How Senior Freelance Paralegals Grow Your Law Practice
What is a Senior Level Paralegal?
Paralegals who are promoted to the “senior level” category possess a greater level of experience and knowledge. Support from a paralegal with senior level experience is absolutely required in order for your firm to take on bigger clients in different jurisdictions with more complex and lucrative matters in your practice area. This is because a senior level paralegal will bring the expertise needed to mitigate malpractice or inefficient representation.
Paralegals, by definition, can assist you with legal research, fact investigation, drafting legal documents, and prepare for hearings, closings and trials. A senior level paralegal can assist with the aforementioned, plus the following:
Investigate and research complex legal matters
Prepare legal documents that require advanced legal knowledge of specific subject areas. They are “experts” in their field of practice and bring a more in-depth level of experience towards their practice areas
Well versed in court jurisdictions and procedures as they differentiate from federal to state courts.
Outstanding time-management skills
Perform their work with minimal supervision and typically supervise or oversee work product from new associates, lower-level paralegals, and secretaries.
The Dilemma: Limited Access to Senior Level Paralegals
Adding the skills and experience of a senior level paralegal to your team brings added costs should they even be accessible in your area. I have worked for both small firms in rural areas and large national firms.
I fondly remember an interview of mine with a small-town attorney. This attorney admitted to me that she felt she “hit the jackpot” when she received my resume as she had never received a resume in her years of operating her solo practice that included any legal experience whatsoever. Every employee she had hired in the past before me she had to train herself with no direct legal experience.
I also remember job seeking as a paralegal in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I came across salary offers for positions at bigger regional firms of $81,000.00 per year for a senior level paralegal.
Between these two experiences, I realized the key dilemma: Senior level paralegals are either 1) not available to small law firms in their area, or 2) small firms cannot compete with the salaries being offered to these professionals by the regional and national level firms in the surrounding areas.
THE SOLUTION – Freelance Senior Level Paralegals
The Staffing Structure That Allows Your Firm Growth
I tell all my clients that I believe an ideal staffing situation is for your small firm or solo practice to hire a secretary to have on site for your phone answering, faxing, mailing, scanning, appointment setting, office supply orders, etc. This employee should cost your firm a minimal amount. These positions are great for interns, college students, or those who enjoy a secretarial role and do not have a high expectation of salary and benefits. I highly recommend implementing a policy and procedures manual as well as investing in a training system to have on hand for new hires should you experience high turnover rates in your firm. JF Paralegal Services offers this service.
With this person in place, the firm should then seek out a senior level freelance paralegal to use on an as needed basis. With this scenario, your firm has access to a senior level paralegal and is free to simply increase or decrease that use as needed. My entire team of paralegals skilled in multiple practice areas carry 15 to 30 years of experience. By doing this, your firm is able to take on more challenging cases in your practice area (or a different practice area) and jurisdiction. Additionally, your firm can grow without risk of employment issues.
This scenario is also incredibly ideal should you be weighing your options of bringing in an associate attorney(s) to help increase your client list. Bringing in an associate, especially an inexperienced one, brings in more work. When you have a highly experienced paralegal in your back pocket, this will eliminate any anxiety of how the work is going to get done should you suddenly become successfully overloaded with work. Further, and without the intent to offend, a senior level paralegal is going to have more law office knowledge and experience than an associate level attorney. This fact will also help develop your associate, thus, improving the credibility of your firm.
Senior level paralegals will help you win more cases, make your clients happier, and encourage genuine, small town referrals as a result. They will allow you to bring in associates or increase the caseload in your firm without fear or anxiety. They will make it possible for you to take on difficult cases in new jurisdictions you never thought your firm would be able to handle.
Why a Freelance Paralegal is More Affordable
Imagine being able to post this on indeed.com:
“Seeking casual, as needed senior level paralegal with 7+ years of experience. May need to work 10 hours one month and 160 hours next month. Must be available waiting for us at the moment we need you with minimal advanced notice.”
This is what is so incredible about utilizing a freelance paralegal. That above description is exactly what we do. How much a senior freelance paralegal is going to cost you exactly will depend on how much you utilize them, which is why it is such a fail-proof system. You are in control of the amount you utilize your paralegal, so the savings are limitless.
Please review the infographic herein for a general idea of the savings, but as always, please reach out to me to discuss your exact needs. There are additional savings available dependent on the amount of administrative work you request we do (we do not charge a paralegal rate for administrative work). The infographic describes a scenario wherein you utilize a freelance paralegal 20 hours per week on a consistent basis.
Your Return on Investment Utilizing a Senior Freelance Paralegal
Another huge and overlooked area of savings when hiring a freelance paralegal is in unproductive hours. “Research suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes.” (source)
When hiring a freelance paralegal, you are only paying for those two hours and 53 minutes, not the additional time spent filling a coffee cup, going to the bathroom, chatting with coworkers, browsing the internet, checking our phone, etc. When we are clocked in to you, we are focused 110% on the task at hand. When we are finished, we clock out.
All paralegal time tracked by us is ethically billable to your client. Therefore, we are not an expense but rather a returnable investment. I have structured my costs of services to allow for your absolute best return on investment. In my experience working for small law firms and solo practitioners, the paralegal rate in which the firm charges the client is, on average, $125.00 per hour. Each hour you hire my company to carry out these tasks, you will receive a minimum of 2/3 of that hourly rate back.
