An
understanding of the changing nature of the way in which legal
services are delivered, and how the traditional roles and duties
of legal secretaries/assistants have changed, can be aided by a
brief look at the history of office technology.
The
typewriter was invented in 1874 and became the backbone for
producing a written work product in law firms, thus creating a
new career: the
legal secretary. The
invention of the telephone came on the heels of the typewriter
in 1877; though it was almost 25 years before the telephone
first appeared in law firms.
The typewriter and the telephone, as well as the adding
machine, were the primary tools available to law firms for
almost 100 years. Law
firm “technologies” remained basically unchanged until the
first attempt at tying typewriters to automation was introduced
by IBM and Xerox in the early 1970’s.
A
real breakthrough for law firms came in the mid-1980’s with
the first desktop computer.
It offered a more advanced word processing product that
could be universally used by others in the firm, not just
secretaries. Conventional
methods of dictation and transcription are becoming obsolete.
The
fulfillment of technology’s long-awaited promise to “change
the way law firms do business” is materializing.
The payback on law firm investments in expensive tools is
finally emerging and, consequently, the role of legal
secretaries/assistants is changing.
As
law firms spend thousands of dollars on technology that allow
lawyers and support staff to work more efficiently, the legal
industry will be forced to re-evaluate attorney-staff ratios and
the traditional workday in an effort to reduce expenses.
As a result, individual secretaries are likely to support
a larger group of lawyers.
Inevitably, regardless of the growth in the number of
lawyers, fewer secretaries will be required.
A
tighter and tightening employment market has been accompanied by
changes in job and career expectations that parallel the
post-typewriter technological advances described above.
Most high school students expect to get a college degree.
It is becoming more difficult to find qualified
applicants because bright, ambitious candidates have many more
options available to them than they did a generation ago.
Today,
we find that current assistants want to become more of an
integral part of the practice.
A lot of assistants feel nervous about the future,
feeling that perhaps they won’t be needed as much due to
technology advances especially voice recognition.
When
looking for assistants, most attorneys want someone with
intelligence and initiative, someone who is professional,
reliable, exercises good judgment, is trustworthy, possesses
advanced computer skills, has organizational skills, and can
recognize what needs attention and when. They want an assistant who can provide an excellent
presentation (on the telephone, in person and in the work
product). A
successful assistant is their attorney’s teammate
- someone who can complement their strengths and offset
their weaknesses. Attorneys
who want to succeed need an assistant who has excellent skills
and the initiative to help the attorney and the law firm be
successful. One
attorney said that the assistant-attorney relationship is the
most critical relationship in the office.
If the assistant knows the cases and clients, attorneys
then have the freedom to delegate administrative tasks, which in
turn allows them to be creative and even feel comfortable when
out of the office, knowing the client will still receive
immediate assistance and service through the assistant.
Effective
utilization of the team concept requires a change in how the
partners and associates have traditionally used their
administrative support. The needed change is from individual relationships to a team
culture while, however, still retaining those aspects of the
traditional one-on-one relationship that lead to loyalty and
support. By
definition, a “team” is a small number of people with
complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, to a
set of performance goals, and to an approach for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable.
Attorneys
and law firms are about client service.
The once predictable and stable law firm environment is a
thing of the past. Changes
in the global market, labor force, level of client expectations
and advances in technology will provide law firms with the
opportunity to distinguish themselves as providers of superior
client service through a new approach to effective use of
qualified support personnel.
Those firms who properly develop the team concept with
the legal assistant will offer better client service.
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