We only place assistants who have already worked at a US law firm — and we match them to your practice area, whether that's personal injury, immigration, family or criminal defence. No training them on how a firm runs, no explaining what a statute of limitations is. Bilingual English and Spanish, working your hours, from $1,500 a month all-in. Shortlist in 24 hours.
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A virtual legal assistant — also called a legal virtual assistant, or a law firm virtual assistant — is a remote administrative professional who runs the operational side of a practice. That means answering and qualifying new client enquiries, booking consultations, chasing signed retainers, managing calendars and court dates, preparing documents from your templates, keeping matter files current, and handling pre-bill review and invoicing. They are not paralegals and they do not practise law: no legal advice, no independent legal analysis, no appearances. Everything is done under attorney supervision.
The difference between a good one and a bad one is almost entirely prior experience. A general virtual assistant has to be taught what a statute of limitations is, why a conflicts check matters, and how to speak to someone who has just been in a car accident. We don't place general assistants on law firm accounts — every candidate we put forward has already worked at a US law firm, and we match them to your practice area. Rates start at $1,500 a month all-in, with no placement fee and no long-term contract.
| Annual cost | US in-house | General VA agency | LatHire (US firm experience) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary or service cost | $50,000 | $24,000–$36,000 | $18,000 |
| Payroll taxes (7.65–10%) | $4,500 | Included | Included |
| Benefits (20–30%) | $12,500 | Included | Included |
| PTO (5–10%) | $2,500 | Included | Included |
| Desk, equipment and software seat | $3,500 | Included | Included |
| Recruiting / placement fee | $5,000–$10,000 | Usually bundled | $0 |
| Total first year | $73,000+ | $24,000–$36,000 | $18,000 all-in |
| