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Outsourcing
Virtual
22 GPSOLO | May/June 2014
Published in GP Solo, Volume 31, Number 3, May/June 2014 © 2014 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof
may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

GO . . .
to
Paralegals
Veer
F
ull disclosure, I’m a
Trekkie. So, you may
ask, what does that have
to do with outsourcing
in the 21st century?
Well, just about everything. Look
around your workspace, what do
you see? Devices and gizmos whose
creation was undoubtedly influ-
enced by the Star Trek series—flash
drives, smartphones, Bluetooth,
tablets, computers, Skype, GPS,
voice recognition apps, wikis, and
so much more. The mobile nature
of technology has made it possible
for legal professionals to become
more self-sufficient and less office-
centric. It is technology that allows
my imagination to transport me, if
only for a nanosecond, light years
away from my basement office to
the bridge of the Enterprise. The
portability of my 21st-century lap-
top, tablet, smartphone, and Blue-
tooth provides me with the same
mobility and efficiency as a 24th-
century Starfleet crew member—
technology to effectively complete
the job whether at my station or
away on a mission.
By Pamela J. Starr
GPSOLO | ambar.org/gpsolomag
23

Although it’s not quite holograms
and holodecks (yet), the ever-adaptive
legal industry continues to acclimate to
working remotely. Attorneys can run
effective practices without the restric-
tions and expenses of conventional of-
fice space or full-time, in-house support
staff. When one considers the evolution
of the practice of law, working virtually
is, simply, logical. It is a world in which
“bring your own device” (BYOD) is the
norm and the paralegal down the hall
may very well be on the other side of
the continent.
And who is this paralegal? Whether
in-office or virtual, he/she is often a fu-
sion of Uhura and Scotty, with a dash
of Kirk: a poised, professional, ethical,
multi-tasking miracle-worker striving
against seemingly impossible odds.
WHERE FEW PARALEGALS
HAD GONE BEFORE
Many of today’s virtual paralegals began
their careers in Big Law or corporate
America, never imagining they would
become self-employed entrepreneurs,
the owners of their own virtual parale-
gal companies. These 21st-century free-
lancers work remotely, linking to their
clients via electronic media instead of
coming into the office to collect proj-
ects. They are trained, certificated (and
often certified), experienced paralegals
who have taken their substantial skills
out of bricks-and-mortar law offices, via
the profusion of available technology, to
deliver a cost-saving alternative for solos
and small firms. These innovative indi-
viduals provide something their in-house
counterparts don’t: They are (virtually)
available 24/7.
The legal profession continues to
embrace and realize the value of work-
ing with and in the cloud. This technol-
ogy makes it possible for Small Law to
flourish and has created the perfect niche
for enterprising paralegals to hang their
virtual shingles and offer cost-effective
support to the solos and small firms who
understand and appreciate their value.
A PIECE OF THE ACTION
Attorneys want to maintain an image of
professionalism, decrease their overhead,
and increase the value of their billable
dollars. Solos and small firms need sup-
port to manage the practical side of their
law practices—especially if their budgets
cannot sustain full-time assistance. Their
clients (rightfully) expect the same level
of expertise and service as their Big Law
counterparts, but without Big Law fees.
In today’s competitive marketplace, Small
Law needs paralegal support to provide
these services. Outsourcing allows solos
and small firms to work directly with
paralegals, on a transactional basis, with-
out the burden of salaries and overhead or
the limitations of regular business hours.
Virtual paralegals offer attorneys a seam-
Outsourcing to
paralegals can
help solos compete
with Big Law.
less, remote staffing alternative while
maximizing the value of each billable
hour. Realistically, attorneys just want
to get back to the business of practicing
law. Anyone in the industry will agree
there are some tasks better handled by a
paralegal and billed at a lower rate so at-
torneys can make better use of their time.
Not only are attorneys who out-
source more productive, but they also
realize higher revenues because they
pay only for the work being done. Let’s
compare the cost of a full-time employee
to a virtual paralegal. A full-time, sala-
ried paralegal averages $62,700 annually,
which breaks down to about $30 per
hour. The employer, however, is on the
hook for an additional 35 percent in taxes
and benefits (paid lunches, overtime,
personal leave, overhead, professional
dues, and non-productive time) for a
total budget expense of about $84,600
per year. On the other hand, a savvy solo
or small firm may need only ten hours
of paralegal support over the course of
each week. Assuming a flat rate of $55
per hour for 52 weeks (520 hours total)
for virtual paralegal assistance—with-
out the extra expenses associated with
payroll taxes, insurance, benefits, over-
head, and other hidden costs—the annual
cost to the firm would be just $28,600.
This yields a relative savings of about
$56,000—almost the cost of the base sal-
ary of the full-time employee.
It’s all about the bottom line. Tech-
nology merely provides new avenues
by which paralegals may continue to
provide exceptional, professional, and
cost-effective services to attorneys in
need. To maintain a competitive edge, at-
torneys must utilize all the tools in their
technology tool kits, remembering that
sometimes technology is embodied in an
individual who can deploy it expertly on
the attorney’s behalf.
SELECTING YOUR AWAY TEAM
You must be clear about what you need
and want for your practice. Are you
looking for a virtual paralegal to fill in a
gap, or are you really looking for some-
one to provide dedicated assistance to
your practice? If you are considering a
home-based paralegal to work solely for
the benefit of your practice, then you
may have a telecommuting employee on
your payroll instead of an independent
contractor.
That being said, always treat hiring
a virtual paralegal the same way you
would treat hiring someone to work in
your physical space. This person will be
acting on your behalf and under your
supervision, so it’s best to hire some-
body with experience and established
credentials. Keep in mind, there are
many qualified paralegals just enter-
ing virtual practice who may not have
established themselves as independent
contractors but still bring experience
and knowledge to the table. Certain
legal specialties require unique skills
and proficiency; however, there are
some situations in which it makes just
as much sense to hire a virtual paralegal
with verifiable training that you can
mold to your own specifications. In any
case, the appropriate person is a quali-
fied, experienced, well-trained, career
paralegal who is the right match for you
and your practice.
Ask questions, request references,
GPSOLO | May/June 2014
24

