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Month: April 2024

Streamline Your Law Firm With Virtual and On-Site Assistants

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Did you know a virtual and on-site assistant are all you need to drastically reduce your workload and unlock new growth? Over 6,000 lawyers have experienced this with our attorney support services.

And now, for the first time, you can mix virtual and on-site assistants together, adjusting the hours that they work to your exact needs, so you can effectively benefit from the best of both worlds.

Introducing Fractional Support Services

Amata is committed to innovation. For years we have seen how many solo and small law firms NEED support on a daily basis, but they cannot afford a full-time hire yet. Either their finances cannot support it, or they do not have sufficient workload to justify a full-time hire.

Our Fractional Support Services solve that.

We have five package programs, plus a pay-as-you-need-it service pricing, to match the exact support needs of your law firm. In this article we are going to focus on one of the packages, which combines virtual and on-site assistants for the first time.

What a Virtual Assistant Can Do For You

In the book “Buy Back Your Time,” productivity and growth expert Dan Martell explains:

“If you want to see your business explode, hiring an assistant is non-negotiable. It’s the first hire every entrepreneur should make. Every hour you spend on admin tasks, answering emails, managing your calendar, calling the gardener, paying bills, et cetera is an hour robbed from your business, family, and dream life.”

Why is a virtual assistant such an impactful hire for a business owner? It’s because, with proper training, they can “clone” you and take over all those essential but time-consuming tasks that are draining you.

These include:

  • Schedule meetings
  • Calendar management
  • Client follow up calls
  • Research
  • Party planning
  • Book events
  • On-line shopping
  • Social media posts
  • Online Directory management
  • Manage to-do lists
  • Email management
  • Organize events
  • Accounts Payable / Accounts Receivable entries
  • Client collection calls
  • Enter attorney time/expenses
  • Pay invoices
  • Create templates/forms/charts/timelines
  • Updating case management systems
  • Prepare/edit PowerPoint presentations
  • Data entry
  • E-filing

And more!

A virtual assistant becomes a gatekeeper of your time, helping you do more without your personal involvement.

In our new Fractional Support Services packages, you can choose the number of hours of Executive Virtual Assistant support you need and whether or not you need on-site admin assistance or not. No more feeling like you don’t have enough for them to do or that you cannot afford one. Our packages suit your budget and demand as you grow.

What an On-Site Administrative Assistant Can Do For You

While virtual assistants can do a lot, some things need to be done in person and by someone experienced. That is where administrative assistants come in. This all-encompassing position can do anything that is required to keep your law firm running smoothly, such as coordinating staff events, bookkeeping, and making runs to the Recorder’s office, Secretary of State, County and Federal buildings.

Here is a list of services and on-site administrative assistant can handle for you:

  • Daily runs to Courts, Clerk’s & Sheriff’s Offices
  • Obtain certified copies, record liens, deeds, birth and death certificates, apostilles, and more.
  • Pay fees, deliver courtesy copies, and obtain duplicate tax bills.
  • Billing & data entry
  • Greet your clients and answer your phone
  • Notary services
  • Document witness
  • Electronic filing services
  • Document delivery
  • Translation/interpreter services (documents, remote, and on-site)
  • Skip tracing
  • Social media posting, Google Analytics monitoring, posting articles, and creating reports

The reason why Amata’s administrative assistants can do so many of these things is because they are specifically trained in the legal industry. They have worked with other law firms for years and will know the ins and outs of managing your back office.

With our new Fractional Support Services packages, you choose to have an in-person administrative assistant on an 80/20 basis. This means that 80% of the time is allocated to a virtual assistant, and the remaining 20% to an in-person assistant. They will coordinate daily court runs, deliver courtesy copies to judges, keep vital records in your office, and also greet clients on your behalf.

By combining virtual assistants with on-site administrative assistants, you get the best of both worlds. You can drastically cut hours, allocate new time to grow, and increase profits without the risks of a full-time hire.

Amata’s support team allows you to get comfortable using the same staff member all the time, without carrying them on your payroll. You only pay for the hours they work for you and you never have to deal with employee benefits or payroll taxes.

If you would like to get started, contact our team today and we will give you all the information to hire your first (or next) virtual and on-site administrative powerful match.

