Amata Law Office Suites Blog

One of the biggest issues facing lawyers today is the accrual of billable hours. During the early days of 2020, lawyers were forced to work remotely and reconfigure their entire practice. This led to a decline in billable hours across the board, with legal practitioners struggling to make ends meet. One study suggests that most law firms were only able to net an average of 2.5 billable hours each day. Virtual legal assistants are increasingly employed to resolve these issues.

A virtual paralegal is a game-changer for a legal practice that needs a second set of hands, but can’t afford to hire a full-time paralegal on staff. For solo and private practice law firms, they offer an ideal solution to many of the problems that emerge on a day-to-day basis. But are they a better option than freelance paralegal services?

When it comes to juggling motherhood and practicing law, Natalie Harris, a partner at Baron Harris Healey, candidly admits that it’s no easy task.“It was totally horrible,” she said about

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.

Virtual law office spaces are becoming the ideal choice for many legal practitioners in the 21st century. A virtual office enables attorneys across a variety of practice areas to gain access to crucial support services and essential technology letting them work from anywhere while providing office necessities like manned reception, legal admin staff, a business address, and more.

According to a recent Cushman & Wakefield survey, roughly two-thirds of law firms polled spent 4-7% of gross revenue on real estate last year. While firms have been downsizing, some still spend millions of dollars on physical offices. This year, however, the practice of law has greatly shifted with many lawyers utilizing virtual offices.

As COVID-19 quickly spread across the U.S. earlier this year, lawyers in large and small firms began embarking on an unprecedented shift: remote work from anywhere through virtual offices.

“Solos,” and small firms up to nine lawyers, today comprise the majority of the U.S.’s 1.3 million lawyers. See how one solo attorney improved her overall efficiency and grew her practice using a virtual office.

Remote working can be more than just an aberration in your firm’s history. Many attorneys are hoping measures like RON (which Gov. Pritzker is permitting in Illinois while the gubernatorial disaster proclamation is in place) and video conferencing for uncontested motions stay in effect long after the pandemic has passed. In the same context, measures put in place to manage your firm remotely can be brought back to the office to benefit your firm’s efficiency and bottom-line.