A virtual legal assistant is a professional that offers remote personal and administrative assistance to law firms and legal personnel. They often operate independently from anywhere around the world and can help law firms increase their efficiency and capacity. They also only get compensated for their working hours since they do not require office space or equipment. The tasks virtual legal assistants undertake normally include a law firm’s day-to-day transactions, such as transcription, file administration, legal research, email, and call handling, taking control of live chats, organising inboxes, and processing contracts for signature [1]. 

Virtual legal assistants can also come in the form of law bots. These simple chatbots with legal applications are used to handle customer service requests and provide a better client experience [2]. They can be used to have a client fill out a questionnaire regarding their legal issue and then use an algorithm to predict the outcome of their legal issue [3]. This essentially automates some of the work carried out by lawyers to increase their capacity.

Lawyers are responsible for numerous administrative tasks in addition to staying on top of their game by winning cases and maintaining client relationships. All these tasks generate a huge workload for lawyers to complete in a limited amount of time. This is where the role of a virtual legal assistant comes in as administrative or research-related tasks that do not require a lawyer’s expertise can be outsourced to them [4].

Why Virtual Legal Assistants Hired?

More employees need to be hired once a law firm reaches its full capacity to maintain operational efficiency. Hiring staff as full-time employees creates additional expenses in the form of annual salaries and company benefits. However, hiring virtual legal assistants offer a more cost-effective and productive option as they do not result in any long-term commitments being made. As legal practices continue to grow or reach their maximum capacity, different aspects of the firm such as accounting, compliance, and administrative functions can be outsourced. Now more than ever, administrative tasks are increasingly being outsourced to virtual legal assistants who manage a law firm’s document management software, electronic signature software, and case management software. This frees up more time for the business while cutting costs as virtual legal assistants get paid by the hour and for the exact work they do on an ad hoc basis. Moreover, it also solves the problem of hiring full-time employees for smaller functions that do not have such a large workload but still need to be outsourced. Virtual legal assistants provide a great budget-friendly alternative and are becoming increasingly popular due to the flexibility they offer [5].

Virtual Legal Assistants & The Use of Technology

The use of legal technology is a norm in the legal sector due to its ability to improve task management through workflow automation. Legal technology solutions create firm-wide standardized processes that improve efficiency and data security. When using virtual legal assistants law firms may have to grant them access to their systems which contain confidential client information. Secure cloud-based platforms are used here to restrict the virtual assistant’s access to information and ensure greater security [6].

Gartner predicts that by 2023, law-bots will handle one-fourth of internal legal queries as the demand for corporate legal departments to speed up their response times and boost their productivity increases [7]. The pressure on legal teams to increase efficiency grows as the number of legal inquiries increases. Law firms can respond to this increasing demand by using chatbots and law-bots to automate certain aspects of their practice.

Law chatbots will be able to assist corporate legal departments in expediting legal procedures and meeting deadlines more quickly by incorporating legal artificial intelligence tools. Increased productivity will help legal departments to greater employee satisfaction and the flexibility to assign their legal expertise to higher-value, more challenging duties. These artificial intelligence based solutions can help virtual legal assistants for legal drafting, contract vetting, and research [8].

What Are The Benefits Of Using Virtual Legal Assistants? 

Virtual legal assistants are extremely advantageous to law firms in terms of increasing productivity, lowering operating costs, managing all non-essential tasks, and providing clients with a much better customer experience [9].

The main benefit of hiring a virtual legal assistant is that it saves lawyers time and money and as a result increases overall business efficiency. This includes managing legal documents, scheduling appointments, conducting legal research, and responding to client queries. Moreover, legal research and writing tasks are extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive, making it great to outsource to qualified virtual legal assistants. This allows lawyers to work on more practical tasks.

Law firms no longer need to expand their legal teams as they can simply employ virtual legal assistants to handle all non-core legal tasks at an hourly rate on an ad hoc basis. Legal and administrative work can be severely time-consuming, distracting lawyers from more complicated tasks. Lawyers can focus on more significant issues as virtual legal assistants handle the repetitive tasks that do not require specialized lawyers [10].

When it comes to improving the overall client experience, virtual legal assistants ensure there is constant communication with the client. This can be done by sending follow-up emails, reminders, and messages on festive occasions. It can be difficult for lawyers to get their work done while responding to client queries and calls that are not as urgent. These can be left with virtual legal assistants who ensure that clients are not neglected.

Lawyer’s can also create a personalized task list for virtual legal assistants once hired. Focusing on the areas where the firm needs the most assistance helps in dividing the work and having an organised structure. Lastly, having a remotely accessible assistant that can operate in multiple time zones and work odd hours is an extremely important asset for lawyers who have multiple deadlines to meet [11].

Final Words

A virtual legal assistant significantly reduces a lawyer’s workload and stress levels by taking complete responsibility for administrative tasks. The benefits of virtual legal assistants and chatbots continue to grow as outsourcing and legal workflow automation become a more cost-effective option to increase a law firm’s capacity compared to hiring a full-time employee.

References:

[1] ‘15 Tasks A Virtual Legal Assistant Can Do For You’ at https://20four7va.com/client-tips/virtual-legal-assistant/ (2021)

[2] The Center for Legal Leadership, ‘Law Bots’, Legal Leadership at https://www.legalleadership.co.uk/knowledge/the-bigger-picture/technology-and-innovation/law-bots/

[3] Rupert Jones, ‘Rise of the Lawbots’, Counsel Magazine (2017) at https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/rise-of-the-lawbots

[4] Ritu Kaushal, ‘Why Law Firms Take Help of Virtual Legal Assistants?’ at https://www.cogneesol.com/blog/why-law-firms-take-help-of-virtual-legal-assistants/ (2021)

[5] ‘The Virtual Legal Assistant’ at https://outsourceworkers.com.au/virtual-legal-assistant/ (2021) 

[6] Ibid

[7] ‘The invisible revolution: Virtual Legal Assistants and Law-Bots are on the rise’ at https://bryter.com/blog/virtual-legal-assistants-and-law-bots-on-the-rise/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic (2021) 

[8] ‘Why Should You Hire Virtual Legal Assistant? : 9 Reasons’ at https://www.247legalassist.com/blog/post/why-should-you-hire-virtual-legal-assistant-9-reasons 

[9] ‘What Are The Benefits Of Hiring A Virtual Legal Assistant?’ at https://zedtreeo.com/what-are-the-benefits-of-hiring-a-virtual-legal-assistant/ (2021)

[10] ‘Advantages Of Hiring A Legal Virtual Assistant: What You Need To Know’ at https://www.virtuallatinos.com/blog/advantages-of-hiring-legal-virtual-assistant-what-you-need-to-know/ (2021) 

[11] Ibid