The Greatest American Lawyer

Central Florida Paralegal Opens Virtual Assistance Company

February 2008 – ChampionsGate, FL

Paula Matthews, a central Florida paralegal with over 20 years’ experience  working with several top rated attorneys, recently started her own Virtual Assistance (VA) company, i-Administrative Services, LLC.

i-Administrative Services, LLC will be providing small law firms and sole practitioners with virtual legal assistance, specializing in, but not limited to, civil litigation, corporate law and contract review and negotiation. The goal is to provide accurate work product in a timely manner to maximize clients’ productivity and save clients’ money.

A Virtual Assistant is not a temporary employee but an independent contractor who establishes long standing business relationships with clients who do not require a full-time employee. The benefit to the client is no overhead expenses, no cost in paying benefits, taxes, workers’ compensation, sick and holiday pay.

For further information, contact:
i-Administrative Services, LLC
www.i-Administrative.com
mgr@i-Administrative.com
(863) 398-3840
(407) 997-2931

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.

Introducing Virtual Paralegal Aretha Gaskin

The Virtual Legal Assistant, Inc.
Aretha Gaskin
Owner & Virtual Support Professional
Based in Westfield, New Jersey USA
908-757-3300
www.tvlai.com
arethagaskin(@)tvlai.com

My name is Aretha Gaskin and I am a virtual support professional and I’ve worked at some of New York City’s largest law firms and bring well over a decade of law firm experience to my two companies: The Virtual Legal Assistant Inc., and Bankruptcy Forms Processing Inc.  Prior to working in the legal industry, I worked in the non-legal world for several years as an Executive Secretary.  Helping solo and small business professionals overcome their administrative challenges is the focus of my virtual practice.

I offer an array of virtual secretarial and virtual receptionist services catering specifically to the legal community.  My services range from the personal assistant level to ensuring the success of those stand alone projects so critical to any business.  In essence, I cater to both the busy solo practitioner and the start-up entrepreneur.

Introducing Virtual Paralegal Lisa Gibson

I received an email from Paralegal Lisa Gibson the other day concerning possible virtual paralegal positions.  As mentioned in this previous post, we will now be promoting any virtual worker in the legal industry who's got their own website.  If you want to be featured, simply send an email to Greatest.American @gmail.com. 

Here is the link to Lisa Gibson and Legal Office Services.

Quality Legal Services at Affordable Prices

I am Lisa Gibson, a Paralegal since 1988. I provide Paralegal and Legal Secretarial services for attorneys and law firms from my home office in Maryland. Let me tell you a little about me. I am "Virtually" and "Traditionally" accomplished in helping attorneys and law offices. My services are done by free pick up and delivery, U.S. Mail, Express Mail, Email, Facsimile Transmissions and courier service.

In this day and age, much of the work that I do can be done “virtually.” In these changing times and for the more Internet fluent attorneys, I am also known as a “Virtual Paralegal, Virtual Legal Secretary and even a Virtual Legal Assistant.” The term “virtual” relates to a growing support system that enables me to perform most of my legal services for you “virtually”, that is-- online, via email and the Internet. Some attorneys prefer a more face-to face approach with their work being picked up and dropped off in the old fashioned way-- and that is happily done and encouraged as well!

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?