Downsizing

I have downsized.

Oh, I don’t mean my paycheck, although for the time being while I’m getting my business going, that’s true too. (Just you wait . . . I’ll be back making the medium bucks again any time now!)

No, I mean I’ve downsized in terms of the size of the offices I work with, and the size of the cases I work on. It’s still a novelty!

In BigLaw in recent years, I tended to work on mega-cases. There were armies of attorneys to respond to, scads of money at stake, and boatloads of documents to manage, and filings and deadlines to track. There were always ten plates spinning at once.

Which isn’t to say I don’t have ten plates spinning at once now – often I do. But they’re my plates, not the plates spun off by the decisions of others, which I must nonetheless keep in the air somehow.

No, the offices I work with now as a virtual paralegal tend to be small. I work with solo practitioners, for the most part. They may or may not have on-site staff, and they may or may not have permanent office space.

Because my clients have smaller offices themselves, they tend to handle matters that are somewhat less document intensive than those I've handled in the past. They tend to use different technology than that which I had become accustomed to in recent years. I work more with PDF document compilations, and less with Concordance databases, for example. I prepare document productions in the hundreds (or maybe low thousands) of pages, rather than in the tens of thousands.

But these are minor differences - differences of detail rather than substance.

In fact, now more than ever I am often called upon to figure out the most efficient way to accomplish a project with available resources and my own two hands and the small-office technology at my disposal, with no Litigation Support personnel to fall back on for getting a project done. This satisfies my practical nature.

Case size and technology may have downsized, but professionalism certainly has not. With my attorney clients, the quality of the work is just as painstaking, and the expectations of excellence are just as high as they were when I worked at larger firms. This satisfies my perfectionist nature.

There is a different “office” dynamic as well. (Yes, in an odd way my attorney clients and I do make up an "office.") There are fewer layers of approval to work one’s way through than in large offices. I find that communication is more direct, and the sense of partnership I feel with my clients is more pronounced. This satisfies my collaborative nature.

So you see, in my world, downsizing has been a very good thing!

Vacation Season's Here At Last!

Oh wait . . are you kidding?!? Not for me! I’m teaching all summer long – our program doesn’t take a summer break! So me, I’ll likely be plugging along at my own office desk through the variably hot, mild or overcast summer weather of beautiful Sonoma County where I live.

Vacation Snorkeling!

But for much of the working western world, it’s that time when employees begin pondering escape from the proverbial rat race for their much anticipated vacations.

Although I’ve always been more of a spring/fall traveler, myself.

An interesting article got tweeted recently which stimulated this train of thought: Should you contact that vacationing employee? The article gives what seems to me to be quite prudent advice to an employer about how to decide when it’s appropriate to interrupt an employee on vacation.

During my many years of law firm employment, I’ve run the gamut on this one. I have indeed been phoned while on vacation. I’ve been phoned at 10 pm. I’ve been called into the office on a Saturday afternoon to fix something that went awry. I didn’t really begrudge these interruptions to my non-work life – in most cases, they were legitimate emergencies.

That said, I have a confession to make. Historically, I have been a bit rebellious on this topic!

Don’t get me wrong. I do not endorse rebellion in law firms. It is generally a poor strategy for maintaining gainful employment. But truth be told, I have not always been docile and compliant when it came to making myself available during non-work hours, including but not limited to vacations.

There was a particular small law firm in my past, with a particular beloved attorney (No, really! I was fond of her! Honest!) who was notorious for . . . how shall we put this . . . neglecting certain boundaries. For example, she was prone to sitting at her desk and hollering my name when she needed something, causing me to stop what I was doing, get up from my desk, and walk into her office to say, “What?” Rather like my mother used to do, and evoking a startlingly similar emotional response.

Now granted, she probably thought it was silly to pick up the phone and call me when I was right next door. And maybe that’s true. I dunno . . you pick your poison.

She was also prone to phoning me (if I wasn't within hollering distance, that is) in “dire emergencies.” Such as not being able to find a piece of paper she suddenly needed.

Which was on her desk.

