One can generally describe today’s law practice as an interwoven and complex set of tasks and responsibilities. From intake, discovery, case management and development to research, scheduling, client care and more, every activity represents an opportunity and a risk to the success of your firm. Consequently, the pressure on realization, staff and client expectations present mounting pressures, especially for smaller firms. The multitude and variety of these taskings lead to inefficiencies that cannot easily be avoided, resulting in downward pressure on growth and profitability. Business process outsourcers (BPOs) providing paralegal and legal assistant services, like those offered by Virtual Paralegal Pros (VPP) and other fine firms, can transform conventional law firm operations into smooth-running, lower stress environments. This is accomplished through the provisioning of skilled outsourced staff delivering a range of tailored services that streamline operations, reduce in-house workload and expense while making growth and higher profitability possible.
Administrative, Legal Assistant and Paralegal Services Customized to Your Needs
One hallmark of successful law practices is their ability to handle a myriad of unique cases efficiently and profitably while delivering a sublime experience to the client. Recognizing this, the very few best BPOs focused specifically on law offer flexible and collaborative assistance in designing the workflow and determining which roles and tasks will be outsourced. Central to this is how the virtual team will integrate with your in-house professionals and adapt to firm protocols and culture. In the best teaming scenarios, your legal assistants are not just temporary aids but fully and permanently dedicated members of your operation. The better outsourcing firms have full-time employees who become permanently dedicated to your firm while their performance, payroll, benefits and performance management are the BPO’s responsibility, relieving you of recruiting, training, turnover and HR risk.
Enhancing Operational Efficiency
Most BPOs don’t realize that the back-office operations of law firms vary significantly from that or other service businesses. A few BPOs offer efficient back-office support, enabling law firms to achieve substantial gains in quality and effectiveness. This support, which is provided at a far lower cost than in-house staff, can be critical to a firm's growth and profitability. When carefully managed, invoicing and billing practices performed by virtual assistants with caring and affable personalities can accelerate collections while enhancing client relationships. We term this “Intelligent Client Management” which, when performed correctly, can turn billing and collections and other tedious aspects of managing a practice into a competitive advantage. These tasks are some of the more high-gain areas to outsource as it frees your team to focus on more strategic work at very low cost.
Other areas we currently manage for our law firm clients are intake and discovery, comprehensive case management and development, training and providing technical support for our client’s US and overseas staff, performing new client enrollment, case management and quality control.
In conclusion, the best BPOs serving the legal community can be more than outsourcing providers. They should become strategic allies that help eliminate “slack” or inefficiencies, unleashing your in-house staff’s potential, reducing overhead, eliminating HR risks and allowing you to concentrate on what you do best.
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