Discover our legal support staff for lawyers in Chicago.

Can’t Afford to Hire a Team? With Fractional Services, You Probably Can

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One of the hardest things as a growing law firm is the catch-22 situation of needing to hire talent in order to grow, but not having the funds in order to do it. Many times, the founder is fully booked, knows he needs support in order to scale, but isn’t sure if his finances allow for a new hire.

We understand. Hiring full-time staff can be quite expensive, especially considering all the benefits that they are entitled to.

But what if there was a way to hire top talent for your law firm at precisely the rates that you can afford right now?

A New, More Flexible Way to Hire

The job market has been undergoing a change for the last few years. Hiring a full-time employee is no longer the most common or even preferred way to hire. In fact, according to World Bank indicators, nearly 46.6% of the global workforce (1.57 billion people) are “self-employed.” This means that almost half of the workforce are freelancers working with flexible arrangements that suit the demands of both the freelancer and the companies.

For example, let’s say you are spending way too much time researching cases, drafting documents, checking facts, interviewing witnesses, and communicating with clients. A well-prepared paralegal can take all these things off your plate, but hiring a full-time paralegal with 3+ years of experience costs between $60,370 and $97,100 in the state of Illinois.

When looking at that rate, you might be thinking:

a) “I do not have the funds to hire this person right now.”
b) “I could hire them, but my profitability would go through the root.”
c) “I could hire them and my profit margins could sustain it, I just don’t know if I have enough work available for them.”

In either of these situations, you will feel overwhelmed by the decision and probably put it away “until you’re ready for it.”

The problem is that your number of to-dos keeps growing, and you are constantly being pulled into activities that are not the highest and most productive use of your time (like preparing affidavits.) This is the catch-22 situation we referred to in the beginning, and can leave a law firm owner stuck for years working too much time for not enough profits.

Hire Top Talent for Your Law Firm Without Hurting Profitability

That’s when Amata’s Fractional Services come in. With them, you can hire paralegals, executive virtual assistants, and in-person administrative assistants for just the hours that you need. We have five different packages to fit the amount of available work you can delegate right now, and the budget that you can devote for this new hire.

Imagine having a paralegal with 20 years of experience working only 10 hours a month on your cases. You could delegate the most important parts of your cases, such as interviewing witnesses and managing clients, while you focus on networking with your higher-tier clientele, the overall strategy on cases, and spending more time doing what you love.

You could also have 30 hours a month of support between an Executive Virtual Assistant and an in-person Administrative Assistant. Your virtual assistant works 80% of those hours, helping manage your calendar, return client calls, schedule appointments, plan events, make travel arrangements, and more. In the meantime, your in-person assistant takes over the daily runs to courts, Clerk’s & Sheriff’s offices, obtains certified copies, files applications, delivers courtesy copies to judges, and any other task that requires your physical presence.

These are just two of the five pay-as-you-need-it packages Amata offers as Fractional Services. If you would like to see a detailed explanation of these five packages, including what they include and their discounted hourly rates, click here to learn more.

The fastest way to grow your law firm is to delegate all the things that are not contributing directly to your bottom line, so you and your attorneys can focus on billable hours, while everything else is taken care of. In this way, you can do your highest value and most energizing work, reduce your hours, and still be able to protect and grow your profitability.

If you would like to learn more about how our new Fractional Services help you do this, contact our team today and we’ll take care of you.

Discover our legal support staff for lawyers in Chicago.

Get the Exact Support Your Law Firm Needs to Grow

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Have you ever held yourself back from hiring a team member because you do not know if you will have enough work to keep them busy? 

Many solo practitioners and small law firms are choosing to do the work themselves instead of delegating it for this very reason. They dream of the day when their cash flow and workload will be enough in order to start delegating, scaling, and getting their time back, but they tell themselves “this is a luxury that I don’t yet have.”

For this very reason, Amata has released a powerful program that opens a new possibility: Hiring legal support staff now, for only the hours that you need it, and at reasonable rates that your budget can support.

This article will explain our new Fractional Support Services Program and how it allows you to stop waiting and start building the law firm and life that you want today.