Which she was standing next to.

Knowing this, I once intentionally failed to leave my contact information when I went on a week-long vacation. (Note: This was before everyone and her brother had a cell phone.) I knew that while she may have had difficulty finding a document on her desk, she would have had no difficulty tracking down my phone number while I was travelling, if it was anywhere in the office. And I knew she would call me when she couldn’t find that piece of paper. Which was on her desk. Which she was standing next to.

And in fact, I learned upon my return that she had indeed asked others in the office for my contact number on that vacation when she couldn’t find something. But they didn’t have my contact information either. Woops! (It was a nice vacation :)

There was another law firm (this time in BigLaw) where, at a certain point due to a massive case I was managing, I was offered a firm Crackberry Blackberry.

And I refused. (GASP!) 

Because I knew what would happen. I knew that notwithstanding all assurances that I truly wouldn’t be expected to be on call 24/7, in reality I would receive countless evening/middle of the night emails, to which I would be expected to reply. Those same attorneys who refrained from phoning me at 10 pm (thanks for that, guys!) would still have emailed me at all hours of the night, and would have stared hopefully, expectantly, at their own Crackberrys, anticipating my inevitable response.

And if I failed to respond, you can bet I would have heard about it.

So I politely declined, and they didn't force me to carry one. (Thanks for that too, guys!) And lo and behold, the world kept turning, and the case was (ultimately) successful anyway.

It may seem by this that I’m advocating a refusal on the part of staff to make themselves available to their attorneys in off-hours times of need, and I’m really not. There are times when things go wrong after hours, or even, heaven forefend, in the middle of a vacation, and the team player is willing to help out.

No, I’m simply advocating establishing some reasonable boundaries to our personal lives, and assisting our bosses in respecting them.

After all, we all need a little vacation now and then!

Virtual Paralegals in Litigation Part 4: Trust!

Can a virtual paralegal benefit a solo or small office litigation practice? Absolutely! The purpose of this series is to discuss those benefits, and answer some of the questions litigators have about working with a virtual or remote working paralegal.

In recent posts I discussed a way to think about the title "virtual paralegal," the readily available technologies virtual paralegals use, and issues related to security and confidentiality.

Today we discuss another area to investigate when contemplating working with a virtual paralegal:

Trust. In all work relationships, trust takes time to build and develop. When attorneys hire permanent staff, they do their best to assure the new employee will be an asset to the team, and then take the time to get to know the employee's work first hand.

Of course, when a full time or contract paralegal works in house, the attorney can obverve his or her work ethic and output. But how does an attorney monitor a remote working paralegal?

First of all, every attorney contemplating hiring a paralegal, whether full time, contractor or remote working, inquires into the paralegal’s training, background, work history and references. In my home state of California, an attorney will also want to verify that the paralegal has met the training and continuing education standards required by Bus. & Prof. Code §6450.

As we discussed last time, all paralegals are bound by the same rules of professional conduct regarding client confidentiality that attorneys are. A qualified virtual paralegal selling services to attorneys knows this, and wants to protect the confidentiality of an attorney’s clients. Moreover, the virtual paralegal’s Contractor Agreement will no doubt address this issue.

In addition, a competent virtual paralegal will have enough work experience to provide a reasonably accurate estimate of the amount of time a given project will take. She or he will provide regular progress updates, and immediately advise an attorney client of the reasons for any delays or revisions to that estimate. A remote working paralegal’s business will suffer if she proves herself unable to perform the requested work in the allotted time frame.

Attorneys and firms will want to vet any virtual paralegal they are considering hiring. Perhaps they will even want to spend time developing a professional relationship prior to hire, or assign small jobs to see how the paralegal performs before entrusting her with major projects.

As with all other aspects of the working relationship, clear and frequent communication is the key to developing trust when working with a virtual paralegal. When each party communicates clearly about his or her expectations, the project instructions, and the progress being made, everyone wins.

And finally we come to the last question to consider in hiring remote working paralegals: Delegating suitable tasks. Tune back in next time in for Part 5.

