The Essential Tasks and Responsibilities of a Legal Receptionist

The Role and Function of a Legal Receptionist

The role of a legal receptionist is crucial to the day-to-day operations of any law firm. Despite being often overlooked, in terms of importance, their position is essential to the success of a legal office. Legal receptionists are the first point of contact for people who are looking to engage with your law firm. They are also the first impression your potential clients will get, so it’s important that they are polite and friendly as well as professional.
On top of greeting clients and directing calls, a legal receptionist’s primary function is to ensure the smooth running of all activities in the legal office, whether that is by directing calls, handling office correspondence, or organizing travel arrangements. Often the lead receptionist will be responsible for assign specific duties to other receptionists and secretaries and will oversee the general office environment.
Receptionists are responsible for contacting clients on behalf of the lawyers and attorneys . They are the first point of contact for the client and must display cordial discretion while maintaining a professional demeanor. If a client is unhappy or frustrated, the receptionists must have the interpersonal skills to calm the situation down while maintaining good communication between the client and the relevant lawyer or attorney.
In the modern age of technology, the legal receptionist is also responsible for a good deal of technical aspects of running a law firm. Receptionists are expected to have a good working knowledge of most of the essential office applications, as well as general computer skills to fix any minor issues with those systems.
Technical skills aside, legal receptionists are required to understand the legal terms and procedures relating to their practice. They must be familiar with the filing systems used in law firms, and any specific software systems your firm might use for legal documentation and filling out forms/filing.

Handling and Routing Incoming Calls

One of the key duties and responsibilities of a legal receptionist is fielding the large volume of phone calls that can bombard any modern law firm from morning to night. Calls from clients, vendors, and all manner of "cold calls" come in around the clock, and the legal receptionists and operators are ideally suited to directing each call to the attendant at the firm best suited to handle it. Receptionists track incoming calls in order to build up a picture of each client and caller, allowing them to provide better service over time. Answering calls as soon as possible and directing them accurately keeps clients from becoming frustrated and protects lawyers from missing calls from business contacts or other clients. The efficiency of legal receptionists with handling and directing calls is the primary advantage of retaining them to field calls instead of using an automated system, which cannot direct calls with the same level of intuition that a human operator can.

Dealing with Clients or Visitors

Moreover, legal receptionists are often the first contact for potential new clients. Clients will typically feel more comfortable and confident in your services when they are warmly greeted at the door by a friendly face like a legal receptionist. Remember, the receptionist is the "face" of your firm.
In their role as the face of the firm, legal receptionists arrange meetings and keep track of who is coming in, who is leaving, and who is in a meeting. They schedule conference rooms and issue visitor badges for clients and applicants. They communicate with lawyers and other key staff about whom they expect and maintain control in the office to prevent unwanted soliciting.
Legal receptionists also ensure that each client has a positive experience in the office. They make sure that any relevant literature about your firm is available in the lobby area, but they don’t allow anyone to sit and use the internet, check email, or play games on the firm’s Wi-Fi without prior arrangements because clients can become annoyed with the unwanted noise and interruption.

Coordinating Appointments and Schedules

The legal industry is very unique on several fronts, but in order to provide the unique service and support required to keep you and your firm operating at peak performance, the legal receptionist needs to be a versatile, multi-tasking dynamo.
In order to keep the attorney’s calendar running smoothly, your legal receptionist needs to coordinate schedules effectively. This means he/she will need to review lawyers schedules and negotiate with callers to restructure dates and reorder them for optimal productivity for the firm.
Proper appointment management requires wisdom and experience, most of which come from the legal receptionist who can anticipate problems and changes to the schedule so that he or she can contact parties, schedule alternate dates and keep everyone involved in the process happy and satisfied.
Your legal receptionist also has the challenging task of keeping case assignments organized and up to date, which is different for every lawyer in the firm. Everything from coordination of all the calendars for all the lawyers in the firm, to planning events and organizing meetings – your legal receptionist manages it all.
Scheduling appointments at the last minute can be a challenge, but sometimes an emergency requires it, like when a client or an attorney has an emergency court appearance. If an appointment is needed quickly, your legal receptionist will contact other clients and try to arrange to move other appointments to accommodate the new situation.
Coordination of travel is another aspect of scheduling and appointment management that your legal receptionist performs on a regular basis. Although attorneys often do not enjoy traveling, your legal receptionist is usually glad to sell and book tickets and plan travel itineraries for him. He or she will also do his best to cater to the specific needs and preferences of the attorney.
Your legal receptionist handles many aspects of a law firm that the public and even some of your office staff don’t realize. Scheduling and appointment management is just another one of those functions that allows you to stay focused on your clients and their needs, while ensuring that all of your important scheduled appointments are handled and run smoothly, without interference or distraction.

