This post is Part 4 of the series, How to Grow a Probate Practice.
Hold Off on Paralegals
When growing your probate practice, one of the decisions you need to make is whether to hire a probate paralegal. If you are new to probate practice, for now, hold off. It is a mistake to hire one too soon.
If you want to become a true expert in probate, you need to be involved in all the details of the probate practice right from the start. It is the only way to learn. Although the probate process is fairly simple once you understand it, probates can have a lot of nuances to them. This is complicated by the fact that each county in Minnesota has local customs that usually aren’t published. You can never really learn the tips, tricks, and customs to probate unless you do them yourself– start to finish. Moreover, it erodes your client’s confidence in your expertise, if you are constantly asking your staff questions about probate procedures. For example, you should know, without having to ask someone else, how long it takes a case to work its way through a particular county’s system. You learn this by being involved.
Another reason to hold off on hiring a paralegal is that probate practice is often less about the black-letter law and more about how to handle grieving, busy, and sometimes, bitter, family members. Even if you are an experienced attorney in other practice areas, managing people involved in the probate process is different. For example, consider the varying levels of sophistication your personal representatives will have. Some have business sense and are organized. Some barely know how to keep a checkbook. Some get along great with their siblings. Some have deep-seated bitterness and look at their new-found position of power as a way to enact revenge on family members. It takes time and a lot of probates to learn how to manage personal representatives “as you find them.” More importantly, it takes your personal involvement in the case. You can’t gain these experiences vicariously through your paralegal.
Don’t get me wrong: the right paralegal can be tremendously helpful. Some of the most experienced probate “practitioners” in Minnesota are not attorneys, but probate paralegals. Yet consider this: prior to dedicating my practice to consulting with probate attorneys, I routinely handled 15-20 probates at once (in various stages of administration) without the need for a paralegal. I used a secretary to help put out correspondence and handle various tasks, but I always drafted documents on my own and handled probably 90% of client contact on my own.
When to Hire a Paralegal
So when is the right time to hire a paralegal? Keep in mind that I never hired one, but the simple answer is that you should hire one when you can’t effectively handle the number of probate you have. If you find yourself laying aside probate work because you are too busy, or you are routinely getting confused about the details of probate when a client calls, then by all means hire a paralegal to help you manage the load.
Everyone’s threshold will be different. You’ll find, however, that if you create streamlined systems in your office early in your probate practice, you can handle a number of probates at once with ease.
For example, I noticed that I was writing the same letters over and over during certain stages of probates. So I worked with my secretary to create a “Form Letters” book. When it came time to send out Notices to interested parties, for instance, I would simply ask my secretary to prepare my standard letter for that purpose. This saved the client money and me time.
I also created a number of checklists for the various stages of the probate so that I could glance at my file and within seconds know exactly where we were at and what was next. This was important because I wanted to be able to receive a phone call from a client and be able to answer questions on the spot. You can’t keep the details of all your probates in your head, so you’ve got to be consistent in updating your notes and using checklists.
Finally, I kept a list of all my probate cases next to my phone. This list outlined key facts about each probate (e.g. decedent name, PR name, relationship, venue, date of death) as well as current issues with the probate (what was next, key concerns, etc.). I updated this about every 3-4 weeks.
So start without a probate paralegal and get organized from the beginning. Add a paralegal when you are no longer effective. Pretty simple.
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In our final post in this series next Tuesday Friday (3/12), I’ll share with you why it is foolish to start a probate practice without getting to know other probate attorneys. I also have a few bonus posts waiting to be published between now and then.
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