Virtual Paralegals in Litigation Part 3: Confidentially Speaking

Can a virtual paralegal benefit a solo or small office litigation practice? Absolutely! The purpose of this series is to discuss those benefits, and answer some of the questions litigators have about working with a virtual or remote working paralegal.

In recent posts I discussed a way to think about the title "virtual paralegal," and the common, readily available technologies used in working with a virtual paralegal.

Today we discuss another area to investigate when contemplating working with a virtual paralegal:

Security and confidentiality. All attorneys have a legal and ethical responsibility to ensure the security of all their clients’ confidential documents, as well as their own work product. They have a duty to strictly maintain the privileged nature of all their communications with their clients. Naturally, they are reasonably concerned that their staff – whether employees or contractors – treat all documents and communications with the same diligent care.

These concerns lead attorneys to be careful about how and with whom files and documents are shared. While attorneys, and perhaps even staff, work from home, they do so with these security and confidentiality needs in mind. Although documents are routinely exchanged with clients, experts, witnesses and co-counsel via hard copy, email, fax and other means, lawyers assure themselves that this information will be handled with appropriate confidentiality. These same concerns apply to exchange of documents and information with a virtual paralegal too.

It is incumbent upon the virtual paralegal to provide reliable evidence that she or he can maintain strict security of all paper and digital files. Any lawyer contemplating hiring a remote working paralegal will want to inquire into her business practices.

• How does the paralegal secure and store paper and electronic files? 
• How long are paper or digital copies retained, if at all? 
• What computer back-up systems are used to ensure that files are not deleted or otherwise lost? 
• What security measures are taken with computer files, on-line storage, and back-up files to prevent disclosure? 
• Does the paralegal's system have a firewall and secured WiFi? 
• Are the cloud or internet based software the paralegal uses encrypted?

Paralegals, whether employee or contractor, share with attorneys an ethical duty of confidentiality. The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, state rules modeled thereon, and guidelines for paralegals adopted by state bar associations, state courts and paralegal professional organizations, all require paralegals to guard the confidentiality of all client information. This duty of confidentiality applies as firmly to paralegals working remotely as it does to a law firm's own staff.

Moreover, these issues should be addressed in the contractor agreement executed between the attorney and paralegal before any work is performed. The agreement should at a minimum state that the paralegal will not disclose, by any means, information regarding the attorney’s business processes, clients, or client information.  The agreement should also discuss the virtual paralegal’s business practices regarding document retention and security.

So you see, with a firm understanding of a virtual paralegal's business practices, and a contract in place, a litigator can have confidence in using the services of a virtual paralegal.

However, this leads to the another question to consider in hiring a remote working paralegal: Trust. Tune in next time for Part 4.

Why I Hate Name Tags

With apologies to @NameTagScott, who claims he even wears a name tag to bed and whose blog I find inspiring, I hate name tags at networking events and business meetings.

Let me say that I’ve always hated name tags. However my reasons were different when I was young. Back then, I hated them because I thought they weren’t “cool.” And I had a hard enough time trying to appear cool without adding to it the indignity of a name tag. To me it communicated, “Look here. Here is my name on this tag. I'm wearing this because I'm the biggest dork on the planet, and this is so you don’t have to stoop to ask my name. Cuz I know you don’t want to do that.”

And that certainly wasn’t the message I wanted to send. I wanted someone to take one look at me and be fascinated enough to ask my name. Either that or just ignore me altogether. So I hated wearing name tags; I thought not doing so made me cooler.

BTW, here’s a fun little name tag story. Not long out of college, I worked for a while as an admin for a political lobby. One evening the entire staff attended a fundraising event, and numerous local politicians were in attendance. Well, one rather famous local politician must have agreed with me about the name tag thing, because she wasn't wearing one and . . well . . stupid me, I didn’t recognize her. And I asked her name. And there was sort of a gasp around me! So she told me who she was, and I have to admit, it was quite the faux pas; I should have known her. But ever quick on my feet, I yanked my proverbial foot out of my mouth by quipping, “Oh my goodness, the photos in the paper don’t do you justice!” But I digress.

