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John Risvold: Prioritizing Powerful IP Over Fancy Legal Tech | THE 1958 LAWYER Podcast

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Don’t equate the legal technology changes that are happening in the courts, like E-Filing and the incorporation of video calls, with your law firm having to adopt all new tech to keep up with the times. While John D. Risvold likes the technology changes he sees in the legal system, he credits IP—his own pursuit of medical knowledge and expert support from family, friends, and his colleagues—for his practice’s success. With a focus on strong IP, a server (or cloud drive) and Microsoft 365 is all your firm needs to be profitable. Even the office is optional.

An IP focused law firm and the legal tech they use:

  • The Collins Law Firm minimal tech setup (01:21)
  • Examples of powerful IP at play in a law firm (06:31)
  • Marketing techniques and tools (25:10)
  • What John Risvold wants to see changed in the legal profession (41:20)

Follow “The 1958 Lawyer” on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher

OPERATING A LAW FIRM WITH A STREAMLINED LEGAL TECHNOLOGY APPROACH

“I haven’t been in the office in three weeks, but 2020 was one of the most successful years the firm has had in the last decade. It’s just a testament to everybody’s pulling together and hard work and making the technology work too.”

“We’re still getting cases resolved because of the expertise of folks at the firm, and the history of the firm and it’s experience.”

“The way things are going, if you have a good laptop, a good internet connection and you know how use Word, Excel, and Outlook, you can run an entire practice. You don’t need an office space. You don’t need any of the fancy case management systems…. You really can run the whole thing from a laptop and Excel and Outlook.”

“The pandemic [has] dragged our industry kicking and screaming from the mid-18th century to the present…. Carbon paper is such a hot commodity in Cook County that the judges have written their courtroom numbers on them and ‘Do not steal’….Hopefully, now that they’ve decided to do smart things like digital orders and PDF orders and email…we shouldn’t be handwriting orders [any longer.]”

JOHN RISVOLD, TECH SAVY PERSONAL INJURY TRIAL LAWYER

John Risvold

John, a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on traumatic brain injury, car and truck crashes, medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. He spends the majority of his practice helping victims of catastrophic injury obtain justice.

Instagram: @johnrisvoldesq

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrisvold

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RisvoldTrial/

The Collins Law Firm: https://www.collinslaw.com/

LEGAL TECH TIPS, TRICKS, AND OTHER FIRMS FOCUSING ON IP

Have comments, questions, or concerns? Contact us at [email protected]

“The 1958 Lawyer and his 1938 Dollar” still defines the business of law…
It’s time for a change.

If you’re a lawyer, you’re familiar with the ABA article “The 1958 Lawyer and his 1938 Dollar” which gives our podcast its title, and its inspiration. That article was the start of the billable hour for law firms…And the last major change to the business of law, 70+ years ago now. Well, it’s past time for another change.

This podcast is all about bucking the status quo of the business of law. Your hosts Ron Bockstahler and Kirsten Mayfield run Amata Law Office Suites, providing law firms an alternative to the traditional fixed-cost business model that places unwanted stress on attorneys to work long hours that often-times lead to burn out, broken relationships and in many cases substance abuse. Each week they’ll discuss alternatives to the 12 hours days, endless rotation of clerks and paralegals, and the expensive offices leased to impress clients who rarely show up in person anymore. They’ll interview successful lawyers who are doing law differently, and finding a work-life balance while still running a successful firm.

Do you want to find a better way to run your law firm? It’s time for the next big change in the business of law, and you’ll get it here on The 1958 Lawyer.

More episodes of The 1958 Lawyer podcast

Discover our legal support staff for lawyers in Chicago.

Faye Gelb: Empowering Women in Law | THE 1958 LAWYER Podcast

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Faye is teaching female attorneys not to make the assumptions she did: that hard work is all it takes to be seen. Previously a lawyer working within the Canadian government, when her boss retired, her job retired too, which was a shock. She now runs Her Legal Global, an international community which empowers women in law through practical skill development and mentorship, in Canada and the United States.

Key Moments:

  • Faye’s story (02:00)
  • Career successes, failures, and discovering yourself (16:50)
  • How Her Legal Global provides a new environment for female lawyers (25:10)
  • What Faye Gelb wants to see changed in the legal profession (31:36)

Follow “The 1958 Lawyer” on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher

MEMORABLE QUOTES

“If I could go back, I would have been much more proactive and strategic about my development and my career.”

“Back in March this year I went on to LinkedIn to network and I started talking to women…I realized that in the last almost 30 years since I was called, not a lot has changed, they face the same challenges…. I really thought: ‘What is it, why can’t we have a better way… Why is it the same-old, same-old after this many years? We have all these different initiatives!’”

“If you want to have pay equity, start negotiating from the beginning. So, how do you do that if you’re timid or you’ve never been taught? Where do you get those skills? Who’s going to teach you?”

