In these tough economic times, it is important to understand how to grow your bankruptcy law practice without the usual staff expenses of health insurance, sick leave, 401ks, vacation pay, and on and on.

With the advent of computers, it is possible now to work with debtor bankruptcy assistants (or “Virtual Bankruptcy Assistants”) offsite.

Just how does this work?

After your first meeting with a potential bankruptcy client and after you have collected your fee, your client will begin to gather information for the Client Intake Sheets you have provided. (Please visit our website and click the “Resources” tab to download a free set of Client Intake Sheets.)

After your client has returned the completed Client Intake Sheets (along with the required attachments), you will fax or e-mail the documents to your Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant who will begin drafting the bankruptcy petition.

A Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant works quickly and efficiently in inputting the client’s information into the bankruptcy schedules. Instead of working in the firm’s office, the assistant works from the privacy of his or her home. Few interruptions. Faster turnaround.

A good Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant will prepare a summary for the attorney as she prepares the petition. The summary will outline for the attorney the additional information that is required from the client in order to complete the petition.

Once the petition is complete, a draft copy will be forwarded to the attorney for review. Any changes will then be reflected in the petition and a final will be forwarded to the attorney for filing with the court.

Consider utilizing a Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant to prepare your bankruptcy petitions. Your clients will be better served and you could realize a positive impact on your firm’s bottom line.

Career buster? Very possibly.

While working as a paralegal in the area of Professional Regulation, I was well aware of how the Florida Bar views an attorney’s mismanagement of a client’s trust account (whether intentional or not). During my tenure in this practice area, my attorney and I worked with several attorneys whose license to practice was on the line. Some were just plain ignorant of bar rules and others blatantly utilized the clients’ funds for varying purposes.

In Florida, when an attorney fills out his CLE statement and forwards the same to the bar in Tallahassee, he is attesting to the fact that his or her trust accounts are in order. Very few attorneys that I have spoken to regarding this understood clearly what they were executing. The Florida Bar, however, takes this attestation very seriously and expects each and every attorney to understand and abide by the rules.

Please understand that all it takes for the bar to demand an audit of your law firm is a single complaint from a client. Seriously. If you have been co-mingling trust account funds with the funds of your Operating Account, your bar license could be revoked - permanently. In Florida, the bar enlists the aid of a professional management firm (LOMAS) who has years of experience in auditing law firms. They know what to look for.

LOMAS is quite adept at spotting not only trust account issues but whether or not your files are opened and closed properly and much, much more.

Now, a word of warning to all legal office personnel:

Are you currently responsible for managing your law firm’s trust accounts? Perhaps you work for a sole practitioner who requires this of you. Have you attended trust account management classes through your local bar? If not, why not?

If you’re currently managing your law firm’s trust accounts and the funds have been mismanaged somehow or co-mingled with the operating account, do you feel protected because you are under the supervision of your attorney?

Think again.

In a recent issue of the ABA Journal, it was reported that a Florida attorney had not only mismanaged her clients’ funds, but had neglected to set up trust accounts to manage the same. She has already lost her Florida bar license and is also facing felony charges which would amount to her serving approximately 40 years in prison.

What’s even more surprising is that her paralegal is facing the same charges.

At the moment, the attorney and the paralegal are playing the “blame game” and all the facts of the case are still coming to light.

As a legal staffer, it is important that you understand the responsibility you are undertaking in managing your law firm’s trust accounts and/or operating accounts. Before you consider accepting this responsibility, your attorney should agree to and paying for your attendance at one of your state bar’s seminars on trust accounting.

There is no excuse for ignorance. Simply “do your homework” before agreeing to perform tasks that might place a big black mark on your career.

I received an e-mail in early September from a very nice lady who happened to be the Director of Marketing for an organization in one of my niche markets. She saw one of my blog posts on one of the search engines entitled, “Whaddya Mean You Missed the Deadline?” and asked me if she could use it in her newsletter. Of course I said, “Yes!” This particular newsletter reaches approximately 14,000 readers.

