From organizational leadership to administrative work, effective practice management is essential to a law firm’s profitability and growth. If you’re an attorney who finds themselves spending too many hours and resources on non-billable tasks, keep reading to discover a simple three-step equation that can transform your practice (or watch the video!).
Step 1: Outsource work to a virtual paralegal.
No matter the size of your law firm, managing the workload is essential. Despite the long hours that most lawyers put in, Clio’s 2021 Legal Trends Report found that the average lawyer bills just 2.5 hours of an 8-hour workday. So, with fluctuating caseloads and tight deadlines, getting the right level of administrative support and freeing up more billable time can be the key to improving your firm’s profitability.
Virtual paralegals offer an affordable and flexible alternative to hiring on-site legal support. A virtual paralegal is an experienced professional who can assist with tasks such as client intake, pleadings, law and motion drafting, due diligence matters, and legal research. These experienced pros can deliver quality support and flexibility, without the added overhead costs of an in-office employee, such as space, equipment, and tax withholdings. Small and solo law firms in particular can benefit from using virtual paralegals, as many attorneys in these types of practices get caught up in the day-to-day administrative tasks. By delegating less specialized tasks to paralegals, you can focus more of your time on serving clients, growing your practice, and completing specialized legal work.
A paralegal outsourcing company like Equivity can match your firm with an experienced, US-based, college-educated paralegal or legal secretary who can function as a shared resource for your whole team. Equivity also offers a wide range of scalable plans so that you can increase your hours as your practice grows, and the need arises. You can contact Equivity to learn more about our virtual paralegal services here.
Step 2: Take advantage of a practice management solution.
Today, the most successful law firms have systems and practices in place to stay organized, create a better working environment for their associates and staff, and create a more client-centered experience. The right law firm management software can provide your firm with a reliable solution to managing routine workflows and business operations, and ensuring that your administrative tasks are completed more efficiently and with less chance of error.
An all-in-one, cloud-based practice management solution like Clio can help your firm run effectively and securely from anywhere. Your legal teams will always have access to the most up-to-date case and contact details, and be able to create, edit, store, locate, and collaborate on documents anywhere and using any device.
Step 3: Use Equivity and Clio for lasting law firm success.
Clio and Equivity have recently partnered up to provide law firms with the most comprehensive solution for managing and growing their firms. Equivity’s virtual paralegals can help your firm get the most from Clio’s cloud-based practice management software. Here are just a few ways that Equivity and Clio together can help your practice:
Client intake and CRM: Struggling to manage all your clients and contacts? Using Clio Grow, your virtual paralegal can transform how your firm attracts and retains new clients by creating a more client-centered intake process and customer relationship management system.
Clio Grow can help your firm streamline communications and create a better experience for clients. Easily manage initial client intake tasks such as filling out forms, paying up-front fees, and booking consultations online. Your virtual paralegal can use Clio to:
- Create custom intake forms
- Schedule consultations and accept payments online
- Automate your intake process
Time tracking and billing: You know that accurate time tracking, and billing are vital to your law firm’s profitability. Your paralegal can use Clio’s time tracking and billing features to keep track of billable hours, invoice clients, manage costs, and produce expense reports. With Clio, all financial and accounting documents are stored in one secure place. The system can also enable your firm to share invoices quickly and allow clients to pay balances conveniently online.
Create automations/workflows: Bring more efficiency to your law firm by creating automations and workflows. Workflows can enable your staff to take actions on tasks and display to-do lists in chronological order. For more efficiency, workflow templates can be created for tasks like emails, appointments, forms, documents, and email campaigns.
Conflict checks: Your firm needs to have an effective procedure in place for conflict checks to avoid any compliance issues or potential claims. Your virtual paralegal can use Clio’s global search feature to check whether a prospective client has ever interacted with your firm in the past and create reports detailing all the possible locations where a potential source of conflict has been identified.
Ready to get started?
A lot happens between a potential client’s first call and the final invoice, and our partner, Clio, is there—every step of the way—offering an unmatched, integrated suite of products covering the entire legal client lifecycle.
Law firms using Equivity’s paralegal services in conjunction with Clio increase revenue, strengthen client relationships, and save time by automating tedious tasks and simplifying end-of-month billing.
Learn how virtual assistants can help your business. Ruby customers receive 10% off their first month with Equivity using promo code: RUBY10.
And, to make sure that you’re winning over prospective clients from the jump, you can use Ruby, a law firm client communication solution that integrates with Clio. With live virtual receptionists and chat specialists that answer calls and are available online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Ruby will ensure that your firm responds to new inquiries promptly and professionally.
