Attorneys: 3 Things to Delegate to Your Legal Assistant
Many young attorneys are coming into the legal profession with increased technology skills. This could be a double-edged sword in the legal office setting. While it’s very helpful when an attorney can type and proficiently use word processing programs, there’s one important person that is being under-utilized: your legal assistant. Here are three things that you could delegate to her that will free you up to work on other tasks:
- Typing letters and other documents. Most likely, your assistant has many, many templates for letters and other legal documents. Either dictate the letter for her or give her the basics of what the letter should contain. Let her prepare the document for your approval.
- Deposition notices. Again, your assistant has probably created hundreds of these and has the format set up on her computer. Give her the details of the deposition and let her create the deposition notice for your signature.
- Proofreading/editing. A second set of eyes is always a good idea on something you’ve written. It’s easy for you to get lost in the ideas you’re writing about and overlook simple punctuation or grammatical errors that someone else could see.
Allowing your assistant to take on these tasks will free you up for other work, and probably please your client, since they won’t have to pay your hourly rate to create letters and basic legal documents.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Angie Starbuck is a court reporter in Columbus, Ohio, and the owner of PRI Court Reporting, LLC. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Google+.