Unicorns don’t exist (stop trying to hire one)
Hiring a single “unicorn” employee who excels at everything is unrealistic. Instead, consider fractional staffing, where legal-specialized employees work part-time for multiple law firms and offer high-quality support in their areas of expertise.
You’re finally ready to hire a staff member at your law firm. You can’t do it all yourself anymore and have the budget for one assistant. Congratulations!
What’s the first thing you do?
You write a job description filled with all the work you want your assistant to take off your plate. Tasks range from new client intakes to social media posting to drafting legal documents. But it’s only a little bit of everything—so one person is all you need, right?
Wrong.
If you’re struggling to find a social butterfly who turns clients’ frowns upside down one minute and diligently completes paralegal tasks the next… that’s not surprising.
Because unicorns don’t exist.
What is a unicorn employee?
A unicorn employee is an expert at every random task you need help with. They are everything below:
- A laser-focused, detail-oriented paralegal who dots every I and crosses every t
- A warm, bubbly client coordinator who makes your clients feel cared for and valued
- A creative marketer with copywriting and design skills who manages your social media and updates your website
Like unicorns, this person doesn’t exist.
You may get lucky and find someone willing to try their best at anything you throw their way. But tasks that go against their natural skillset and personality will be draining, leading to poor retention and performance.
An introverted specialist will draft documents with a smile on their face all day long. But put that same person on the phone with a frustrated client for 30 minutes, and they’re ready to clock out for the day.
It’s not sustainable. It’s not practical. And it certainly won’t produce the high-quality results you’re looking for.
“But I only have the budget and workload for one person!”
Here’s what you do: Hire fractional.
The fractional staffing solution
What is fractional staffing?
In simple terms, fraction staffing is hiring someone for a fraction of their total time. Fraction legal employees work for several law firms at once to fill their time and make a full salary.
A fractional legal employee’s workload may look something like this:
- 20 hours a month with law firm A
- 60 hours a month with law firm B
- 40 hours a month with law firm C
- 10 hours a month with law firm D
Fractional staffing allows attorneys to maximize the return on their investment by hiring multiple experts for a fraction of the cost.
So you can get your detail-oriented paralegal, warm and fuzzy client coordinator, and skilled marketing implementor for even less than you were planning to spend on that unicorn employee you’ve been looking for.
How to hire fractional legal staff
Getting started with Back Office Betties fractional legal assistants is easy:
- Select your monthly plan
- Fill out your setup form (tell us the work you want help with, the tech tools/software your law firm uses, the practice area(s) you handle, and any specific qualities you’d like to see in your assistants)
- We’ll match you with the expert legal assistants you’ve been looking for
That’s it! We handle recruiting, hiring, benefits, and employee management, so all that’s left for you to do is delegate.
Schedule a free discovery call today to see what fractional legal staff can do for your law firm.
