Virtual Legal Assistant
A virtual legal assistant takes the administrative work of a law practice off your attorneys and staff: new client intake, calendar entries, client status updates, billing support and document formatting. eleVAte provides a dedicated assistant in the Philippines who works your hours, inside your practice management software, under the direction of your firm. The assistant does not give legal advice or act as a lawyer or paralegal.
A free 20 to 30 minute conversation. No pressure, no sales script.
What Your Virtual Legal Assistant Handles
Intake and Client Contact
New inquiry details captured against your intake form, consultations booked and routine client status updates sent in your approved wording.
Calendar and Matter Admin
Hearings, deadlines and appointments entered from the dates your attorneys provide, contact records and matter details kept current.
Billing and Document Support
Time entry cleanup, draft invoices for attorney review, payment reminders and formatting of documents your team has written.
- Your practice software: work done in the case management, billing and document systems your firm already uses
- Attorney sign-off: anything that goes to a court, opposing counsel or a client as advice is reviewed by your attorneys first
- Scoped access: logins and folders limited to what the role needs, set by your firm
- A daily log: calls, entries, reminders sent and open items, in one note
- One dedicated person: who learns your matters, your clients and your preferences
Where the Assistant Fits in Your Firm
What stays with your attorneys
Legal advice, case acceptance, conflict decisions, strategy, signing and filing remain with licensed attorneys and the staff they supervise. Your assistant collects the facts you ask for, keeps the records in order and sends what you approve.
What moves to the assistant
The repeat work around each matter: answering routine client questions from approved information, chasing documents from clients, entering dates and contacts, preparing draft invoices and formatting templates. Your team spends less time on the phone and in the calendar, and more on the legal work.
Why Law Firms Choose eleVAte
Your assistant is dedicated to your firm, works the hours of your office and is supported by team leaders and internal quality checks. Confidentiality terms and system access are agreed in writing with your firm before the assistant starts, and all work happens inside the systems your firm controls.
Hiring a Virtual Legal Assistant: A Buyer’s Guide
Write the task list before you hire. A useful exercise is to track one ordinary week: every client call that was only a status question, every calendar entry, every invoice that went out late and every document that needed reformatting. That list becomes the job description and the training plan, and it shows whether you need one assistant or a role split across intake and billing.
Decide how supervision will work. Under the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 5.3, lawyers are responsible for making reasonable efforts to ensure that nonlawyer assistants act in line with their professional obligations, and many states have adopted a version of that rule. In practice, that means naming the attorney or office manager the assistant reports to, writing down what can be sent without review, and keeping a log your firm can check.
Set up access with care. Give the assistant their own login rather than a shared one, limit folders by matter type where your software allows it, and keep client files in your firm’s systems rather than on personal devices. For illustration: a family law practice might give its assistant the calendar, the intake form and the billing module, while keeping the document management folders for active litigation restricted to attorneys and paralegals.
On What a Virtual Legal Assistant Does Not Do
Your assistant is not an attorney and is not a paralegal. They do not give legal advice, decide whether the firm takes a case, run or clear conflict checks, sign documents, or file anything with a court on their own authority. When a client asks a legal question, the assistant takes the details and passes them to the attorney you name.
The assistant works remotely, so tasks that need a person in your office, such as receiving walk-in clients, notarizing or attending court, stay with your local team. Your firm remains responsible for supervision and for its professional obligations. This page is general information, not legal or ethics advice.
Questions Law Firms Ask First
What does a virtual legal assistant do?
Is a virtual legal assistant the same as a paralegal?
Can the assistant work in our practice management software?
How is client confidentiality handled?
Can the assistant also answer our phones?
Who Is Behind This Service
Claire De La Pena, Co-Founder and CEO of eleVAte, spent almost two decades as an executive virtual assistant for US-based entrepreneurs before building the company, which is the standard legal assistants here are trained to: careful with details, discreet with information and clear about what needs the principal’s decision. eleVAte began in 2015 with two virtual assistants in Dumaguete City and is still run by its founders.
Meet the leadership team · Last reviewed October 2026
Where To Go Next
Ready to Hand Off the Admin?
A short call is enough to scope your practice areas, your software and the tasks you want off your desk.
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