Introducing Guest Blogger Cathy Ribble – “Virtual Paralegal Partnerships: What Solo Attorneys Need to Know”
Cathy L. Ribble is a senior level litigation paralegal who decided in 2009 to offer virtual services to U.S.-licensed attorneys when she founded Digital Paralegal Services. She is certified by the National Association of Legal Assistants as an Advanced Certified Paralegal in the area of Trial Practice. She matches attorneys looking for virtual paralegal support with NALA-certified paralegals by practice area and geographic location.
Cathy contributed to NALA’s 2010 Career Chronicle with her article Could You Be One? Virtual Paralegals. She has been featured in Texas Far Journal’s Testing the Waters: Is It Time to Try a Virtual Legal Assistant? Paralegal Today’s Freelance Freedom, Carolina Paralegal News Virtual Paralegals Becoming More Common as Profession Grows, Practical Paralegalism’s Top 50 Twitter Feeds for Paralegals, ParalegalGateway’s Toolbar for Paralegals under Paralegal Tweeps and Paralegal Blogs, and The Paralegal Mentor’s Virtual Paralegal Interview Series.
Solo attorneys throughout the United States are hearing the terms virtual paralegal and virtual legal assistant for the first time. Today’s economy and the desire to keep a home-office practice are leading many solo attorneys to seek more information about virtual support. […]
What Can Thanksgiving Do for Your Law Practice?
The Thanksgiving holiday is right around the corner. In the tradition of our forebears, it’s a time set aside for sharing with others and expressing gratitude. Can carrying the lessons of Thanksgiving into our law practices throughout the year help us experience more prosperity and enjoyment?
Here’s what studies have shown: […]
Don’t Negotiate Like a Politician
Who knew that lawyers could find good advice about negotiating on behalf of their clients in The Costco Connection? In her article titled Attitude Shift, Rhonda Abrams warns business owners not to negotiate like today’s polarized and ineffective politicians. “Stop thinking of the other side as your opponent,” she advises.
When it comes to negotiation, clients often say that they want a tough lawyer. What they really want is a solution to their problem or the healing of an injury. Their strategy for obtaining that may involve hiring a tough lawyer. […]
10 Tips for Mentoring a Young Lawyer
According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers report in its 14th Annual Global CEO Survey, 98% of Millennial workers believe that working with a coach or mentor is important to their development. More would choose training and development as a benefit than a cash bonus. When I shared information about this survey on Twitter, Jasmine Decarie, Director of Marketing & Business Development at Foley Hoag, wisely pointed out that law firms need to train mentors on mentoring.
Jasmine’s admonition brought me back to my official mentor in BigLaw. He was a kindly gray-haired gentleman in the trial department. Although all first-years were on General Assignment in those days, I wondered why I received a trial lawyer as a mentor, when I wanted to do corporate work. […]
The Proper Care and Feeding of Referral Sources
Because I work with a lot of different lawyers, people often contact me when they need to engage one. Sometimes a friend needs legal services, and I hear from them later about their satisfaction level with the services received. Often, however, a friend calls on behalf of the potential client. I give them contact info for a couple of appropriate lawyers, which they forward to the client. Usually I give the lawyers I recommend a heads up by email or voicemail…and that’s the last I hear of it.
Over the course of a couple of years, I referred 5 or 6 potential clients to one lawyer. I never even heard whether she got hired. When a new referral request came in, I had a little conversation in my head: “I wonder whether the previous referrals were good matches for her. In any event, she didn’t seem to particularly appreciate them. She never let me know what happened. Did she even say ‘thank you’? I think I’ll send this referral to someone else who will appreciate it.” […]
How Lawyers Can Handle Bad Reviews and Complaints on Social Media
When I spoke recently at the State Bar of Texas annual meeting about social media success stories for lawyers, I got a familiar question: “What should I do if someone trashes me online in social media?”
Almost every lawyer has experienced a client with unreasonable expectations, or one who got bad results because of their own bad behavior or bad facts. I can’t even count how many different people over the years that I have heard claim that they got cheated in their divorce settlement because their lawyer was in cahoots with the other side. (None of them told a credible story.) The difference today is that they can widely publicize their opinions and dissatisfaction online. I have been taken aback by the vituperative language used in anonymous comments to blogs and news posts. Given these common occurrences today, there is a definite risk that someday you will face an unfavorable rating or an untrue statement about your services online.
Some attorneys cite fear of negative comments as a reason for eschewing social media altogether. They are uniformed, however. Ratings and comments can be posted about your legal services on many sites whether you engage social media or not. If you don’t play, you won’t know what they say. […]