Virtual legal assistant for the admin work behind every matter
A virtual legal assistant handles the administrative side of a practice: scheduling intake calls, formatting documents, keeping deadline calendars current and following up with clients for missing paperwork. Attorneys get back hours that would otherwise go to email and calendars. On Aides you search ID-verified people by skill and time zone, see the overlap with your office hours, run a paid trial on a dummy file and pay them directly with no agency markup. This role is legal admin. Your assistant is not a lawyer, does not give legal advice and works under your supervision.
- Every assistant passes an ID and liveness check. No AI personas.
- You pay your assistant directly. No markup.
Legal admin tasks you can delegate
Small firms and solo attorneys lose billable time to tasks that need care but not a law degree. Your assistant handles those tasks inside your practice management software, document folders and shared calendar.
- 01 Schedule intake consultations, send intake questionnaires and remind prospective clients before the call.
- 02 Format pleadings, letters and agreements to your templates, with consistent headings, numbering and tables of contents.
- 03 Enter court dates, filing deadlines and follow-up dates on the matter calendar from your instructions, and send reminders ahead of each one.
- 04 Follow up with clients for signed engagement letters, identity documents and evidence you requested.
- 05 Organize matter folders with a naming convention, so every document is easy to find.
- 06 Log time entries from your notes and prepare draft invoices for your review.
- 07 Transcribe dictation and tidy meeting notes into a short summary.
Where the line sits
Your assistant does not advise clients, interpret law, choose strategy or sign anything for the firm. Every deadline your assistant enters comes from you or a supervising attorney, who confirms the calculation. Clients who ask legal questions are told that an attorney will answer.
Typical weekly hours and time zone overlap
A solo attorney usually starts with 10 to 15 hours a week of legal admin. A small firm with several attorneys sharing one assistant often uses 25 to 40 hours a week. Intake scheduling and client follow-ups work best with a solid block of overlap, because prospective clients expect replies during business hours in their own time zone. Document formatting and file organization can happen outside your day. For each assistant, the Aides search counts how many of your office hours they cover, so you can pick strong overlap for client-facing work.
How to hire a legal admin assistant on Aides
Our guide to hire a virtual assistant covers the full process. For legal admin, focus on precision and discretion.
- 01 Search for legal admin, enter your office hours and the weekly hours you need.
- 02 Shortlist people with experience in practice management software and document formatting.
- 03 In the conversation, ask how they track a deadline you gave them and how they confirm it was entered correctly.
- 04 Pay for a trial task on a dummy matter, such as formatting a template and building a calendar from a list of dates.
- 05 Hire, put a confidentiality agreement in place with the work agreement template on Growth and above, and grant access matter by matter.
Confidentiality in practice
Give access only to the matters your assistant works on, keep client communications in firm systems rather than personal email and remove access the day an engagement ends. Check your professional rules on supervising nonlawyer assistants and keep that supervision documented.
What a virtual legal assistant costs
Typical rates for legal admin run from 12 to 40 USD per hour, with assistants experienced in litigation calendars and court formatting at the top of the band. Example monthly cost for 15 hours a week at a typical 22 USD per hour is 15 x 22 x 4.33 = 1,429 USD per month, settled with your assistant directly. Firms that keep a record of who touched which matter usually choose Business, which adds an identity verification report per hire as a PDF. Read every plan on the virtual assistant cost page.
Why a law practice needs a verified assistant
Client files carry privileged and personal information, so the person handling them must be exactly who they claim. Legal assistants on Aides have their identity confirmed before they appear in search, which lets you document who had access to which matter. Read the verified virtual assistant process in full.
Virtual legal assistant questions
Is a virtual legal assistant a paralegal?
Not by default. This role covers legal admin. Some assistants have paralegal training, which their profile shows, but they still work under your supervision.
Can my assistant talk to clients?
Yes, for scheduling, reminders and requests for documents. Legal questions always go to an attorney.
Who is responsible for deadlines?
The supervising attorney. Your assistant enters and tracks dates you confirm and sends reminders, but the calculation stays with you.
How do I protect client confidentiality?
Sign a confidentiality agreement, grant access per matter, keep work inside firm systems and remove access when the engagement ends.
What software do legal assistants use?
Profiles list practice management, document and calendar tools each person knows. Test your own setup in the paid trial.
Find a legal admin assistant who covers your office hours
Enter your office hours, pick legal admin and see who overlaps.