 

How To Operate Like A Big Firm, Without Being One Yet

Most solo practitioners and small law firm owners come from a corporate background. They have experienced what is like having a paralegal drafting documents for them, conducting research on critical cases, and coordinating court hearings and mediations. They know the time relief that having an administrative assistant or a VA to handle all their client communications and administrative procedures creates. That is how AM250 firms get the most profit out of every team member: The lawyers focus on billable hours, while the support staff covers all the other tasks for them.

After all, “it takes a village” to see a lawyer succeed. Imagine if you could delegate all the menial tasks that are taking up your time, and then focus on only your highest impact activities, like billable hours, strategic networking, and enjoying time off. How much more productive, profitable, and energized would you be?

“Amata makes the transition from large law firm to solo practitioner virtually effortless. Secretarial and paralegal services are available at competitive rates on an ‘as needed, pay-as-you-go’ basis which is ideal for the solo practitioner or small law firm.”
Paula Kaplan Berger, BERGER LAW, LLC

Fractional Legal Support Services

Our new program allows you to hire legal support on a “pay as you need it” basis. Many solo practitioners and small law firms are holding themselves back from hiring (because they do not need it full-time), and this program fixes this forever.

There are five pre-made programs, and the option to also pay-as-you-need-it. Pick the one that suits you best!

Hybrid 30

30 hours/month of:

  • Executive Virtual Assistant Service, and
  • On-site Admin Support

This is an 80%/20% program, where up to 20% or 6 hours of time each month may be allotted to an in-person administrator for court runs, courtesy copies to judges, trips to the clerk’s office, and the vital records office. It may also be used for copy work or any other task an administrator can perform.

Investment: $900/month (a 39% discount from hourly rates.)

Virtual 15

15 hours/month of:

  • Executive Virtual Assistant Service

This program is 100% Virtual Executive Assistant service, including email management, appointment setting, social media management, and event scheduling, and any other task a Virtual Executive Assistant may perform.

Investment: $506/month (a 25% discount from hourly rates.)

On-Site 15

15 hours/month of:

  • On-site Admin Support

This program includes court runs, trips to the Clerk’s Office or Vital Records, copying, scanning, mail preparation, and all other admin support services available at Amata.

Investment: $731/month (for a 25% discount from hourly rates.)

Paralegal 10

10 hours/month of:

  • Paralegal support

This service may include document drafting, document review projects, case management, and any other task a paralegal may perform.

Investment: $1050/month (for a 12.5% discount from hourly rates.)

Paralegal 18

18 hours/month of:

  • Paralegal support

This service may include document drafting, document review projects, case management, and any other task a paralegal may perform.

Investment: $1620/month (for a 25% discount from hourly rates.)

 

These programs will auto-renew each month until canceled and must be purchased and paid for prior to work being performed. Any unused hours expire at the end of the month and do not roll over into the next month. All monthly overages will be invoiced at the pay-as-you-need-it rates:

    • Paralegal  $120/hour
    • On-site Admin  $65/hour
    • Virtual Executive Assistant $45/hour

Learn more about our Fractional Support Services Program here.

The Fastest Way to Grow Your Firm and Escape The Time For Money Trap

Most law firm owners want to generate more revenue and serve more clients, but are capped by their personal time. They simply do not have more hours in the day to build their team, streamline their operations, and create those strategic relationships that will take their law firm to the next level.

With our Fractional Support Packages, they can finally bring an experienced team on board, at rates that suit their budget. No longer do you have to choose between a full-time or nothing: You can now bring experienced paralegals, virtual assistants, and administrative staff at just the hours that you need.

In other words, you can start operating like a bigger, more profitable law firm, and clean your calendar from all those tasks that do not add directly to your bottom line or happiness.

Our Fractional Services can be paused at any moment and scaled up and down to match the exact demand and budget that you have at any time. If you would like to experience a new way to grow your firm without having to do all the work yourself, contact our team to get started today.

Discover our legal support staff for lawyers in Chicago.

Achieving Sustainable Growth as a Law Firm Owner

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Achieving Sustainable Growth as a Law Firm Owner

Can you grow your business revenue without working longer hours?

That is arguably the biggest question law firm owners wake up with. The rush, the all-nighters, and the relentless pace that got them through law school and built their successful career is no longer serving their desire to scale sustainably.