filler
do your due diligence. An established
virtual paralegal will have a visible web
presence. Consider all the details: edu-
cation, background, and experience, af-
filiations with professional associations.
Confirm—and this is important—that
the individual is indeed a credentialed
paralegal (or legal assistant).
Reputable virtual paralegals will dis-
cuss, in detail, their fees, billing prac-
tices, availability/hours of operation,
and respective expectations, and will
provide you with a service agreement
or contract that formalizes the terms of
your business arrangement. The contract
protects all parties. (You are an attorney,
you already know that.) They will also
have all the equipment necessary to do
the job: phone, computer, printer, scan-
ner/copier, external hard drive, secure
Internet connection, licensed software
(document processing, e-mail, financial
tracking, specialty software related to
their service offering, etc.), up-to-date
antivirus software, and offsite back-up.
Many have the ability to integrate with
their clients’ technology and securely
transfer files and information. The lux-
ury of working virtually is that virtual
paralegals have remote access to their
“offices” and/or can work anytime and
anywhere.
Most paralegals, virtual or in-office,
are college-educated professionals who
may or may not have also completed a
course of formal paralegal training; many
have been certified by one or more of
the nationally recognized paralegal as-
sociations; and a growing number are
seeking secondary degrees. Generally
speaking, there are no mandatory CLE
requirements for paralegals, although
truly dedicated paralegals do undertake
such continuing education in order to be
more valuable to attorneys. Like their
in-office counterparts, virtual paralegals
can provide their services to attorneys
in every type of law practice, although
many focus their services in the areas of
Social Security, immigration, intellectual
property, and bankruptcy simply be-
cause the federal system is the most con-
ducive to the utilization of their skills.
It might be true that a “chimpanzee and
two trainees” can file documents elec-
tronically, but e-filing requires a special
A M E R I C A N B A R A S S O C I A T I O N
RUN YOUR FIRM
LIKE A BUSINESS
AN OPERATIONS GUIDE FOR
THE SOLO PRACTITIONER
AND SMALL FIRM
FRANK T. LOCKWOOD
If the tension between the
actual practice of law and the
administrative or business
demands seems never ending, Product Code: 5150462
Regular Price: $79.95this guide is for you. In this
GPSolo Members: $65.95
concise and useful text, former
attorney and successful business
owner Frank Lockwood shares
powerful systems he has developed and refined
over the years that will help you resolve the tension
between the tasks of the business and actually doing
the legal work for which you were trained.
Mr. Lockwood’s revolutionary systems dealing with
information management, employee relations,
marketing, timekeeping, billing collection, business
operations, and more are all included in this helpful
guide. He has divided the practice into several areas
that can stand by themselves and for which changes
can be implemented in varying degrees according to
the reader’s needs and available resources.
Adoption of any one of the systems described in this
book will significantly improve the operations of your
law firm. So what are you waiting for? Order your
copy today.
2013
140 pages
2013
140 pages
To order, call the ABA Service Center at (800) 285-2221
or visit our website at www.ShopABA.org.
Publication Orders, P.O. Box 10892, Chicago, IL 60610
GPSOLO | ambar.org/gpsolomag
25