“We need to define success for ourselves and with law it becomes a ‘big picture’ success, always. Most people see success in law as getting into law school, graduating law school, getting your first job, getting a certain pay rate, making a certain position in the firm, but every day we have success and if we only relate our achievements to these big goals then it sets us up for perfectionism. And to be crushed when things don’t go [as planned].”

CONNECT WITH FAYE GELB

Faye Gelb

Lawyer Faye Gelb is the founder of Her Legal Global, a private online community for women in law to empower their careers. Women have a shared experience in law that is consistent regardless of where they live or practice. Our community provides the space, expert information, mentors, and virtual coffees to support and help women overcome obstacles. We are strategic, proactive, and innovative in our approach. Love your career!

Her Legal Global: https://www.herlegalglobal.com/

Faye’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fayegelb/

Her Legal Global on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/69240862/

OUR FAVORITE HER LEGAL GLOBAL BLOGS

Have comments, questions, or concerns? Contact us at [email protected]

“The 1958 Lawyer and his 1938 Dollar” still defines the business of law…
It’s time for a change.

If you’re a lawyer, you’re familiar with the ABA article “The 1958 Lawyer and his 1938 Dollar” which gives our podcast its title, and its inspiration. That article was the start of the billable hour for law firms…And the last major change to the business of law, 70+ years ago now. Well, it’s past time for another change.

This podcast is all about bucking the status quo of the business of law. Your hosts Ron Bockstahler and Kirsten Mayfield run Amata Law Office Suites, providing law firms an alternative to the traditional fixed-cost business model that places unwanted stress on attorneys to work long hours that often-times lead to burn out, broken relationships and in many cases substance abuse. Each week they’ll discuss alternatives to the 12 hours days, endless rotation of clerks and paralegals, and the expensive offices leased to impress clients who rarely show up in person anymore. They’ll interview successful lawyers who are doing law differently, and finding a work-life balance while still running a successful firm.

Do you want to find a better way to run your law firm? It’s time for the next big change in the business of law, and you’ll get it here on The 1958 Lawyer.

More episodes of The 1958 Lawyer podcast

Discover our legal support staff for lawyers in Chicago.

Practicing Law in Multiple States? These Lawyers Share How They Meet Clients Where They Are

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For estate planning attorney Michael Milliman, this is a busy time of the month. He takes a four-hour train ride, leaving his Michigan-based law firm (DeLoof, Dever, Eby, Wright, Milliman, Bourque & Issa, PLLC) for a few days, to serve his clients in Chicago. It’s only a short walk from the train before he arrives at his satellite office in the heart of the downtown area.

His days in the Loop are filled with client meetings, a total of 15 over the next 72 hours. When he finishes the first day of meetings, he’ll take another short walk and retire to a nearby hotel. The next day, he’ll do it all over again.

“It keeps me efficient,” he said about his schedule. “I love the fast pace of being in the Loop.”

Milliman has spent his nearly 20-year career in Michigan, but he has always considered Chicago a great second home. Several years ago, he became licensed to practice law in Illinois and began establishing a client base. While most of his work can be done virtually, he prefers a physical office, especially for maintaining client relationships. In 2019, he opened a satellite office with Amata Law Office Suites, Chicago’s first legal community of more than 700 attorneys and six Class-A downtown offices.

“I want my clients to always have a local connection to their attorney,” he said.

Fellow Amata-based lawyer, Ken Fiedler of Ken Fiedler Injury Law, echoed Milliman’s thoughts. Fiedler began his career in Chicago before moving and practicing in Colorado. He developed many connections during his time in the Windy City and always planned to resume a physical presence.

“Chicago is a great place to practice law,” he said, noting the large yet close-knit legal community. “I’ll always consider it home.”

Yet opening a satellite office in a new city can be difficult. According to Law.com, firms typically allocate around 300 square feet of office space per employee. That comes to a minimum of $14,000 for one attorney in downtown Chicago, as the average cost of Class-A office space is $48 per square foot.

To circumvent these issues and better focus on their practices, Milliman and Fiedler chose Amata. In addition to physical and virtual offices, Amata offers live reception services and an experienced legal support team.

“It’s a really economical choice for any firm that wants a presence in a large city, where it has historically been expensive to open a brick-and-mortar office,” Milliman said.

He praises Amata’s “fantastic” paralegal team, which boasts 110 years of combined work experience. He says they copy and scan documents among other tasks that he simply doesn’t have time to manage himself. Specifically, the on-staff notary is one of his favorite Amata offerings.

“It’s a huge, huge convenience for me,” Milliman said. “I never have to worry about scheduling on my notary’s availability and it’s cost-effective. When you bring a mobile notary to your office, they charge for travel.”

Fiedler appreciates Amata’s professional environment and the proximity of his office to the Circuit Court of Cook County. Once COVID-19 restrictions are further lifted, he looks forward to traveling to Chicago and meeting his clients at least one week per month.

Fiedler and Milliman aren’t the only ones taking advantage of Amata’s flexible office options. Amata also caters to Chicago-based attorneys who do business in other states.

