Virtual assistants for law firms
Diary control, matter-file administration and client correspondence, handled by somebody who already knows what a matter file is — and who knows exactly where the work stops.
- From $10/hour
- Both sides of every match vetted
- Member of VAASA
The work
What lands on the desk here.
- Diary control across fee earners, with court and deadline dates protected
- Matter file opening, structure and document filing
- Client correspondence along an agreed line
- Intake forms and new-client information gathering
- Chasing signatures and outstanding documents
- Bundle and exhibit collation to your index
- Time-recording chasing and billing preparation
- Deadline and limitation-date reminders
- Supplier, expert and counsel scheduling
- Post-matter file closing and archiving
Where the line is
No legal advice, no work held out as a qualified person's, ever.
A Nira professional is an administrator. They do not give legal advice, draft substantive documents, or do anything that could be presented to a client or a court as the work of a qualified person. They do not make judgement calls on a matter, and they do not decide what goes to a client. Conflict checks, client due diligence and anything your regulator ties to a named individual stay inside the firm — a remote administrator is not a route around a supervision requirement, and we would rather lose the enquiry than let that be assumed. What we do is the administration around the matter, under a fee earner's supervision, so the qualified time in the firm is spent on the part that requires qualification.
In practice
How this tends to go.
Law firms are unusually good at identifying which of their hours are billable and unusually bad at protecting them. The work that gets in the way is not complex — opening a file properly, getting a signature back, keeping the diary honest, chasing a client for the document they were asked for three weeks ago — but it is relentless, and in a small firm it is nearly always done by whoever bills the most.
The vocabulary is the reason sector experience matters here. A professional who has to be told what a matter file is, what an exhibit index does, or why a limitation date is not just another calendar entry spends their first month learning your business on your time. Someone who already knows starts useful, and the difference between the two is most of the value of the first quarter.
Diary control is usually the first thing to move, and it is the one with the clearest return. Court dates, filing deadlines and client meetings protected in one place, with the fee earner told rather than asked. After that it is usually matter-file structure — the unglamorous discipline that decides whether a colleague can pick a file up when you are away, which is the only time it ever gets tested.
Billing preparation is the one firms leave until last and regret leaving. Time-recording chased weekly instead of monthly, disbursements collated as they arrive, and a draft bill that exists before somebody has to make one at the end of a quarter. None of it requires legal judgement; all of it requires somebody whose job that week is to do it.
Support is arranged at fifteen, thirty or forty hours a week from $10 an hour — see pricing. Where a firm’s need is closer to running one or two partners’ working lives than to running the office, executive support is the better fit and the distinction is worth drawing on the call rather than after.
Support levels
Fifteen, thirty or forty hours a week.
15 hrs / week
Nira Focus
Focused support. More time for what matters.
Founders and professionals who need consistent administrative support without a full-time commitment.
30 hrs / week
Nira Elevate
More support. More capacity to grow.
Growing businesses that need deeper support across administration, clients, systems and daily operations.
40 hrs / week
Nira Signature
Dedicated support. Seamlessly integrated.
Executives and established businesses requiring a dedicated professional who becomes an extension of the team.
From $10/hour. Law firms support is delivered at one of three levels, and a business can move between them as the work grows.
Questions
Before you enquire.
Can a virtual assistant work on client-confidential matters?
That is your firm's decision and your regulator's, not ours to grant. What we can say is what we do about it. Access is scoped to what the role actually needs, confidentiality obligations are in the service agreement, and we will not push for wider access than the work requires. If your professional rules restrict who may see a matter file, tell us on the first call and we will scope the role to fit rather than around it.
Is this a paralegal service?
No, and the distinction matters. A paralegal does substantive legal work under supervision. A Nira professional does administration — files, diaries, correspondence, chasing and billing preparation. If what you need is drafting or research on the substance of a matter, this is the wrong service and we would say so on the call.
Can they manage court deadlines?
They can hold and prompt them, which is a genuinely useful thing and how most small firms lose least sleep. They cannot be the control that guarantees one is met — responsibility for a limitation or filing date sits with the fee earner and no administrative arrangement changes that. The value is that nobody is relying on remembering.
We are a two-partner firm. Is fifteen hours a week enough?
Usually, to start. Small firms typically hand over diary and filing first, then correspondence, then billing preparation as the process gets written down. Hours move between levels as the work grows, which is the reason the levels exist rather than a single fixed arrangement.
Where this goes next
Related pages.
Get started
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A short call if you would rather talk it through, or a short form if you would rather write it down.