The job market in the legal world is increasingly tight. Many law firms lack the time or the know-how to find the best virtual assistant for lawyers for their needs. Law firms struggle to hire qualified, motivated assistants who truly want to invest in this field, which can be particularly stressful.
From creating the job posting to selecting the best virtual legal assistant and analyzing them, we’ll show you how to hire quickly.
There are several easy tips you can use to create attractive virtual assistant for attorney resumes.
Analyze your law firm’s needs
Whether it’s to fill the departure of one of your legal assistants or to create a new position, you must determine the firm’s exact needs point by point.
Here is an example of needs to be determined:
- Is this a position that will require full time?
- Is this a position of responsibility?
- What are the exact tasks that will need to be performed by the virtual legal assistant?
- Do these tasks require extensive experience and/or good knowledge of the profession?
- Will the hired virtual assistant for lawyer be able to be trained internally if necessary?
- Will the virtual legal assistant for attorney have to work for one or more people?
All the answers to these questions can already determine the type of virtual legal attorney you need.
Depending on your area of expertise, the tasks will also differ from those of another firm.
If you practice business law, therefore the legal world, the tasks assigned to the legal assistant will be different from those carried out in a legal office.
This is also one of the points to consider when searching for a CV, because a well-targeted job description will help you attract the best legal assistant CVs, in line with your specialty.
You should also list the professional personality traits you want to find in candidates:
- If you are looking for a dynamic assistant for attorney or on the contrary quite discreet
- If the legal assistant needs to be very independent or not take initiatives
- Are you looking for someone with a degree who could be molded into the firm’s culture? or on the contrary, do you want the person to have a lot of experience in order to bring their know-how to other colleagues like virtual legal assistant?
Once all of these elements have been determined, you can then begin writing your job offer.
Determine the urgency of hiring
After listing the firm’s essential needs, as well as the type of profile sought, you will need to determine a date by which you wish to hire the candidate.
If the hiring is due to the departure of one of your assistants:
Typically, this is the kind of situation that creates urgency in law firms. Employees have one or two months’ notice, depending on their years with the firm, which immediately sets an end date for their contract.
If the legal assistant has been in place for less than a year, he will therefore have 1 month’s notice to give.
If he has been in place for more than a year, there will therefore be 2 months (to be negotiated with the employer if he finds a replacement more quickly).
So you will need to find someone quickly, especially if you intend to have a break between arrival and departure so that the new assistant can be trained in the firm’s routines.
So if you can hire a new legal assistant before the old one leaves, you will gain time to devote to your work as a lawyer.
If the hiring is due to the creation of a position:
If you’re a young lawyer who’s recently started your own practice and your work requires the help of a full-time or part-time paralegal, you’ll have a little more time to select the best paralegal resumes.
Depending on your current organization, you will be able to determine your own timeframe in order to find the ideal person to fill this position.
You can set a “quick start” position to receive legal assistant CVs more quickly, but this will still give you time to choose the one that best meets your expectations.
This also works if you are in a larger firm that requires an additional assistant position than the one you have in place.
Once the needs, profile type and start date have been determined, you can then move on to creating the job offer.
Post the job offer on different communication channels to receive excellent legal assistant CVs quickly
In order to recruit in the legal field, there are several communication channels to put in place as a priority and other channels to use in the event of a lack of CVs.
Pro tip: If you would like to hire a competitive assistant for lawyers without going through a trial basis, an assistant lawyers agency can find you what you need.
Alternatively, we find Indeed, a platform that brings together numerous job offers and candidate profiles who are looking for work.
You can easily post a simple, clear and precise job offer there. You will therefore quickly receive numerous legal assistant CVs on the platform. You can also choose to sponsor your ad for a fee, so it will be highlighted during searches by future candidates. It all depends on the urgency of your recruitment and the budget you want to devote to it.
Next is LinkedIn: The number 1 social network for professionals.
It is a platform that brings together many legal professionals (legal secretaries, legal assistants, lawyers and attorneys). You can post your job offer in a dedicated section and also promote it on your own LinkedIn profile. On LinkedIn, the most interesting thing will be sourcing: you will be able to find profiles that are not necessarily actively looking for a job but who want to change firms for some reason.
Analysis of the various legal assistant CVs received
Discard resumes that do not include the term “ virtual assistant for lawyers.”
Among the pile of CVs you will receive through multiple communication channels, many CVs will be from candidates who are not legal assistants.
If you are looking for a profile with experience or training as a legal assistant, you can immediately discard CVs that do not include the term “legal assistant”.
You will probably receive many applications for “administrative secretary, executive assistant, administrative assistant, etc.”)
If you receive too many applications unrelated to your search, you can be more specific in your ad to limit irrelevant profiles. This will allow you to attract better paralegal resumes that match the job requirements.