Personal injury lawyer Sean Park of The Park Law Firm came to Amata after practicing in Georgia, where he still holds a license. He continues to virtually serve clients in Atlanta. He utilizes Amata’s live reception services and says Atlanta callers don’t necessarily know that he’s located in Chicago or frequently traveling. He attributes that to the professionalism of Amata’s receptionists, who keep him feeling grounded even when he’s working from different states.

“I hope Amata expands into other areas,” he said. “If they opened in Atlanta at some point, they would have my continued business.”

Expand your practice smoothly. Chicago is home to burgeoning startups and leading companies in various industries, making it a prime location for advising clients. With Amata’s investment in technology and support services, attorneys can feel supported anywhere.

Whether you’re based on the East Coast, West Coast or Third Coast in Chicago, call us or visit our website and take an online or in-person tour of one of our six Class-A law firm office spaces to learn how our legal support and live reception services can help you establish a presence in any city in which you desire to work.

Discover our virtual offices in Chicago.

What to Look For in the Best Virtual Receptionists for Law Firms

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Vietnamese young female receptionist talking on phone

There are three traits the best virtual receptionists for law firms have in common, and we’ve listed them below. Before you go skim those bullets, however, let’s explain why your private practice law firm needs a legal receptionist in the first place. It comes down to two words which clients expect: immediacy and professionalism.

Regardless of the type of law that you practice, when a person calls a lawyer, they believe their needs are urgent. Getting a voicemail instead of a person is rarely acceptable. You may think “those are not the clients I want” but even your top-tier prospective client wants to talk to a human on the phone when they call. It’s the high-quality customer service people come to expect from a profession like law. You risk losing great clients by negating this simple request.

Yet for solo law firms and many private law firms, the expense of hiring a secretary or receptionist can be difficult to justify. Then there is the time involved with interviewing, onboarding a new employee, and training them on your firm’s processes and clients. Facing this mound of tasks, and fearing the receptionist will not provide enough value to outweigh the additional overhead costs, many firms choose to opt-out of such a hire.

Live Legal Receptionist Options

Thankfully, another option is available: virtual receptionist services. A virtual receptionist acts as an extension of your law office, without the costs of hiring, training, and retaining an employee.

The downside? With hundreds of virtual receptionist services available on the market, finding the right option for your firm and budget takes some research and they are not ‘one-size-fits-all.’ Below, we consider three traits that the best virtual receptionists for law firms have and what makes them different from other receptionist services.

3 Qualities of the Best Virtual Receptionists for Law Firms

Professionalism (That Matches Your Own)

Yes, we covered this a bit already, but in a day and age where so many services are on offer, we think it’s pertinent to repeat. Receptionists serve as the gateway to attorney-client legal relationships. They are likely to serve as the first impression of your company. When a legal buyer is looking for options, professionalism serves as the number one selling point.

Hold them to the same rigorous standards by which you hold yourself. They must be competent, efficient, and able to get the right answers when onboarding new clients so that your time is not being wasted with bad leads.

Keep in mind live legal receptionists are also an extension of your law firm’s brand. While virtual receptionists may serve a variety of clients throughout the day, their messaging should be personally customized around your firm’s needs and the image you want the firm to convey. This sets the groundwork for what clients can expect moving forward.

Before signing up with a provider:

  • Ensure you can customize everything you’d (from hold-music to the greeting to the “they are not available” language) to match your firm’s brand. Also ask for them to handle this set up at your direction, instead of having you do it yourself in the software backend.
  • Ask if you can test their services to ensure professionalism. If there is a free trial period, that’s even better! The last thing you want is to commit to a provider who mishandles your calls.
  • PRICING TIP: Figure out how they bill for time spent on the phone. Many providers round up to the full minute, instead of charging you only for time used.

Efficiency (That Improves Your Firm)

Taking on more overhead, even if it’s via a cost-effective option, should result in an improvement of your firm. Otherwise, save the money!

The best legal answering services will eliminate bottlenecks in your onboarding pipeline by:

  • talking with new and potential clients,
  • vetting them based on your firm’s standards, and
  • filling out the correct forms (if you like those and/or have a CRM) or
  • sending you a streamlined email with complete information

Many people point to the billable hour as reason enough for a receptionist: every minute spent on the phone with a prospective client equates to less billable hours for existing clients.

At Amata, we like to look beyond the billable hour, however: every interruption takes you away from practicing law. No matter how your firm’s fees are structured, you will find legal answering services are vital to assisting you and your firm’s attorneys with managing time. Better managed time leads to less stress.

Before signing up with a provider:

  • Verify their systems can handle the exact client intake, call screening, and call-routing procedures your firm needs, no matter how complicated.
  • Never worked with a receptionist before? Ask for guidance! A high-quality answering service will be able to assist you and your firm with setting up the right processes even if you’ve never had any in place before.
  • PRICING TIP: Ask if they have fillable form options available or if you have to provide your own. If they are available, check if there is a limited amount included in the base-program and get pricing if you need more.

