Introduction
Introduction
Legal practitioners know that the industry is challenging and competitive. From maintaining client relationships, meeting deadlines, managing staff, attracting new clients and staying on top of legislative changes, running an efficient practice can often hinge on the strength of your support staff.
These roles are pivotal and often overlooked. This comprehensive guide will delve into the importance of Legal Administration Assistants and provide you with 7 key considerations when looking to strengthen this part of your law practice.
Contents
A Legal Administrative Assistant, also known as a Legal Admin Assistant or Legal Office Assistant, provides crucial administrative support to lawyers and legal executives. Their tasks can range from:
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preparing legal documents
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scheduling appointments
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answering phone calls
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maintaining electronic files and correspondence
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data entry
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completing repetitive basic tasks.
They are the backbone of any legal firm, ensuring that operations run smoothly and efficiently AND with the most cost-effective structure for your law practice.
The role of a Legal Administrative Professional goes beyond just completing administrative work. By taking over administrative and other basic tasks, they allow lawyers and legal executives to focus on their core responsibilities, thereby increasing productivity and efficiency.
Their ability to complete this work to a high standard, on time and without requiring significant management time can enable law practices to increase their competitiveness and profitability when compared to their peers.
The cost of hiring a Legal Assistant in Australia can range on average anywhere from $70,000 to $100,000 including superannuation depending on their experience and location.
If you are considering hiring a Legal Administrative Assistant, it’s important to remember that the benefits they bring to your firm often outweigh the costs when taken as a whole. They not only improve efficiency but also contribute to better client relationships through their ability to free up the time of more senior team members who can provide a more client focused service.
If your legal firm is struggling with managing administrative tasks, or if your lawyers are spending too much time on tasks that are not directly related to their core responsibilities or basic and time consuming in nature, it might be time to consider strengthening your Legal Administrative Support capabilities.
Doing so will have many positive impacts on the day-to-day running of your practice, your profitability and an improvement in client relationships.
If your practice has reached the point where you need more legal administration support, you should consider your options and the pros and cons of each choice. You could hire a team member, or you could outsource the role to another company.
When hiring an administrative team member, either full-time or part-time to join your existing team, it’s important to remember that this will include employment benefits such as leave entitlements (annual, personal, maternity, paternity, bereavement etc.), Superannuation and other considerations such as potentially Payroll Tax. There will also be costs to advertise, interview and onboard the new candidate.
If the candidate doesn't have experience in administration support, the costs of training them over an initial period to ensure they can fulfil their duties to a high standard are very real. There will generally be a probationary period which allows both you and the new team member to make sure that everything is running smoothly. If it doesn't work out, you will incur the costs again to repeat the process.
Outsourcing administrative tasks otherwise given to an on-site Legal Administrative Assistant can be a cost-effective and efficient solution for many law firms. Typically speaking, over 70% of the tasks performed by a legal administration assistant can easily be outsourced to a third-party provider.
These tasks include:
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electronic document management
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maintaining databases
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data entry duties
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generating correspondence
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scheduling appointments
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virtual assistant tasks like calendar and email management.
Outsourcing not only saves time and resources but also allows your lawyers to focus on their core responsibilities, leading to increased productivity and potentially higher revenue.
Outsourcing Legal Administrative tasks can be much less expensive than hiring an on-site staff member. As mentioned earlier, the typical cost for a Legal Administrative Assistant can range from $70,000 to $100,000 including Superannuation.
Outsourcing the tasks can save your legal practice around 30-40% per year. Your practice typically receives an extra 20 working days of productivity as the services are provided year-round due to a lack of leave entitlements that you would otherwise have with a staff member. That’s almost an extra month of work a year which could give you an edge on your competition from a cost structure perspective.
In conclusion, a Legal Administrative Assistant is a valuable addition to any law firm. They not only take over administrative tasks but also contribute to a more efficient and productive work environment.
If you’re considering a Legal Administrative Assistant, our company provides outsourced administrative support for businesses across Australia. Visit our website internationaloutsourcinggroup.com to learn more about how we can help. You can also use our free pricing calculator to work out the savings available to your practice by outsourcing your Legal Administrative tasks to us.
A recent example of the cost savings available for your law practice with International Outsourcing Group:
Question: What is the cost comparison between a full-time on-site Legal Administration Assistant and outsourcing these tasks to International Outsourcing Group at full-time hours?
Notes:
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We have excluded the overhead costs of accommodating an additional employee as well as other costs such as Payroll Tax.
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Our fees for full-time hours are $52,850 + GST per annum paid fortnightly. You can choose the hours you require each week from as little as 7.5 hours per week. Visit our website internationaloutsourcinggroup.com and use our free pricing calculator for your free quote.