I've matured since then, and I no longer view name tags as a cruel plot to render me the absolute least cool person in the room. I acknowledge why people find them useful, particularly at networking events – which I attend a lot of these days. I think the rationale is that it gives people a role – their name plus their business. It enables people to note other attendees, and their businesses, even if they don’t have time to talk to them all. And I wear them when I must.

However, I still don’t like them, though for a different reason. It’s no longer about being cool. It’s more about my memory – which, ahem, isn’t what it used to be.

I have discovered that if you are wearing a name tag, I probably won’t remember your name!

I think the mechanism is that without a name tag, I ask your name, I repeat it a few times while we chat, I make a big effort to lodge it in my memory. But when I can "cheat" by just reading your name, I don't do those things. And 10 minutes later, I may not remember your name because I relied too much on the name tag and didn’t make the same effort to store it in my memory. And I’m guessing I’m not as memorable to others, either. 

In fact, I'm continually amazed that in a room full of folks wearing name tags, more often than not, people don’t even bother to introduce themselves! I'll approached someone, put my hand out and said, “Hi my name is Daphne,” and get an odd, quizzical look as though to say, “Well yeah, I can see that honey!” But I digress again.

Perhaps I have this advantage over some when it comes to name tags. I’m not shy, haven’t been in years. I have no difficulty mingling around a room, walking up to a stranger, introducing myself and starting a conversation. Perhaps my shyer follow networkers find that name tags ease the way toward meeting people, and I’m sympathetic to that.

But personally, I’d rather not wear them, and it's not about being cool. It's simply so that I have a better chance of remembering who the heck you are the next time we meet!

5 Reasons Law Firms Hire Virtual Paralegals

I read an article today on Software (tweeted by @donnaseyle) called Business | 5 Reasons Law Firms Hire Virtual Legal Receptionists, by Ben Anton, which was a dead-on description of why virtual receptionists are so beneficial. It prompted these thoughts of my own.

Here is my assessment of why law firms – and solo practitioners – benefit from hiring virtual paralegals.

Time is at a premium in any business, but this seems particularly true in the small or solo law office. While there may be the same amount of work as in a larger office, there are fewer hands to do it. Moreover, particularly in this economy very small offices are not in a position to add to their payroll by hiring a full time paralegal to help them bear the load.

So using Anton’s article as a springboard, here are five benefits lawyers and small firms can receive from hiring a virtual paralegal:

1. “Increased happiness and job satisfaction.” Successful law practice involves a wide spectrum of tasks – from very substantive legal research and analysis, to drafting legal documents, to managing and organizing client and production materials and communicating with clients. Hiring a paralegal to assist with document management and simple drafting tasks, for example, can free a busy attorney up to perform the substantive research, briefing, and client communications most suited to his or her training and expertise. This makes everyone happier.

2. “Increased efficiency.” Virtual paralegal services can make a lawyer more efficient. The ability to delegate tasks to his or her paralegal, be it suitable procedural research, drafting of simple pleadings, or assisting with discovery or trial preparation, enables a lawyer to handle a larger client case load and still assure competent representation of each client.

3. “Lower labor costs.” Hiring a virtual paralegal can be much more cost efficient than hiring a full-time, in-house paralegal. A virtual paralegal is only paid for time actually worked. No more paying for down time or overtime. In addition, the small office saves the benefit costs associated with employees. And finally, there are no costs for work space, supplies or equipment.

4. “A better office environment.” When lawyers, and any staff they do have, are freed to perform those tasks they are best at, while a virtual paralegal takes care of all suitable paralegal tasks, the work load is eased for everyone. Moreover, we all know that deadlines loom at times and create mountains of work that must be gotten through, regardless of the limited number of hands on deck or hours in the day. A virtual paralegal can help shoulder the extra work load during those crunch times.