Availability (Without Excessive Fees)

The hours that a legal practice is open don’t always coincide with the hours when clients and potential clients will be contacting your firm. Like you, your clients and potential clients are at work during business hours and they may not be able to call until closer to dinner time. Virtual receptionist services can help resolve this problem.

Unlike employees you hire in-house, the best virtual live legal receptionists operate outside of the normal 9-5 business hours to account for the needs of legal buyers.

Before signing up with a provider:

  • Ask who is answering the phone. Many people outsource to other countries after the regular 9-5, but if you have certain language demands you’ll want to make sure someone who can meet them is always available to answer calls. In Chicago for instance, Spanish is very common and may not be known by overseas receptionists.
  • PRICING TIP: Go over the billing for extended hours as many answering services consider it a premium service. What’s the additional cost to have extended hours? Is it fixed fee or variable? Additional line items can quickly add up.

By hiring a legal answering service you are giving your clients access to the professionalism they need, at an immediacy they will appreciate (and help your firm stand out among the crowd), without overtaxing your own work day.

The best virtual receptionist for law firms is available when clients need them, and legal practices should only be billed for the time for which calls are taken, as opposed to a full-time receptionist who is either salaried or billed hourly.

What Makes Amata The Best Virtual Receptionist for Law Firms

Amata Law Office Suites is more than just an office space – for over 20 years, we have offered live legal receptionist services to help support and grow solo and private law practices by holding ourselves to the highest standard.

Amata’s Live Legal Receptionists use customized greetings and onboarding messaging to seamlessly fit into your law firm. We bill for the time our services are used and never round up. With extended operating hours from 7AM to 10PM, your law firm can be optimized around billable hours and client needs, at affordable prices.

Contact us today to learn more about our live legal receptionists, on-demand expert legal staff, office space, and more!

Discover our virtual offices in Chicago.

Sean Park: Putting the Personal Back in Personal Injury Law | THE 1958 LAWYER Podcast

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Yes, this title is purposely corny. Personal injury attorneys are often viewed advertising first, and not in a good way. Think ambulance chasers. Or “all ad spend, no customer service.” These firms do exist. When Sean Park markets though, it’s through building referrals and word-of-mouth. He picks clientele with the same mindset as him; not those asking “how much is my case worth” but rather “how can I rebuild my life.”

Key Moments:

  • Behind the scenes of those big-ad-spend PI firms (07:07)
  • Drawing in clients with marketing, not advertising (13:13)
  • Technologies that help Sean manage a practice in multiple states (22:39)
  • What Sean Park wants to see changed in the legal industry (30:10)

Follow “The 1958 Lawyer” on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher

MEMORABLE QUOTES

“I’ve got good relationships with clients; [we] will text about politics, will text about college sports…. The end of the case is not the end of my relationship with that person or that family. It is merely the closure of one chapter and moving on to help them rebuild their life.”

“I don’t want cases where someone’s calling me saying “what’s my case worth” because that’s not the motivation for why you’re pursuing these claims. While I’m in business to make money, obviously, and for a livelihood, I do that by doing good work for clients and being very aggressive in the litigation side of things.”

“I’ve looked at cases where other firms have turned [the clients] down…. Stories are compelling to me…I don’t ever like telling someone “no” or turning them away without giving them at least a good thorough explanation as to why I turn the case down or giving them options as to how to pursue the case on their own or…obtain closure.”

Sean Park

CONNECT WITH SEAN PARK

Sean Park is a skilled and caring personal injury attorney who uses a very personal approach to zealously advocate for clients who have been seriously injured or killed in car accidents, truck accidents, and medical malpractice cases

The Park Law Firm: www.seanparklaw.com

Have comments, questions, or concerns? Contact us at [email protected]

“The 1958 Lawyer and his 1938 Dollar” still defines the business of law…
It’s time for a change.

If you’re a lawyer, you’re familiar with the ABA article “The 1958 Lawyer and his 1938 Dollar” which gives our podcast its title, and its inspiration. That article was the start of the billable hour for law firms…And the last major change to the business of law, 70+ years ago now. Well, it’s past time for another change.

This podcast is all about bucking the status quo of the business of law. Your hosts Ron Bockstahler and Kirsten Mayfield run Amata Law Office Suites, providing law firms an alternative to the traditional fixed-cost business model that places unwanted stress on attorneys to work long hours that often-times lead to burn out, broken relationships and in many cases substance abuse. Each week they’ll discuss alternatives to the 12 hours days, endless rotation of clerks and paralegals, and the expensive offices leased to impress clients who rarely show up in person anymore. They’ll interview successful lawyers who are doing law differently, and finding a work-life balance while still running a successful firm.

Do you want to find a better way to run your law firm? It’s time for the next big change in the business of law, and you’ll get it here on The 1958 Lawyer.

More episodes of The 1958 Lawyer podcast

Discover our legal support staff for lawyers in Chicago.

