Exploring Virtual Legal Receptionists and Assistants

Many law firms, especially those in areas with significant Spanish-speaking populations, may have bilingual staff who are proficient in both Spanish and English. Having bilingual staff can be advantageous for law firms as a great 1st step into welcoming more Hispanic clients.

If you only delegated the task of answering Spanish-language phone calls from prospective Hispanic clients to one or two employees, they’d also have little time to do their primary duties. And some law firm practices don’t have a Spanish speaker on staff at all. How can they field inquiries from potential Hispanic clients?

Virtual legal receptionists and virtual assistants can help with Spanish-language intake calls with prospective Hispanic clients. But virtual legal receptionists and virtual assistants can also help your law firm in other ways. Let’s explore some of them!

 1) Interpreting.

If you have Spanish-speaking clients but you don’t have any Spanish speakers in your law office to serve them, you can use virtual interpreting services to communicate with them in real time. 

While the majority of Hispanics in the U.S. are bilingual, according to the Pew Research Center, over 40 million U.S. Hispanics speak Spanish at home. What’s more, 24% of U.S. Hispanic adults say they can only carry a conversation in Spanish. As it’s often easier and more convenient for potential Hispanic clients to do business in their native language, interpreting services can be invaluable.

 2) Translation.

If you’re serving Hispanic clients in Spanish, then you need to offer bilingual legal documents. Thing is, even if you have a Spanish speaker on-staff, that person may not be familiar with legalese. Therefore, it’s important to have access to translation services that specialize in bilingual legal document translation, like those offered by legal virtual assistants.

 3) Scheduling and other administrative duties.

Bilingual legal receptionists and administrative professionals can cost upwards of $40,000 a year (and even more in some parts of the country where the cost of living is much higher). That’s an enormous financial burden on your law practice! 

As your law firms grows, instead of hiring an additional bilingual legal receptionist or administrative assistant for tens of thousands of dollars a year, you may consider using a bilingual virtual assistant as the extension of your staff for a fraction of the cost.

 Not only are bilingual virtual assistants less expensive on an hourly basis, but they’re available as-needed so you don’t have to pay for time that you don’t need. The cost savings are enormous!

 Make sure to get a leg up on the competition by making use of bilingual virtual assistance. If you have any questions about this topic or any other Hispanic legal marketing topic, feel free to contact us!