Administrative Support Services: The New Way Forward

Mattern Associates
Oct 16, 2024
2 min read

What happened to administrative support during COVID?

COVID forced law firms to change alongside a rapidly changing world. The change, while sudden, was successful for most firms and provided an opportunity to restructure for today’s world. Law firm staff report that their firms transitioned effectively to remote work, and, on top of this, 2020 and 2021 were two of the most profitable years on record.

Lawyers liked the shift to remote work. In fact, 86% of lawyers prefer to continue working remotely, which is proving to be an important factor for lawyers when choosing a firm. It is no surprise, then, that firms are adopting a hybrid model to attract and retain lawyers and talented support staff.

The pandemic triggered changes to not just where attorneys work, but how. Lawyers were forced to upskill their technical skills—so much so that lawyers are doing a good deal of what were the staples of a legal secretary’s work, at least those tasks that had not already been replaced by technology.

These tasks, such as transcribing dictated letters, compiling and typing notes scribbled onto a legal pad, answering lawyer phones, maintaining lawyer calendars, filing hard-copy files, and managing incoming and outgoing mail are relics from a previous generation. Notes are now taken using a laptop, documents can be edited on the go using a cell phone or tablet, dictation software transcribes the audio for end users, voicemail systems transcribe and deliver messages to a lawyer’s inbox, electronic calendars and reminders alert lawyers to upcoming meetings and allow them to schedule with a click of a button, and document management systems have eliminated the need to maintain a hard-copy filing system.

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