Chris Dreyer: Powerful SEO for Attorneys without Compromising Authenticity | THE 1958 LAWYER Podcast

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Developing powerful SEO for your law firm doesn’t mean catering to the robots at the cost of the human being. Attorneys can differentiate their practices, help people, and gain backlinks. Chris Dreyer explains SEO, new options for attorneys, and offers case examples of brand and law firm marketing that offer personality robots could never mimic.

Quick answers to hot questions:

  • What is SEO? (09:35)
  • On-site SEO & Off-site SEO (11:46)
  • What’s working right now for law firm marketing (19:32)
  • The 3 funnels of content explained (24:22)
  • Time frame till SEO shows results (27:26)
  • What Chris Dreyer sees for the future of legal marketing (40:25)

Follow “The 1958 Lawyer” on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher

MEMORABLE QUOTES

“We were looking at different strategies to bring exposure to a firm, but also to acquire backlinks… We wanted to kind of be a win-win all-around approach and one of the things that we did was we would offer a scholarship to either a local community or nationwide….[Financial aid pages] would link back to the listing, not because they thought they were doing SEO but because it was good for the consumer.”

“You first have to be able to at least know the basics and the foundation in order to evaluate if the SEO specialist you’re working with is even doing a good job. And you need to be able to speak the same type of language and understand those KPIs and goals that everyone’s striving for because SEO is not immediate like Google ads.”

“It is the most challenging circumstance when [law firms] don’t have something that’s different. It makes it really hard for any type of marketing to have the extreme effectiveness that it could have.”

“If you’re really focusing on quality and helping the consumer and not just creating fluff pieces of content, [but] where it’s excellent resourceful content; that can really go a long way in the Evergreen approach.”

 

CONNECT WITH CHRIS DREYER

Chris Dreyer is the President and Founder of Rankings.io, an agency that specializes in personal injury lawyer SEO. His agency ranks personal injury firms for the most lucrative keywords in your industry with end-to-end SEO, from content creation to technical optimization.

“Most personal injury attorneys struggle to rank at the top of the search results. That’s why I’m here: I help elite personal injury law firms generate motor vehicle and serious injury cases through Google’s organic search results.” Chris Dreyer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisdreyerco/

Rankings.io: https://rankings.io/

KEEP READING

Have comments, questions, or concerns? Contact us at [email protected]

“The 1958 Lawyer and his 1938 Dollar” still defines the business of law…
It’s time for a change.

If you’re a lawyer, you’re familiar with the ABA article “The 1958 Lawyer and his 1938 Dollar” which gives our podcast its title, and its inspiration. That article was the start of the billable hour for law firms…And the last major change to the business of law, 70+ years ago now. Well, it’s past time for another change.

This podcast is all about bucking the status quo of the business of law. Your hosts Ron Bockstahler and Kirsten Mayfield run Amata Law Office Suites, providing law firms an alternative to the traditional fixed-cost business model that places unwanted stress on attorneys to work long hours that often-times lead to burn out, broken relationships and in many cases substance abuse. Each week they’ll discuss alternatives to the 12 hours days, endless rotation of clerks and paralegals, and the expensive offices leased to impress clients who rarely show up in person anymore. They’ll interview successful lawyers who are doing law differently, and finding a work-life balance while still running a successful firm.

Do you want to find a better way to run your law firm? It’s time for the next big change in the business of law, and you’ll get it here on The 1958 Lawyer.

More episodes of The 1958 Lawyer podcast

Need marketing support? Discover our legal support staff for lawyers in Chicago.

How a Virtual Legal Receptionist Can Benefit Your Private Practice

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Charming young Asian woman working at reception of spa center, talking on phone with client and taking notes

Great legal practices are often defined by their high quality of service. Not only via their attorneys’ legal acumen, but through the strong attorney-to-client legal relationships they build. Timely responses, seamless communication, and the ability to take calls after hours show a client you are putting them first.

This is also where many private practices fail in running their law firm as a business. The attorneys answer all of the firm’s incoming calls. Before you get on the line to give a first-rate legal consultation or assist a client through the legal process, consider having your potential client speak to someone else: a legal receptionist.

A legal receptionist helps facilitate a client-centered approach for private practice law firms and keeps the business of the practice running smoothly, taking over client intake and helping with time consuming tasks.

However, hiring a full-time legal receptionist is a difficult expense to justify for solo and partner practices. Finding the best legal receptionist is a resource-intensive activity that involves hiring and training that many lawyers don’t have the time to do. Overhead for dedicated personnel – paychecks and employee benefits like healthcare – can also be well outside a lawyer’s budget.

Hiring a virtual legal receptionist is a great way to provide receptionist support while keeping overhead low. You can provide attentive service, manage your time, and stay competitive by passing your cost-savings onto your clients.

What is a virtual legal receptionist?