Well, the newsletter went out and my traffic tripled overnight! The opt-in form on the front page of my niche website was filled out by almost everyone who visited. The freebie offered as a “thank you” for filling out the form was a sample chart I’ve used in the past to organize case information.

The point to this blog post is (how to build traffic to your website quickly):

1. Set up a blog and start writing.

2. Be sure to use relevant keywords in each of your blog post’s titles and within the body of each blog post.

3. Google indexes blogs much faster than regular ‘ol websites, so blog 3-4 times per week.

4. If you utilize WordPress for your blogs, download the All in One SEO Pack plug-in so that you can properly set up your titles and keywords for each and every blog. It’s important for Google indexing purposes.

5. Offer lots of value in free content on your website and blogs so that you build a high level of trust with your readers. Your readers will bookmark your site and will return again and again.

6. Keep your content fresh, relevant to your niche and updated frequently.

7. Now, find blogs in your particular niche (high and low page rank) and place comments on several of them.

There’s so much more to building traffic, however, these are great starts. Implement them today!

Absolutely!

Networking with other Virtual Assistants is the name of the game. Become an active participant in several forums. Try not to lurk in the background for too long. It’s important to the group to hear your voice - express your opinion.

Share whatever knowledge you have with others and you’ll be surprised by the results. You’ll come away with knowledge of new software, how to create a podcast, how to organize your home office and much, much more.

I’m an active member of several VA groups and I know from past experience that active involvement in these groups sometimes opens the door to work opportunities.

Take a moment to visit a new VA forum called Find Virtual. Also, search through Yahoo Groups for the top VA forums to apply for membership. Hope to see you there!

I’ve had ideas for e-books circulating in my head for a few years but put it off because frankly, I didn’t know where to start. The task seemed too complicated and quite overwhelming. Of course, I saw several “How to” guides online but who can you trust?

Well, around 3 years ago, I came upon a very well known marketing guy named Jim Edwards. Jim had developed several different products but the one I took a chance on was the 7 Day E-book. I read a lot about Jim before I plunked down my money, trust me.

I wasn’t disappointed with this e-book.

I read Jim’s e-book while my husband drove us back and forth on weekends between our home and our daughter’s. My daughter and family had just moved 4 hours away, so we became “road warriors” for about 6 months.

Realistically, it took me 2 weeks to complete my 83 page e-book, not 1 week, but I’m happy with that. Jim takes you step by step through the e-book development process and it truly works!

I ended up with a product I’m proud of and one that is featured on my LegalLEdPro website as a free downloadable pdf (or you can view it online).

Whether you are new to the Internet marketing game or a seasoned pro, it’s important to make sure your website is optimized to the max. Traffic = $$$. The more traffic your website has, the more exposure you will experience.

How do you optimize your website?

Take a look at Website Grader Place your url in the space provided. Results will be shown immediately and you will also receive a report via e-mail.

It’s important to understand what will strengthen your web position on Google. Implement the changes suggested and you’ll see your Google ranking improve.

Stay tuned for more suggestions.

A couple of months ago, a fellow paralegal invited me to check out her profile on LinkedIn. I was already a member and then added her as a connection. I didn’t think much about it until I received another invitation from her to become a member of another social media network called Facebook.

I wondered what she was doing, honestly. So, I logged on to Facebook, became a member, added her as a “friend” and decided to learn what this “social media” thing was everyone was buzzing about.

What I found on Facebook were groups of folks that had the same interests as I did (paralegals, legal assistants, entrepreneurial women, Proverbs 31 women, etc.) I didn’t want to simply join a social media network and then have it amount to nothing.

What is your purpose in joining? I believe this is an important question to ask yourself. Do you need personal support? Will adding friends on Facebook bring more business to you? Well, perhaps, over time. But social media networks overall are for relationship building, not a quick revenue turnaround.