5. With a virtual paralegal, lawyers have an added tool at their disposal for assuring that each task in each of their cases is being handled, and nothing is falling through the cracks. This enables lawyers to assure that each of their clients receives the attention and excellent legal services he or she deserves. It enables lawyers to be as responsive as possible to all their clients, which provides a competitive advantage in today’s competitive market.

Many benefits are to be gained by solo practitioners and small law firms by employing a virtual paralegal to assist with the work load, including improving case management, creating more efficiency, and of course, saving costs. This does indeed make for happier lawyers and ultimately, happier clients!

Some of the Things I Need to Know I Didn’t Learn in Kindergarten

Whatever our chosen profession, we’re always learning.  I’ve tried to learn most of my paralegal skills through formal education, observing others more experienced than myself, being mentored, etc.  However, I’ve got to admit that some of my greatest lessons I learned from my mistakes!
 
Early in my career, I was a paralegal in some small law firms, where I was mentored by some very skilled attorneys, and had the chance to do some fairly substantive work.  But as I say, I was inexperienced, and mistakes were made.  By me, that is.  Now I look back on that time fondly because it was formative and my mistakes made me a much better paralegal.
 
One of my attorneys frequently tasked me with writing letters and drafting discovery requests for her, and she was irritated when I gave her drafts containing typographical errors.  It only took a few occasions of being thus taken to task before I learned to proofread everything I wrote.  Again.  And again.  And even backwards.  And I’m grateful to her, because there is really no excuse for giving a supervisor a draft containing typos.  Why shouldn’t my work be as flawless as it can be?  Why should I ever strive for anything less? 
 
There was a day when one of my attorneys phoned me from a deposition quite concerned because he had no court reporter, and it turned out this was because I had failed to schedule one.  Yikes!  I immediately phoned our favorite court reporter who, in a great stroke of luck, happened to be available.  She got to the deposition in record time and saved the day, while I learned a big lesson about keeping deposition checklists to assure everything was scheduled in advance and every detail was in order.

I worked with another attorney whose biggest peeve was people making excuses.  He could forgive any mistake (my failure to reschedule an expert's trial testimony comes to mind!) if one would only own up to it.  So when something went wrong, I learned to make a beeline to his office to talk it over with him, ready with a proposal for fixing it and ready to take my lumps and do whatever had to be done.  He may have been disappointed at the error, but he respected my frankness, and this habit of taking responsibility for my mistakes has served me well ever since.
 
There was another occasion early in my career when I was put in charge of a large filing with a lot of evidence, much of which had to be filed under seal.  I delegated the project of preparing declaration exhibits to a junior clerk.  This was the right thing to do, because she was bright and hardworking, and I couldn’t get everything done myself.  But my mistake was in blithely handling my part of the filing without adequately supervising her portion of the project.  When I checked in on her and her crew mid-afternoon and found they were far behind schedule, I realized we were in danger of missing the filing deadline.  PANIC! 

I rushed to my supervising attorney, described the problem, and we devised a Plan B and made our deadline, but I’ve never forgotten this lesson.  It is a good idea to delegate tasks, but I cannot delegate supervision.  I need to see the big picture, stay on top of all the moving parts, check in on my team, make sure everything is on schedule and if it’s not, readjust immediately.  Often this means doing less of the work myself, in order to supervise the work others are doing more effectively.  The experience made me a much better manager of staff and projects, which is an important skill for a paralegal to have.
 
Got your own stories of lessons learned?  Feel free to share them in the comments!

Apologies to lovers of Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, with a note to say many things I did learn in kindergarten still serve me quite well too.

How to Succeed in Business . . . by Really, Really Trying

Occasionally I read an article or blog post I find so thought provoking, I cannot shake it off. 

Such as last month, when I read Sonia Simone’s CopyBlogger piece, The Three Surprisingly Simple Keys to Success.  What was provocative about this piece for me was the discussion of things that I typically view as outside my control which may actually be very much within my control.

What are the three keys, and are they within my grasp after all?  The article starts with the well-known premise that in order to succeed – in whatever you’re trying to succeed in – you need any two of the three following things: talent, luck, or persistence.  Now, the last one, persistence, may be challenging, but at least it's up to me and me alone to persist or not.  But what if I’m neither talented enough nor lucky enough?