A virtual legal receptionist is more than just an answering service. They are live professionals, who handle calls almost exclusively for law firms. Live legal receptionists answer calls with customized greetings unique to your firm, can help you qualify leads, fill out client onboarding forms, and send all information to the appropriate personnel. Moreover, they operate outside of the traditional 9-5 business hours, allowing your clients and potential clients to be taken care of by your firm, even if you’re at home enjoying dinner or deep in work for another case.

Many solo practitioners, partner law practices, and boutique law firms are hiring virtual receptionists, saving themselves the hassle and cost of hiring a full-time employee. This allows attorneys at the firm to work more billable hours and do what they do best: practice law.

As a solo or private legal practice, you need every asset available to keep your business ahead of the competition.

How can you benefit directly from an attorney virtual receptionist?

More Leads

Every prospect that calls your law firm is a potential client, but many variables go into whether they are a good fit for your firm. Do you specialize in the type of law they are looking for? Does the workload their case require match the resources at your firm? Have they worked with a lawyer before? These questions can be nuanced, and require a specialized type of receptionist to produce the best results.

Virtual legal receptionist services are specifically designed to benefit attorneys. While they may not work in your office, they work with you to craft greetings, information collection forms, call-handling procedures and more, all aspects designed around your law firm’s processes. They’ll provide callers a great impression of your law firm from the first call, and you’ll know whether a contact is a good-fit or if you should ready a referral before you return their call.

In the legal profession, every case you take on is important. Smaller legal practices need not only case volume to keep the doors open, but quality cases. A virtual legal receptionist can help qualify these leads on your behalf.

Professional Image

Timing matters for legal buyers. If a prospective client calls your law firm and reaches an answering machine they are likely to look elsewhere for prompt and immediate service. Even if you’re a hard-working attorney who happened to be in court at the time.

A virtual receptionist at a law firm helps callers immediately and shows prospects that their legal problems matter to you. This makes them less likely to dial another firm.

For a stressed out legal client, punctuality and professionalism trump all and first impressions matter. Make sure your first impression is conveyed through the receptionist services that you use and not your voicemail.

Time Management

As a legal professional, your schedule is likely to be complex and unpredictable. A virtual legal receptionist will help you navigate your time commitments without sacrificing the high-quality and personal service you pride yourself on offering to clients.

For lawyers and attorneys who operate on billable hours especially, every minute counts. You should be in charge of your day, not your telephone.

Amata Law Office Suites: The Best Virtual Receptionist for Law Firms

Amata Law Office Suites is more than just a shared legal office space – we offer a full range of services designed directly around your needs, such as mail processing services, on-demand paralegal and notary services, and live legal receptionists.

As the world moves towards digital solutions, our idea of what a traditional office space looks like has changed. Virtual receptionists for legal services offer an optimal, professional, and cost-effective solutions to communicating with existing and future clients.

How can Amata help your practice? Contact us today to learn more about our range of legal services.

Discover our legal support staff for lawyers in Chicago.

Struggling to Work From Home? These Law Firms Safely Returned to Their Offices Amid a Pandemic

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On March 23, 2020, Chicago personal injury attorney Tim Rhatigan of Rhatigan Law Offices, LLC found himself like many other attorneys across the state: working from home. This marked the first working day of Illinois’ “stay-at-home” order, issued by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in an effort to flatten the curve of spiking COVID-19 cases.

Rhatigan doesn’t have a home office, so he set up a makeshift desk with his laptop and scanner in his bedroom. But he struggled to write a brief due to intermittent Wi-Fi. In another room, his wife tried to help their children with remote learning. Emotions quickly ran high. Before the morning was over, he decided that the only way to be productive was to return to the office.

“I was back in the office by lunch time,” Rhatigan said. “I didn’t even last half a day.”

Since last March, 84% of law firms had at least three-quarters of their attorneys working remotely, according to a Bloomberg Law survey. While some lawyers have successfully transitioned to at-home offices, a separate survey from design and architecture firm Gensler found that 74% of U.S. lawyers at large firms want to return and work from their physical offices for a majority of the week. The lawyers polled indicated that they miss face-to-face interaction and socializing with colleagues as well as scheduled client meetings. Nearly half also found it more difficult to avoid distractions at home.

But before attorneys rush back to work, even if only for a few days a week, they want office spaces to make specific safety adjustments. In addition to stricter policies preventing sick workers from coming into the office, 45% of attorneys want their offices cleaned more frequently and 38% want air purification systems added. More than 30% would also like to see provided hand sanitizer and touchless bathroom fixtures/doors.

While many of these safety measures are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Illinois Department of Public Health, air purification systems and touchless doors are expensive to install, and some firms in traditional commercial spaces simply wouldn’t be able to afford them.

“My business is contingent upon a case resolving, and there are no trials right now,” said Rhatigan, who has three full-time team members. “So, there’s an income hit because of the pandemic.”

But if attorneys return to work without safety adjustments in their offices, they risk exposing themselves, family members, coworkers and visitors to the virus. If someone gets sick, it could pose legal issues. One employment law attorney at an Am Law 200 firm told the Wall Street Journal that he has advised roughly 600 companies on COVID-19 questions. Of those considering reopening, one-quarter decided against it due to challenging legal requirements.

