When it comes to being an effective and invaluable member of the team, it is incumbent upon legal services professionals to take the extra time to understand the tasks they are being asked to do, says Phoebe MacDougall.

In conversation with Lawyers Weekly, Ms MacDougall – who won the Legal Support Professional of the Year category at the 2020 Australian Law Awards – said it is easy enough to follow instruction from your team, “but if you are taking it upon yourself to learn the reasoning behind the tasks it makes it easier to identify them before being asked”.

“Your main role is to free up time for the [solicitors] in the firm so they can focus less on the administrative side of practice and more on the legal work, nothing makes you stand out more than seeking out areas needing attention and going the extra mile to make sure they are taken care of,” she advised.

COVID-19 and other hurdles

Such an approach is especially pertinent, she continued, in the age of coronavirus.

“COVID-19 has significantly reduced the opportunities for legal support professionals, particularly those that are completing practical legal training as many firms have now moved their operations outside of the office and into the home,” Ms MacDougall said.

“Tasks like brief collating and delivery are being done electronically and reducing the need for extra hands around the office. Support professionals have to seek out new areas of need in order to fill those gaps. I have found the most important area support professionals can make an impact in through COVID-19, is understanding and implementing systems that can improve their firm's electronic efficiencies, such as virtual courtrooms, [audiovisual link] meetings with clients and ensuring their colleagues have access to files online.”

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Another issue for legal services professionals, Ms MacDougall added, “will be the same issue facing many young people today, and that is finding a role”.

“COVID-19’s impact on the job market has been harsh, LSP’s will have to work harder than ever to get a foot in the door. Law in general is a competitive industry so they will need to be willing to work hard to make themselves stand out,” she said. 

Working better with legal practices

What is critical, Ms MacDougall stressed, is that firms work to foster respectful and honest relationships with their legal support professionals – who, “more often than not [are] law students or recent graduates” – so they can encourage and motivate those staff members to have pride in their firms.

“Many legal support staff are working with a view to enter practice. I think it is important for firms to hire them with this in mind, it’s a great way to educate staff from a [grassroots] level so when they do complete their training they can become a valuable asset to the firm and work their way up,” she argued.

“It’s also important to remember that your firm is generally going to be a support staff employee’s first taste of the industry, how you work together will have a huge impact on how they will carry themselves into future roles.

“For clients, support staff are often the first point of contact, lawyers will do well to educate their support staff early on about the importance of building rapport with clients, in practice this can be as easy as remembering names but if a support staff employee wants to stand out, they should take the time to learn the client’s case so that when clients contact the office and their solicitor is unavailable they can communicate information confidently.”

Emerging opportunities

Even though it is a tough time for legal support professionals, especially when it comes to finding new positions, “it’s also a really exciting time”, Ms MacDougall stressed.

“COVID-19 has carved out an entirely new area of need for law firms requiring support. Law, at least in the criminal area I’m familiar with, seems to take a long time to transition from the old systems into new technologies. Now that we’ve been forced to move operations online there’s a whole new market for professionals to assist with,” she explained.

“Facilitating [work-from-home] systems, implementing [audiovisual] link technologies and delivering tasks from outside the office could provide both [LSPs] and lawyers with a greater [work-life] balance.”