First order of business: Does your paralegal or anyone that supports your law firm have a solid understanding of what you are facing on a daily basis?

Do they really understand the top challenges of you as the solo attorney in charge?

When you expand your abilities beyond a technical focus and start "acting like a CEO," you'll become more valuable, but you need someone in your office that understands what it takes for you to "act like a CEO" or you will never be able to.

Someone needs to know every step you and the firm need to take in the business on a day to day basis that will keep cases moving forward and allow you to focus on getting new leads through the door.

So I want to talk about a few things a lawyer and their support can look at doing to really enhance this role in a law firm management sense, and the role I am talking about is where the paralegal meets the CIO of a law firm. I like to refer to them as the lead paralegal. To me, this is different than the office manager/legal assistant, whom I envision handles book keeping, scheduling, ordering, day to day administrative tasks, etc.

This is lead paralegal. The CIO to the CEO.. The executive assistant meets the senior level legal experience. It is a hybrid and, truthfully, the most vital team member a solo law firm can hire, even if they only have the budget for one hire…. THIS is the hire you want to make.

It is quite frankly the most critical role you can hire for to ensure you can sustain business growth, attract new client leads from your law firm marketing efforts, and deliver on your promises to your clients.

Once you get this person in your firm, the lead paralegal and the managing attorney should meet each week and really delve into the business operations of things. The lead paralegal should gain valuable insight as to the profitability maintenance and progression of each case. The more they understand this, the more they can implement strategies to adjust processes for maximum case profits.