The Legal Assistants of Tomorrow Might Not Look Like Assistants at All

As COVID-19 disrupted law offices across the world over the past year, attorneys learned to work in a new way: on Zoom calls, in Slack and Microsoft Teams chats and, crucially, with spouses, children and pets as co-workers instead of legal secretaries and law librarians. And, because Fido isn’t particularly adept at data entry, many lawyers also found their plates full with administrative tasks that used to be handled by others.

So what does this portend for the assistants who once took care of everything that wasn't billable? Zach Warren and Victoria Hudgens asked TRU founder and CEO Jared Coseglia to help them answer that question.

"Cushman says her company’s survey work since the start of the pandemic has revealed that somewhere between 50% and 80% of staff, partners and associates want to continue some degree of remote work once the threat of the coronavirus has faded. That’s in line with with research from legal talent agency TRU Staffing Partners, which found that its hiring placements rose from 4% remote in 2014, to 30% in 2019, to 72% in 2020. This will affect not only total staffing head count but also salaries, TRU CEO Jared Coseglia says. He explains, 'Talent in lower-cost-of-living areas with equal or comparable skills to peers in big cities may find themselves having an advantage in 2021 because they require lower base compensation.'"

Read the full article HERE!