Talent

I’ve been accustomed to thinking talent is innate.  Something I was born to be good at.  Some “gift” that always came naturally to me.  (Phrased that way, how many of these do I actually have?!?  Hmm . . .)  For example, I had a bit of an ear for music when I was young, and thought of it as a “talent” I had been born with - possibly discounting too much the 1-2 hours per day I practiced (which is of course nothing by musicians’ standards - but still).  But Simone suggests that what we think of as talent is more often something we love so much that we do it a lot, in which case does the success stem from innate ability, or from “nonstop, almost obsessive practice”? 

Thought provoking question!  If some activity I need to make my business succeed - such as successful marketing, thoughtful use of social media, writing useful articles - doesn’t come naturally to me, do I give up on talent and turn to the other two Keys to Success?  Nope.  I keep marketing.  I keep working at communicating.  I write, and write, and write some more. 

As Simone writes, “The more you work, the more talented you get.”  Which is actually a huge relief!

Luck

Luck is obviously completely outside my realm of influence - or so I thought.  But what if luck isn’t really “luck”?  If a brand new client phones me because my marketing piece lands on her desk the very day she needs help, is that luck?  Maybe, but if I strew my marketing pieces wider and farther and more strategically and more often, can I improve the odds of such a thing happening?

If I bump into three potential clients at a social event and spark their interest in my business primarily because I’m likable and I express confidence that I can benefit them, is that lucky?  Perhaps a bit, but if I get out more often and meet more people, and if I’m putting my most likable self forward at all times, do I improve my odds? 

What if I’m always striving to be kind, be helpful, be generous, improve my karma, and increase my whuffie?  What if these things, over time, bring me more business and happier clients?  Is that luck?

As Simone says, “The more you work, the luckier you get.”  Good news!

Persistence

I’m not suggesting this one is easy; however it is a lot easier for me to realize that this particular key to success is within my control.  I need to keep at it and not give up.  Keep working hard and well for my clients.  Keep dreaming up new avenues for finding and attracting clients.  Keep marketing.  Keep writing.  Keep interacting.  Keep striving to be generous.  Keep doing my best work.  Relentlessly.  Every day.  No matter what.  Without fail.

So when I’m tempted to feel discouraged that things aren’t going my way, not falling into place, not progressing quickly enough, this article is an excellent reminder to me that if I just persist, keep working hard at all the tasks before me, perhaps I can increase my talent, create my own luck, and my business will become a success.

Sunday Six Word Memoir

It was a slow and silent week for me.  I fought off a little cold bug, resulting in more rest and less activity.  I canceled a couple of social engagements due to not feeling quite well.  I worked on a marketing project, but did little writing.

However, in looking back over the few recent social interactions I've had, a theme has emerged.  I've noticed that when I speak too negatively about a feeling of frustration or discouragement I am having over slow progress in my business, or shortness of cash, or an idea that won't gel, or just about anything else, I elicit unexpected - and perhaps unwelcome - responses.  Well-meaning friends either cluck sympathetically, or try to cheer me up, or pepper me with suggestions.  Rather than helping, this actually results in my doubting myself and what I'm attempting to do, which isn't helpful.  Much more important, I've realized that I engender this result myself by the manner in which I speak.

So the theme which has emerged this week is that it matters what I say.  The language I use to describe to others the projects I'm working on, or the challenges I'm wrestling with, or the emotions I'm experiencing is tremendously significant.  It isn't just that my words are important toward being understood by others (although that's true too), but that my words are important for me.  The language I use to describe a thing has an impact upon how I experience it, how I feel about it, and how optimistic I feel about my progress.  It isn't a matter of deluding myself about the reality of my choices or circumstances; rather, it's about taking responsibility for the manner in which I describe that reality.

So here is another in my series of Six Word Memoirs - a memoir to encapsulate my week:

Speaking optimistically creates a hopeful outlook.

Got your own Six Word Memoir?  Feel free to share it in the Comments!