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A virtual legal assistant handles the work of a law practice that does not require a license: client intake, calendars and deadlines, document preparation, case file upkeep, client communication, and billing. Through Stellar Staff the role costs $1,999 a month for 160 hours, or about $12.49 an hour. Everything the assistant produces runs through an attorney, which is not a limitation to work around but the rule the whole arrangement is built on.
Start With the Line, Not the Job Description
Every attorney asks the same question first, so it belongs at the top rather than eight sections down.
State rules on the unauthorized practice of law prohibit non-attorneys from giving legal advice, representing clients in court, signing documents as counsel, setting fees, and accepting cases. ABA Model Rule 5.3 makes the supervising lawyer responsible for the work of non-lawyer assistants, including people outside the firm. ABA Formal Opinion 08-451 confirms that firms may outsource legal and support work as long as they supervise it properly, protect client confidentiality, and remain responsible for the final work product.
Translated into a working rule: the assistant prepares, the attorney decides. A legal virtual assistant asked "what should I do about my case" answers that only an attorney can say, and routes the question. Everything below sits on the permitted side of that line.
Permitted under supervision: research and background pulls, drafts prepared for review, case administration, status and scheduling communication with clients, filing preparation, billing support, and document assembly.
Reserved to the attorney: legal advice, court appearances, signing as counsel, setting fees, accepting or declining a matter, and final approval of anything that leaves the firm.
The Eight Jobs Firms Hand Over First
Virtual legal assistant services cover the administration that surrounds the legal work, performed remotely in the systems your firm already runs.
Client intake. Answering new inquiries, running conflict checks through your process, collecting initial facts, and sending engagement letters for signature.
Calendars and deadlines. Court dates, filing deadlines, statutes of limitation, and the reminders that stop any of them from arriving as a surprise.
Document preparation. Routine correspondence, exhibit assembly, pleadings formatted to local rules, and packages staged for attorney review.
Case file upkeep. Keeping the matter file current in your practice management system, so the file matches reality when somebody opens it at 8 a.m.
Client communication. Status updates, appointment scheduling, document requests, and the follow-up clients otherwise phone about.
Billing support. Time entry, invoice preparation, and receivables follow-up.
Research support. Pulling cases, statutes, and background material for an attorney to evaluate, inside parameters you define.
E-filing preparation. Assembling and checking filing packages before an attorney submits them.
Virtual Assistant, Paralegal, or Legal Secretary?
The titles overlap and the labels are unreliable, so hire on history rather than on the word.
A legal secretary runs administration: calendar, correspondence, filing, client contact. A paralegal has formal training and takes on substantive support under supervision: research, discovery, document review, drafting. A virtual legal assistant is defined by location rather than by scope, which is why the term covers both a trained paralegal virtual assistant working remotely and an experienced legal administrator.
The question that settles it is not which title a candidate uses. It is what they have done, in which firm, and in which practice area. Family law intake and personal injury intake look identical on a resume and are not the same job.
If the work you want to move is research, discovery, and drafting, ask for paralegal training specifically. If it is intake, scheduling, billing, and client follow-up, a strong legal administrative assistant covers it.
What a Firm Pays for a Virtual Legal Assistant
Legal virtual assistant services are priced three ways: monthly for a dedicated assistant, hourly for freelance help, and by salary for an in-house hire.
A full-time assistant through Stellar Staff is $1,999 a month for 160 hours, on a month-to-month plan that includes recruiting, payroll, HR, and a free replacement. The in-house comparison is a legal secretary or paralegal on your payroll: the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage for paralegals and legal assistants at $62,890 a year as of May 2025, before benefits, payroll taxes, and office costs. A local hire also takes six to ten weeks to find, and a small firm often cannot justify a full-time salary for work that fills thirty hours a week.
Freelance and virtual paralegal services bill hourly, usually through a marketplace. That fits overflow and short projects. It fits a growing practice less well, because nobody stays long enough to learn your matters, and in this work the value compounds with familiarity.
For the firm-level picture, including document review at volume and managed legal services, see our guide to legal process outsourcing companies.
Privilege, Conflicts, and Who Sees Which Matter
Legal work runs on privileged information, so the controls come before the first task, not after the first incident.
Every assistant signs a confidentiality agreement covering client and matter information before starting. Access lives in your practice management system at the role level, so the assistant sees the matters they work on rather than the whole firm. Conflict checks stay inside the firm's own process. Client files stay in firm systems rather than personal drives. Two-factor authentication goes on every account.
Every Stellar Staff assistant signs an NDA, works exclusively for one firm, and holds access you grant and can revoke at any time.
