Making an Office Happen Means Having a Great Secretary

Any good attorney can tell you that they can’t do it all themselves. As with many offices, much of the heavy lifting is shared among many hands. This remains especially the case for clerical employees that handle many of the day to day activities of the organization and make sure that things work the way they should.

Often secretaries, paralegals, and assistants are forgotten when new attorneys get into the business. Even among some seasoned lawyers, there is sometimes a lack of participation in the work of these invaluable pieces of the puzzle. Below you can read about how you can best use such staff to your advantage, especially in the changing field of brick and mortar to digital offices.

A Changing Field

With the rise of digitization and automation, the role of a traditional assistant or secretary has been changing dramatically. Many functions have become computerized or shared between different offices. It has become a common practice for agencies to share ministers or for calls to be routed to a central answering service. There is often less need for such traditional office patterns in the 21st century.

With these changes, the new attorney may be asking how to adapt and whether a secretary in the office is a good idea. Often it is based on need. With the automation of scanning, email, and faxes, sometimes there is no need for an assistant to be in the office 40 hours a week and instead to be part time or on call. Each position is different. But with personnel costs being one of the highest for new firms, it is important to keep them under control. At least the above remains true until the full scope of your base and services become more apparent.

Michael Ehline is a Los Angeles area attorney that specializes in personal injury and auto accident cases. He has successfully represented thousands of clients to recover millions for the injured. Passing the bar by reading the law, Ehline spends his time educating new attorneys in means to better serve their clients and the legal field.

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