THE BEST singular alternative for law firms and in-house legal staff to solve the problem of knowing when to hire that next worker, the constant fluctuation of workloads and obtaining specialized workers within niche practice areas.

Law Firm Staffing Decisions Often Shortchange the Client

In many of the firms that I have worked for through the years, the fundamental decision is to whether or not to add a new associate is based on one simple question. The question isn’t whether or not there are tasks being left undone. The decision has nothing to do with the level of service clients receive. The decision is based on whether or not work capacities are pushed to the limit whether every associate’s plate is so full that they can’t possibly deal with their workload.

While this approach certainly makes sense from an hourly billing perspective, it is fundamentally anti-client. Sure, law firms don’t want to add an associate if workload fluctuations will mean that those associates will be looking for hours to bill 3 months down the line. At a given moment, the associate workload may be way beyond the ability of the associate workforce to get all the tasks done that really need to be done in order to accomplish client goals. The law firms are concerned that that workload might fluctuate downward and that they will have over hired. Law firms deal with the "over hire" situation by creating make-work for their associates. You know this type of work. It’s the work that associates do which really doesn’t add any value to the case strategy or the client goals. Nevertheless, it appears legitimate on the billing record.

Another tremendous advantage of the virtual worker program is that it is scalable. Law firms do not have to worry about overhead, finding more office space, adding a secretary to support the associate or law clerk, being stuck with an associate who is doing make-work as opposed to strategic work. Our virtual employees are added as needed with no overhead to the law firm. If the workload fluctuates downward, the law firm has not made an investment, which they cannot undo. Each virtual law clerk/associate operates as a profit center for the firm. Where is the downside?