Why Delegating to Virtual Paralegals Can Boost Your Firm’s Profits
Why Delegating to Virtual Paralegals Can Boost Your Firm’s Profits
As an attorney, your time is precious. Yet, too many lawyers get bogged down in tasks that don’t require their expertise. It’s time to rethink how you run your firm and focus on maximizing both your time and profits. You don’t have to wear all the hats—stop telling yourself that you can do everything faster or better. While it may be true in some cases, it’s not the most efficient way to manage your time or grow your business. It’s time to run your firm like a business.
So, why spend valuable hours on tasks that can be delegated?
Let’s be honest—billing hundreds of dollars an hour to draft basic discovery requests or perform administrative tasks isn’t the best use of your time. A skilled paralegal can handle these tasks at a much lower rate. Meanwhile, your time is better spent strategizing, working on higher-level legal analysis, or handling client matters that only you, as an attorney, can do. Delegating to support staff like virtual paralegals not only increases productivity but also maximizes profitability.
Focus on the Work Only You Can Do
Consider this: An attorney with a rate of $350 an hour spends one hour responding to interrogatories, another drafting a motion to compel, and another cite-checking a brief. That’s three hours of work that could have been easily delegated to a paralegal.
Now, what if you outsourced those tasks to a virtual paralegal billed out at $190 an hour? If that virtual paralegal charges $35 an hour, you’d make a profit of $155 for each hour of their work, resulting in an 81.58% profit margin.
But What About Hiring a W-2 Employee?
Some may argue that hiring a W-2 employee at a lower rate could generate even higher profits. On paper, that sounds cost-effective, but the reality is far different. Hiring a full-time W-2 employee comes with additional hidden costs. These include:
Benefits: Health insurance, retirement contributions, and other benefits add roughly 30% or more to an employee’s base salary.
Payroll taxes: Employers must pay Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes.
PTO: Full-time employees typically receive paid time off, meaning you’re paying for unproductive hours.
Training and supervision: W-2 employees require ongoing training and oversight, which takes time and resources—time you could be spending on billable work. High turnover in the legal field means constant retraining, further reducing productivity.
When you outsource to a virtual paralegal, there’s no need for extensive training. They’re experts in their field and can seamlessly integrate into your system without the ongoing supervision required for in-house staff.
The Virtual Paralegal Advantage
When you hire a virtual paralegal, you pay only for the hours worked—no benefits, no payroll taxes, and no unproductive hours. This gives you the flexibility to scale up or down based on your firm’s needs.
For instance, if your firm’s workload slows down, you can reduce the hours you’re outsourcing without having to worry about keeping someone on staff. And because there’s no need to cover overtime, both you and your paralegal avoid the pressure of overwork.
Outsourcing not only minimizes management headaches but also allows you to focus on the work that truly matters—serving your clients efficiently and growing your firm.
Streamline Your Operations for Profitability
Managing a W-2 employee might seem like a cheaper option, but once you factor in the added expenses and administrative burden, the cost is much higher. With a virtual paralegal, you can:
Boost your profit margin: By billing virtual paralegals at a higher rate than you pay them, you can significantly increase your profits.
Enjoy greater flexibility: Scale your team according to your firm’s caseload without committing to the fixed costs of a full-time employee.
Simplify administration: No payroll to manage, no benefits to track, and no unproductive hours to pay for.
Conclusion: Run Your Firm Like a Business
Delegating tasks to a virtual paralegal is a smart, business-savvy move. It reduces overhead, increases your firm’s profitability, and frees up your time to focus on higher-value legal work. Stop wearing all the hats—run your firm like a business, and watch it thrive.