Paralegals can make an invaluable contribution to your legal practice of any size. They can help you free up your time to work on your most difficult cases. Consider the top reasons to hire a paralegal today.
Allow Lawyers To Focus On Billable Work
If your team members are overworked and not able to focus on the real issues of a matter, or on bringing in new clients, it would be a smart idea to hire a paralegal and delegate some of the less complex and more time-consuming tasks to them. Too often associates and partners at a firm can become caught up in completing time-consuming administrative tasks that cannot be billed to a client, such as scanning and printing documents, completing legal research, or drafting correspondence.
These are tasks that paralegals are specifically trained in and can be relied on to complete in an efficient fashion. Hiring a paralegal will give the lawyers on your team the space to focus on more complex legal issues and meeting with clients.
Paralegals Can Be Billed Out To The Client At A Lower Cost
Spending $50 or more per hour to have a fully qualified lawyer complete filing tasks or legal research is both inefficient and poor management when the same tasks could be completed by a paralegal for approximately $30 per hour. The services of a paralegal cost significantly less per hour than the services of a lawyer. Keep your clients happy by delegating administrative and research tasks to a paralegal and charging them out to the client separately, and at a lower cost. Paralegals can do more than operate the printer and make coffee. Paralegal training programs teach paralegals how to conduct legal research and draft legal and business documents. Paralegals can also provide assistance in powers of attorney, filing for bankruptcy, probate filings, and estate planning.
Paralegals Can Be Flexible
If hiring a full-time paralegal is not something you or your firm is willing to commit to, consider bringing in the services of a freelance paralegal. Freelance paralegals operate in a very competitive environment and are often able to offer excellent hourly rates or experience in a certain field of law. Paralegals are trained in conducting legal research both online and in print. They can help lawyers to find precedents that will be useful in a matter, as well as conduct broader research across statutes, case law, and commentary on a particular topic. Many law firms will simply hire a paralegal to maintain the office and assist lawyers with legal research and administrative tasks when necessary.
Paralegals can be given responsibility for filing, maintaining the calendar of their attorney, contacting clients and taking calls, handling travel and organizing events, and scheduling interviews with witnesses, clients and experts.
Hiring a paralegal is the economical, intelligent way to improve productivity at your practice and allow your team to focus on completing substantive legal work and prioritizing the needs of your clients. Firms that want to run at their best use NetworkESC. Our advanced hiring solutions combined with our powerful legal experts have helped firms of all sizes resolve cases more efficiently and profitably than ever before.