You may also receive CVs from “lawyer” profiles because candidates struggle to find positions at their level of qualification.
Once you have sorted through your resumes, you can analyze the remaining legal assistant resumes.
Analyze the content in depth of the legal assistant CVs received
When you receive many paralegal resumes, you are going to have to analyze several things that they should include.
First of all, you will analyze the candidate’s qualifications:
- If the applicant studied law at university, a bachelor’s or master’s degree = this will allow you to gauge his level of qualification (a master’s degree in law gives access to a career as a lawyer)
- If the applicant has completed legal assistant training at a school or training center, the practical aspect will have been more present than at law school.
- Or if he followed a general course but still chose legal assistance
Secondly, you will have to analyze the candidate’s experience:
- If the applicant is starting out because he has just finished his law degree or his legal assistant training through a school or training center
- If the applicant’s internships in firms have already been completed
- If one or more office experiences are listed
- And if the applicant is currently employed
You will then be able to consider the skills acquired during their studies or past experiences.
You can also consider the presentation of the CV as a whole, if the order of professional experience and qualifications is well established from the most recent to the oldest.
If the last professional experience ended several months or years before sending the application, you can still keep the CV in order to question the candidate about this gap period.
A careful analysis of these elements will help you find the best legal assistant CVs and identify the most relevant profiles from the early stages of recruitment.
Pre-screen the best legal assistant resumes by administering knowledge tests
Once you have completed your CV analysis, you can narrow down the pool of candidates you keep by administering online knowledge tests.
These tests can be carried out via online questionnaires, by telephone or by video. You could test the candidate’s knowledge of the legal assistant profession in general or by asking more in-depth questions about your area of expertise.
This helps to highlight the candidate’s real knowledge. A resume doesn’t always reflect the truth, and pre-interview testing can help you weed out candidates who don’t meet your expectations.
Once you have completed your tests, you will then be able to select the best legal assistant CVs.
Selection of the best legal assistant CVs
After analyzing the knowledge tests, keep the legal assistant CVs that best match the firm’s expectations After eliminating inappropriate CVs, analyzing the content of each of them and testing the knowledge of each candidate, you can then make a selection of the candidates who best meet the expectations of the firm.
You can then move on to the stage of job interviews with each candidate.
It would be best to organize the interviews on the same day or on days close to each other so that you can make your choice quickly. Wait until you see all the candidates before making your final choice.
Conduct interviews with selected candidates
Once you have selected the best legal assistant resumes, it’s time to move on to the job interview, which will take place in several stages:
- Welcoming the candidate and presentation (this part should not last more than 10 minutes): you can then introduce yourself and the firm (the number of employees, the main area covered, etc.) and then you can ask the candidate to speak briefly about themselves.
- Questions about professional experience and qualifications: you can ask simple questions (e.g., what position have you previously held as a legal assistant? / What area of law do you prefer? / Have you previously worked with other legal professionals such as notaries, court commissioners, courts?)
- Verification of acquired knowledge: you can test the candidate with a few questions on law in general, test them on the specific software section and test their writing skills by asking them to write a dictated letter on the spot.
- Observe and test the candidate’s soft skills: in a law firm, these skills can be more important than technical skills, which can be developed through daily practice. You could ask the candidate if they handle stress well in the office, if emergencies are not a problem for them, and how they handle a dissatisfied client.
- The final step involves asking the candidate questions about the position: what are the firm’s expectations? / are there any prospects for advancement? / what are the working hours? / is teleworking possible on a partial basis? / what are the remuneration and benefits?
- End of the interview: you can then notify them of your decision in the coming days, specifying that other candidates are currently in the testing or interview phase for the position.
All these steps are essential to obtaining a precise idea of the candidate’s profile, skills, background, intentions with the firm, and motivation.
Job interviews take time but are necessary to have an initial contact with the future legal assistant working with you in the coming days.
Selecting the ideal candidate for the legal assistant position
Following the interviews, you will then be able to decide whether one of the candidates who presented themselves is a good fit for the position.
You can then notify others of a refusal on your part. As a serious employer, you must respond to every candidate who has taken the time to apply, even if it is negative.
Regarding the hired legal assistant, you can then arrange an appointment at the firm to sign the contract and determine the start date.
As a reminder, the trial period will be one month, renewable once if necessary.
You can then start a new adventure with this new virtual assistant for lawyers.
Conclusion:
The best legal assistant resumes are waiting for you! In the legal sector, particularly law firms, recruitment can be a source of stress or a waste of time spent focusing on clients. Whether creating the job offer, analyzing the applications received, selecting the best legal assistant CVs, or conducting job interviews, the recruitment process requires structured organization to save time.