This is the final post in our short series on fostering great relations with your Legal Assistant. Again, we will be incorporating more information into the Dwyer Williams Cherkoss PC blog to help make it a great resource for new and prospective personal injury lawyers, so check back soon for more professional development posts!
“How to keep your legal secretary happy, part 1” suggested that you provide them with:
- All incoming mail
- Concise directions, and
- Clear project parameters
“How to keep your legal secretary happy, part 2” suggested that you also provide:
- An open-door policy for asking questions
- Lists of what they can anticipate to happen on each case if/ when attorneys are out of the office
- Streamlined phone call protocol
Three Final Ways to Keep Your Legal Assistant Happy
Here are the final three suggestions that our support staff have provided for how we can keep them happier in the workplace, which we want to share with you:
- Attorney Whereabouts
According to our support staff, having this information on hand at all times is essential! The legal assistants are in large part expected to handle a majority of the clients and contact people including but not limited to insurance company representatives, court officials, medical providers, and other attorneys. It is very difficult to manage these relationships when one is uninformed about attorneys’ locations and expected time back in the office. As with many of our other suggestions, adequate and clear communication with your legal assistant is key here. - True, Uninterrupted Breaks During the Day
Even if support staff remain in the office for lunch and other breaks, their personal time should be respected and not interrupted unless such interruption is for a true emergency. - T/C’s and Files
At the time of this poll, we all agreed that it would be a very good idea if the attorneys were given client/ matter files before taking phone calls. This way, attorneys won’t be talking off of the tops of their heads about case facts, court procedure, or anything else. With files in hand, the attorneys can avoid undue and burdensome work down the road that could easily have been avoided.
We hope that you have gotten something out of this series. Again, we will be sharing more advice like this in the future on our blog as well as on our social media channels. Subscribe to our RSS feed to get blog posts emailed directly to your inbox, or check us out online on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Happy Monday and have a great week!