Clio, MyCase, and Working a Real Docket
Most U.S. firms run on Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, Filevine, or Smokeball, with e-filing portals and a document tool alongside. A candidate does not need all of them. They do need genuine hours in the one your firm uses.
Ask them to walk a new matter from first call to open file in your system. The answer shows quickly whether they have worked a docket or only read about one.
Where a Legal VA Earns Its Keep
Personal injury. High intake volume, medical record requests, and constant client updates.
Family law. Heavy scheduling, document collection, and client communication between hearings.
Immigration. Form preparation, document checklists, and deadline tracking across long timelines.
Estate planning. Intake questionnaires, document assembly, and signing appointments to coordinate.
Criminal defense. Court calendars, discovery organization, and client contact.
Real estate and transactional work. Closing checklists, title documents, and coordination between parties.
Solo attorneys and firms under ten lawyers get the most from it, because the alternative is the attorney running intake at 9 p.m. A virtual assistant for attorneys also scales one function at a time: intake first, then documents, then billing.
Five Things to Check Before You Make an Offer
Firm experience, named. Which firms, which practice areas, which systems. Two years inside a personal injury practice beats five years of general administrative work.
Written English. This person writes to your clients and sometimes to opposing counsel's staff. Read their writing during the process, not only their resume.
Deadline discipline. Ask how they tracked deadlines at their last firm and what happened the time one nearly slipped.
Discretion. Confidentiality is a habit before it is a clause. Ask how they handled a matter they were not assigned to.
Time zone overlap. Intake calls and court calendars happen in your hours.
Week One to Week Four in a Small Firm
Week one. System access at the right permission level, a walkthrough of your matter types, and shadowing on intake calls.
Week two. Intake and scheduling move across, with your review on every client-facing message.
Week three. Document preparation and deadline tracking, still reviewed. Your corrections in this week set the standard for the year.
Week four. Billing support and receivables follow-up. By now the assistant knows your clients by name and your judge's scheduling habits.
When Your Firm Needs Something Else
Three situations call for a different answer.
If the work is substantive legal analysis, you need a lawyer or a trained paralegal with proper supervision, not an administrative assistant. If you need somebody physically present for court runs, notarization, or in-office client meetings, that part of the job stays local. And if your call volume is small and your matters few, a virtual receptionist billed by the minute may cost less than a full-time assistant, at the price of nobody ever learning your practice.
What Attorneys Ask Before They Delegate
What is a virtual legal assistant?
A virtual legal assistant is a remote assistant who supports a law firm with intake, scheduling, deadline tracking, document preparation, client communication, and billing. The role is administrative and support work performed under attorney supervision.
How much does a legal virtual assistant cost?
A full-time legal virtual assistant through Stellar Staff costs $1,999 a month for 160 hours, or about $12.49 an hour. A U.S. paralegal or legal assistant earns a median of $62,890 a year before benefits, according to the BLS.
Can a virtual legal assistant give legal advice?
No. Legal advice, court representation, signing as counsel, and setting fees are attorney work. The assistant prepares, organizes, and communicates. The attorney decides and carries the responsibility.
Is a virtual legal assistant the same as a virtual paralegal?
Not always. A virtual paralegal usually holds formal paralegal training and handles substantive support such as research, discovery, and drafting. A virtual legal assistant may come from an administrative background. Ask about training and firm experience rather than the title.
How do law firms protect client confidentiality with a remote assistant?
Sign a confidentiality agreement before day one, grant matter-level access in your practice management system, keep files in firm systems, run conflict checks in your own process, and require two-factor authentication.
Can a virtual assistant handle client intake for a law firm?
Yes, and it is the most common place to start. The assistant answers inquiries, collects facts, runs the conflict check through your process, and books the consultation. Whether to take the case stays an attorney decision.
Which practice areas benefit most from a legal VA?
Personal injury, family law, immigration, estate planning, criminal defense, and transactional practices, because each combines high administrative volume with steady client contact.
How quickly can a law firm get a virtual legal assistant?
Most clients go from the first call to a working assistant in five to six days. You interview pre-vetted candidates and choose the one who fits your practice.
Delegate the Work That Does Not Need a License
A practice produces a large volume of work that no bar admission is required to do, and in small firms it lands on the attorney anyway. Intake, deadlines, documents, and billing can move to a virtual assistant law firm arrangement at $1,999 a month, under your supervision, without touching the line that Rule 5.3 draws.
See what a Stellar Staff legal assistant handles for law firms, read what clients say, or book a call to meet candidates this week.
Wage figures are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025. Stellar Staff pricing is current as of September 2026. We review this page every quarter.