CERTIFIED OR CERTIFICATED?
Certified:
successfully completed certain established requirements and passed a certification
exam. The ABA does not certify paralegals.
Certificated: A degree or certificate of completion verifying that a student has
successfully completed a paralegal educational program.
skill set and a certain level of patience in
order to properly process, assemble, and
submit the required documents in their
proper sequence and under the correct
event codes.
VIOLATIONS OF THE PRIME DIRECTIVE
Paralegals have certain limitations. The
most important is that paralegals must
not engage in the unauthorized practice
of law. Although the definitions and
comments regarding the unauthorized
practice of law by non-lawyer assistants
vary from state to state, the standard has
been set by the ABA Model Guidelines
for the Utilization of Paralegal Services
(tinyurl.com/pv72p4u) and refers to
Rule 5.5 of the ABA Model Rules of
Professional Conduct (tinyurl.com/
cxgb56u). In general, paralegals may not
accept cases, set fees, give legal advice,
plan strategy, make legal decisions, take
depositions, or appear in court. Obvi-
ously, with respect to running their own
businesses, virtual paralegals may set the
fees they charge their attorney clients;
they are, however, prohibited from set-
ting fees for the attorney’s clients.
One of the lesser-known benefits of
working virtually, especially in terms of
bankruptcy and other federal practices,
is that a paralegal does not have the same
jurisdictional restrictions as those im-
posed on attorneys. As long as a paralegal
is working under the direct supervision
of an attorney who is duly admitted to
practice before the bar in the jurisdiction
in which he or she is practicing, it does
not matter where that paralegal is physi-
cally located. It is important for both
the attorney and the virtual paralegal to
know of, and adhere to, the rules of each
jurisdiction. These issues and concerns
continue to be addressed by the ABA
Commission on Ethics 20/20 (tinyurl.
com/3op6tx3) and are sure to be modi-
fied as technology changes the ways in
which legal professionals work.
SHIELDS UP!
If nothing else, the controversy over
snooping by the National Security
Agency has reminded us that privacy,
confidentiality, and security are always
an issue. The vulnerabilities exposed by
these recent disclosures make me long
for our former “zinc-plated, vacuum-
tubed culture.”
We know that technology makes it
possible to work virtually, but it also
makes it easier to inadvertently cross eth-
ical lines. Virtual legal professionals have
the same legal and ethical constraints as
their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. In
terms of all things Internet, web-based,
or cloud, the reputable virtual paralegal
will utilize firewalls, secure Internet
connections, and encryption; institute
security protocols for the storage and
retention of paper and digital files; and
implement backup and retrieval systems
for file recovery.
Unless you can figure out how to
get back to the time of stone knives and
bear skins, we have to accept that com-
munications are no longer inviolable.
Consider the nature of the information
being transmitted from client to attor-
ney and attorney to paralegal, and so
on. For instance, in bankruptcy mat-
ters, paralegals are often given access to
a debtor’s credit report, Social Security
Number, and other forms of personal
identifying information. For that rea-
son, it is of paramount importance, not
only for the paralegal’s protection but
also to protect client information, that
the paralegal and attorney establish and
enforce security policies and protocols.
In light of current revelations, the
opinion of the ABA Standing Committee
on Ethics and Professional Responsibil-
ity regarding the “Duty to Protect the
Confidentiality of E-mail Communica-
tions with One’s Client” (tinyurl.com/
mzhzrqs) has taken on a new dimen-
sion. Among other things, the opinion
addresses concerns as to the risk of any
third-party access to any online com-
munication. Obviously, the legal and
ethical obligation to protect client data
applies to virtual paralegals as well as
the attorneys to which the opinion was
originally directed.
As with any form of legal practice,
there are always concerns regarding con-
flicts of interest and jurisdiction. This
becomes a more pronounced issue when
working virtually with multiple clients
in various jurisdictions. Most attorneys
and law firms, as standard practice, have
a process by which they evaluate new
clients and matters for potential con-
flicts. The responsible virtual paralegal
will have instituted similar processes.
The ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20
has noted that when outsourcing, it is
important to have systems “employ[ing]
conflicts checking procedures . . . main-
taining extensive databases for existing
and former clients and screening the
work history of new recruits and existing
employees against both the information
contained in the databases and informa-
tion supplied by the client.”
YOUR ONGOING MISSION
As we look toward the second quarter
of the new millennium, we recognize
that technology will continue to influ-
ence how law is practiced. We operate
in the midst of a technological universe
of infinite diversity, with innumerable
options to stock your technology tool
box. Sometimes, however, the best tech
in your arsenal is the person who knows
how to implement technology on your
behalf, helping you to boldly go where
you have never gone before.
virtual paralegal of StarrParalegals, LLC,
pamelatheparalegal.com.
GPSOLO | May/June 2014
26

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