If you are seeking support for business purposes, focus on Twitter, instead, and download the Twitter Handbook from Coach Debra Micek. Read it from cover to cover to learn how Twitter can change how you think about marketing. Relationships are formed on Twitter, also, of course, however it’s fun to see how fast the traffic to your website increases when consistently posting to this platform.

I personally do not recommend becoming members of every social media network known to man. Instead, focus on a few and get to know people with similar interests. Join a group or two, ask questions and learn from others.

Leslie Sansone Williams is a former paralegal and author of the free e-book, “Insider’s Secrets…How to Get That Legal Secretary, Legal Assistant or Paralegal Job”. With over 15+ years experience in the legal field, Leslie provides her website and blog readers with helpful career advice and wonderful legal resources. She is also a Google Ranking Consultant who works with law firms and small businesses assisting them in increasing their websites’ visibility on the Internet search engines. Leslie was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame for the 30 Day Challenge, a worldwide Internet marketing workshop.

Seriously. No kidding.

When I began the 30 Day Challenge over 4 weeks ago, I figured I’d tough it out for the full 30 days - pure focus. And I did it. Ok, not only did I do it, but I made more than the $1.00 challenge and doubled traffic on one of my sites and tripled it on the other. Oh, yeah….I was inducted into the 30 Day Challenge Hall of Fame, too.

Ed Dale and the “gang” encouraged blogging regularly (3-4 times per week) and I really didn’t know if it would be possible to dedicate myself to that regimen. I mean, c’mon, I’m a busy woman.

Well, I’ve been blogging and it’s been totally from the heart. It’s real. It’s me. Hmmmm…and yeah, it’s kinda fun.

On the paralegal website, my blogs cover a myriad of topics from how to write a cover letter to dealing with case deadlines.

But what’s the point of all this blogging?

Well, for one (and probably one of the most important), it’s fresh content and Google highly rewards that. In fact, blog posts are oftentimes indexed by Google the same day. Incredible!

Anyway, get this…one of the blog posts was picked up by a Director of Marketing of a well known legal vendor and will be distributed shortly to over 14,000 newsletter readers! Woo hoo!

The point is…keep writing. Develop your blog content into something that is meaningful and truly reflects you at the same time.

More later…

I listened to a great interview today on The Connection Show between Stan Relihan of Expert Executive Search and Patrick Crane, Vice President of Marketing and Advertising for LinkedIn.

Stan is one of the top 50 LinkedIn folks and utilizes LinkedIn extensively in his professional life.

Patrick advised that LinkedIn has over 25,000,000 members (I believe it’s 26,000,000 now!) There are over 160 industries and 150 countries represented there and Patrick advised that a spanish version of LinkedIn in has just been launched which they expect to double the number of users. Amazing!

This was an honest, down-to-earth interview I think you’ll enjoy listening to. While some readers may think that social or professional networking online may be just a passing phase, I beg to differ. Social and Professional networking has instead become a strong, viable method for not only doing business together but for personal interaction.

Patrick also advised that the Group feature of LinkedIn is about to be expanded to allow more interaction between members which I think is fantastic.

Please take a moment to listen to the podcast by clicking on the link above and let me know what you think. See you soon.

I tell you, did you ever watch a video or take a course that you thought would clarify things and it only made it muddier? Well, I felt that way when I watched a video recently on How to Build a Squidoo Lens. It was so confusing.

Anyway, I went on the hunt for a YouTube video that would just simply get to the point. Yep, I found 2 of them. A gentleman who goes by the name of MrKimB made YouTube videos, part 1 and part 2, each approximately 6 minutes long. They are clear, definitely homemade and he has a funny sense of humor. Check them out.

Be very original in the content you enter into Squidoo. Be sure to read their Terms of Service, also. Having a Squidoo Lens can be very beneficial to your Google page rank, so don’t do anything to offend the Squidoo gods, ya hear?!! Obey the rules and you’ll be fine.