So, what’s the solution? Upgrading home Wi-Fi and working around family distractions for the foreseeable future? Moving physical files and equipment to a makeshift home office?

There’s a better option, and law firms are jumping onboard. Since 2018, Rhatigan has housed his firm at Amata Law Office Suites, Chicago’s first legal community of 700-plus attorneys operating out of seven Class-A downtown offices. Early in the pandemic, Amata CEO, Ron Bockstahler, recognized that attorneys wouldn’t want to completely abandon office space.

Amata quickly contacted O’Malley Construction Co. and invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement important safety measures, ensuring attorneys would feel as safe and comfortable as possible when returning to the office. Now, each location is equipped with glass sneeze shields, touchless entry doors and bathroom fixtures, directional signs, touchless temperature guns, sanitation stations and more.

“It’s been reassuring to see what Amata has done because it has taken every possible step,” Rhatigan said. “How quickly the team got it all in was remarkable.”

Along with building improvements, Amata scanned lawyers’ mail for 90 days and handled document preparations (free-of-charge) to encourage firms to make choices based on safety, not financial concerns. They even waived some related fees on items that needed to be shipped. Fellow Amata attorney Sarah LeRose of the Law Office of Leonard J. LeRose Jr., Ltd. found the complimentary mail services to be extremely helpful during the stay-at-home order.

“As a small firm, it’s an obvious issue if you don’t get your mail for months,” she said. “We all have bills to pay.”

LeRose returned to her office in late August and has been coming in a few times a week. She “absolutely” visits frequently because she feels safe with Amata’s installations. Both LeRose and Rhatigan have also noticed other Amata-based attorneys return to their offices over the past several months.

Although COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed, most Illinois residents won’t be able to get their shots for months. But in the meantime, Rhatigan thinks Amata has successfully created a safe culture.

“They always have a tenant-first approach, so they’re always asking if there’s anything they can do to help your practice or even you personally,” Rhatigan said. “Even these COVID-19 implementations … they were implemented not only to comply with CDC recommendations but definitely with us in mind. Amata does a terrific job of fostering a comfortable environment without compromise to safety or other resources. It is their commitment to the providing of these resources that puts its tenants in a position to succeed. I love it here.”

Don’t struggle with productivity and challenging work-from-home conditions any longer. Whenever you are ready to return to an office outside of your home, Amata prioritizes your safety and offers other services to help you focus on practicing law, including virtual offices, live reception and paralegal support.

Call us or visit our website and take an online or in-person tour of one of our seven Class-A law firm office spaces to learn how our COVID-19 safety measures will help keep you safe as you return to work.

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Michelle Lawless: Relief Through Technology. How Family Law Clients Benefit from Tech-Savvy Firms. | The 1958 LAWYER Podcast

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Family law is rife with emotion. Michelle Lawless kept that in mind when she built her solo family law practice, after a 19-year tenure at a successful Chicago family law firm. Balancing kindness with efficient processes, Michelle explains how technology, which is usually on the wrong side of the ‘good for mental health’ equation, actually makes difficult family matters easier to emotionally handle. It’s just a bonus that it keeps her solo venture moving full speed.

Key moments:

  • Attorney assisted mediation and collaborative law (05:16)
  • Crafting a kind and effective intake process for family law clients (21:42)
  • “The Daley Center is a daily education!”: Building experience in family law (28:26)
  • What Michelle Lawless wants to see changed in the legal profession (39:37)

Follow “The 1958 Lawyer” on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher

MEMORABLE QUOTES

“[Mediation has] been a growing trend…. Clients want an alternative to litigation… Litigation is emotionally difficult. It can be protracted and inefficient [and] incredibly expensive.”

“Clients have told me how difficult it was to almost get up the courage to walk into a divorce lawyer’s office for a console. Because, physically, it was a manifestation that their marriage was over, and that that was a really difficult step to take…. [Because of this] I was kind of thinking about, ‘are there ways to do Virtual Counsel,’ and then boom COVID hit.”

“I’m using online forms to capture information that you need in every divorce case but you don’t want to keep asking people for, like the names and the ages of their kids and the birth dates….Making things easier on clients was something that I was really looking to do.”

“I always prided myself on providing personalized service, and being there for clients, listening to them. Getting back to them quickly, as quickly as I can…. As a solo I think that’s even more critical because it’s me. I mean, the business is me. So, I need to provide almost… I look at it like a better client experience. Because I am the client experience. A hundred percent.”

CONNECT WITH MICHELLE LAWLESS

Michelle has spent her entire 20-year career assisting high-net-worth individuals and their spouses by protecting and preserving their assets during divorce. After spending 19 years with one of the most prominent family law firms in the country, she opened her own law practice in 2020, where she is able to take her in-depth training and experience with executive compensation packages, valuations of closely-held businesses, and other complex, hard-to-value assets and income streams to her own practice.