Management of Documents and Mail

The reception desk has been long known as the nerve center of any office, and that is especially true within the legal support industry. A legal receptionist or legal secretary has a multitude of responsibilities that they are tasked with today; especially in dealing with the handling, sorting and distribution of important legal documents and information.
Not only are legal receptionists responsible for sorting through and distributing incoming mail, (such as subpoenas, summons, jury duty and other court documents and filings) but they are also responsible for keeping key attorneys and lawyers apprised of urgent matters such as court dates, deadlines, court filing dates, etc.
Timeliness in getting legal documentation to the appropriate legal personal is essential to ensure that these matters are handled appropriately and on time. Even the slightest lapse in communications can have a devastating result or outcome . In court, lateness in filing can lead to an adverse ruling for a party in a lawsuit or in a trial, and it is a receptionists job to ensure that such miscommunication beyond their control does not happen.
To this end, a legal secretary’s ability to thoroughly sort through bundles of mail, quickly categorizing and distributing the information to the correct parties is critical to a law firm’s operations. Oftentimes, they will have the responsibility for answering questions over the phone and scheduling conferences with lawyers and their clients, as well as managing their busy schedules accordingly.
As you can see, a legal receptionist is such an integral part of any law firm. They must constantly be organized, detail oriented, and certainly extremely proficient in time-management and scheduling. Proper sorting of mail is a meticulous task in itself. Fortunately for law firms, there are document scanning services such as those offered by McScan.

Oversight of Office Supplies and Premises

A legal receptionist is responsible for keeping track of supplies and can sometimes even make recommendations for purchases or work with vendors directly. Providing for the office environment (caring for plants and other décor) is also part of this task, as is making sure that all of the supplies are stored in a way that makes them easy to find when needed. Keeping everything organized and auditing the stock of supplies periodically are both great skills to develop. Recall that your employer is likely to have a few suppliers with whom you will be working closely, so developing good relationships with them is also important. Keeping inventory on all of the essentials could also be helpful for the office manager or managing attorney. This includes toner for printers and copiers, writing utensils, paper clips, and other stationary items. The legal receptionist should regularly check in with team members to determine whether they need anything.

Utilization of Legal Software and Equipment

An increasingly critical component of the work of the legal receptionist is knowledge and use of any legal software and technology the office has. This can include practice management packages, case management systems and other plug in legal related solutions. Many of these software solutions require a strong basic knowledge on the part of all staff working in front offices. For example, these packages can track incoming and outgoing communications such as the receipt of faxes. Therefore, when a fax is printed, the receptionist must know how to enter in certain details to indicate that it has been handled in accordance with the tracking procedures.
Receptionists also need to be competent in working with e-mail systems, particularly in the case of those offices that have the receptionist act as the clearinghouse for all incoming e-mail. In these cases, the receptionist will sort through and prioritise incoming messages and hand them off to the appropriate attorneys based on pre-existing protocols. Handling e-mail in any way requires a warm and professional tone to be maintained, both when re-typing messages and when inserting personal notes as to why resource response to a particular e-mail may be required. This is also a touchy area in that there is increasingly a presumption that all staff are literate and comfortable with e-mails and e-mail systems. Accordingly, if a receptionist should fail to handle an e-mail coming into the office, a negative impression can be given and the opportunity for a sale or successful handling of a situation may be lost.
Receptionists also need to be accessible to clients at all times via cellphone, making this now a standard piece of office equipment and in many cases a company provided device. The device, however, needs to be provided with clear rules of use.

Abilities and Competencies of a Legal Receptionist

Legal receptionists should possess a number of key skills that enable them to perform the duties and responsibilities in the most effective way.
Key skills required for a legal receptionist include:
• Communication Skills: A legal receptionist should have excellent communication skills. He or she should be able to articulate opinions well, capture the essence of messages when answering calls, relay them to the appropriate people and keep the clients up to date on their cases.
• Computer skills: It is imperative for a legal receptionist to know how to use computers and become familiar with a number of software applications that are essential in order to carry out the administrative tasks he or she is responsible for.
• Office management: In addition, a legal receptionist is expected to take care of the office’s management, which also includes making travel reservation arrangements for staff or other parties, purchasing supplies, sorting and distributing mail received, and in some instances , he or she may even be responsible for keeping the credentials of staff members up to date.
• A proven track record: It is also important for a receptionist to have prior work experience in an office environment and exceptional organizational skills in order to successfully manage all of the responsibilities that are carried out on a daily basis.
• Client perspective: A legal receptionist should also possess a client perspective. The individual should really think like a customer. He or she should analyze every situation and be able to identify pain points and a means of providing clients with complete satisfaction.
• Attention to detail: Attention to detail is paramount. It is very critical for a legal receptionist to be very precise and accurate with every task that is performed on a daily basis in order to avoid problems or unnecessary delays.
• An ability to remain calm under pressure: A legal receptionist should be calm and composed even during stressful situations in order to respond to almost any situation and turn negative situations into positive ones.
• Professionalism: Last but not least, a legal receptionist should have a very good understanding of the professional roles of law firms, which requires a very high level of confidentiality, courtesy and professionalism.