As the author Margaret Bonnano said, “Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time.” Most business owners desire not only financial success but also freedom over their calendar, location, and the type of clients they work with.

The question is, how can do this practically? If working longer hours is not the solution, how can law firm owners grow their practices while achieving a healthier work/life balance?

This is where the Utilization Rate Formula comes in.

The Utilization Rate Formula

At a law firm, the traditional thinking is that to generate greater profits you either bill more hours or increase your hourly billable rate, an approach that can go against the best interest of the client.

Instead, here are Amata we use the Utilization Rate Formula to calculate what needs to happen to drive down expenses, produce more work, and increase your profitability.

Achieving Sustainable Growth as a Law Firm Owner

This formula allows us to achieve leveraged and scalable growth without hurting profitability or the client experience. The key is utilization – only paying for time that is billable to your clients, eliminating all under-utilized time and expenses.

Using the Utilization Rate Formula, you would divide the number of billable hours by the total number of available hours (x100). So, if a paralegal on your staff billed for 32 hours from a 40-hour week, they would have a utilization rate of 80%. This means you need to pay for the under-utilized time, in this example 8 hours, from your profits.

By employing the on-demand paralegal team at Amata, you are only paying for the time they do billable work for you. So, in the example above, you would only pay for 32 hours that you are able to pass along to your client, saving 8 hours that you won’t have to pay for. By delegating and using leverage in this way, you are able to scale your business and profits without placing constraints on your time.

The New Growth Model for Law Firm Owners

After working with more than 600 law firms and professional services companies, we created a unique model that helps you build a thriving company that supports your life — instead of taking away from it.

We do this by protecting your bottom line first. The fast-changing markets of today require service businesses to stay lean and flexible so they can respond to the fluctuating demand of clients. In months when this client demand is high, Amata can expand your offices and provide flexible staffing to meet your growth. In months of contraction, we can reduce your office space without penalizing you for it (like most office and staffing companies do).

Achieving Sustainable Growth as a Law Firm Owner

And when it comes to office space, you continue to enjoy the full benefits of a traditional office, with the added benefit of being able to add or remove office space as you need it. Considering that office space and staffing are the two greatest expenses for most law firms and professional firms poised for growth, this means a huge pressure is taken off your back. 

You can grow at your own pace, save hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and stay at the forefront of innovation.

Another reason our model is so powerful is that top talent today requires more than a lavish office. They expect reasonable hours, easy-to-access offices, and the freedom to thrive in their personal lives just as much as they do in their careers. We help law firms and professional service firms create an environment that attracts these top performers while staying lean in their operations.

Our role is to help you practice your profession on your own terms. So whether you are working remotely, on-site, or a combination of both, we have solutions for you.

For example, our flexible staffing options allow firms to work with the same staff every day but only pay for the time they actually use. This may mean 5 hours/month for a senior paralegal, 56 minutes/month for a receptionist, and 10 hours/month for an assistant.

By eliminating unnecessary spending (e.g., an 800-square-foot library in the middle of the office), we allow clients to invest in tech, team, and client relationships that will take their business to the next level.

From 7-Day Work Weeks to Exploring America

Amata was born out of a deeply personal pain. Ron Bockstahler, our founder, was a declared workaholic. For decades, he didn’t take two days off in a row until he realized that you should treat your personal life the same way you treat your career. This means having clear and inspiring personal goals and committing to achieve them. 

Looking for exploration and to break the patterns of tradition, Ron went on an 8-year RV adventure with his wife across all 50 States in America and 9 Canadian provinces. Surprisingly, his business continued to soar, and he was earning more while living life to the fullest.

Today, Ron competes in Ironman races and is a father of 6 children:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkiKO9bqqq4

Amata began by managing the backend operations for lawyers, including tasks like litigation copy work and small print jobs. From the beginning, our primary focus has been putting our clients first, doing whatever it takes to create an environment where you can thrive both professionally and personally.

We believe that growing a business without enjoying life is not worth it. That is why we offer innovative solutions that allow you to keep expanding your firm while protecting your profitability, client experience, and work/life balance.

Contact our team and explore how our unique model can help you achieve sustainable growth.

Discover our legal support staff for lawyers in Chicago.