She is a graduate of the American Bar Association’s Advanced Trial Advocacy Institute focusing exclusively on business valuations and has also been named one of the 10 Best Attorneys in Illinois for Outstanding Client Service by the American Institute of Family Law Attorney (2017-2019). Michelle is a past recipient of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin’s “40 Under 40” award and holds certifications in Collaborative Law and mediation.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellealawless/

Michelle’s Firm: www.malfamilylaw.com

CONTINUE EXPLORING

Have comments, questions, or concerns? Contact us at [email protected]

“The 1958 Lawyer and his 1938 Dollar” still defines the business of law…
It’s time for a change.

If you’re a lawyer, you’re familiar with the ABA article “The 1958 Lawyer and his 1938 Dollar” which gives our podcast its title, and its inspiration. That article was the start of the billable hour for law firms…And the last major change to the business of law, 70+ years ago now. Well, it’s past time for another change.

This podcast is all about bucking the status quo of the business of law. Your hosts Ron Bockstahler and Kirsten Mayfield run Amata Law Office Suites, providing law firms an alternative to the traditional fixed-cost business model that places unwanted stress on attorneys to work long hours that often-times lead to burn out, broken relationships and in many cases substance abuse. Each week they’ll discuss alternatives to the 12 hours days, endless rotation of clerks and paralegals, and the expensive offices leased to impress clients who rarely show up in person anymore. They’ll interview successful lawyers who are doing law differently, and finding a work-life balance while still running a successful firm.

Do you want to find a better way to run your law firm? It’s time for the next big change in the business of law, and you’ll get it here on The 1958 Lawyer.

More episodes of The 1958 Lawyer podcast

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A Shared Space Is More Than Office Space. It’s Your Law Firm’s Legal Partner.

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Picture this: You’re a growing solo or partner law firm operating out of a shared workspace. You have a busy day ahead with multiple client phone calls and in-person meetings. After a morning court hearing, you walk back to your office, only to find that your office’s phone has been deactivated without notice.

You check your email and see your inbox flooded with notes from clients who are unable to reach you. You then turn to your latest monthly invoice and find a line item charge for opening a desk drawer along with other activity requiring scrutiny. This isn’t a bad dream; it’s reality.

Sanjo Omoniyi of Omoniyi Law Firm, P.C. and another Chicago attorney, who asked to remain anonymous, know the feeling all too well. These are a few of the experiences they endured before choosing to house their firms at Amata Law Office Suites — Chicago’s first legal community of more than 700 attorneys and seven Class-A downtown offices.

For Omoniyi, the last straw was the office’s inability to handle his law firm’s phone calls. Messages were not properly transferred to his cell phone.

“I’d pick up, and callers would ask, ‘Is this a law firm?’” he recalled.

Finding a Law Firm Shared Workspace

A 2018 report from Vonage found that businesses lose $75 billion each year due to poor customer service, such as missed phone calls. These missed calls translated to Omoniyi losing a majority of his business.

In the past year, the shared workspace market declined with more people working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A major shared workspace provider filed for bankruptcy. But the anonymous attorney, who has been with Amata since 2015, had problems with their firm’s previous, non-legal-focused shared space long before the pandemic hit.

When their firm found Amata and prepared to leave, the former landlord would not transfer their phone number to their new Amata office.

“It was annoying to have to change phone numbers in the midst of growing our business,” the attorney said. “When you sign a new contract, you’re not thinking about leaving.”

Much like missed phone calls, moving can also pose a risk to attorneys’ reputations, especially if they have upcoming case deadlines and are unable to receive important mail. When firms move, they need to notify numerous entities, including current and former clients; local courts; state and local bar associations; insurance companies; banks and other financial institutions; and the local post office. All of this extra works pulls lawyers away from what they do best: practice law. In fact, Omoniyi has been struggling for two months to transfer his mail to his Amata address.

Amata CEO Ron Bockstahler understood these pain points and the dangers associated with disrupting business for lawyers. Unlike other shared spaces, Amata is dedicated to meeting attorneys’ needs and helping firms flourish. Amata transfers phone numbers if an attorney moves to a new location and allows firms to downsize office space in the middle of leases — both rare offers in the shared workspace industry.

The Amata Difference: A Shared Workspace for Law Firms

The flexibility and reasonability of Amata’s business model has allowed the anonymous attorney to easily move to three or four different Amata offices during lease terms. They said Amata lets attorneys “instantly” upgrade space in a matter of 24 hours, which is important for private practices.

“All aspects of Amata’s services are top notch, and they’re willing to help,” they said. “Every service is provided at the drop of a hat, and we’re only charged a small fee.”

Don’t find yourself in a bad arrangement with a shared workspace that doesn’t understand your needs. Call us or visit our website and take an online or in-person tour of one of our seven Class-A spaces to learn how Amata can become your legal partner and help you successfully grow your law practice.

Discover our offices for lawyers in Chicago.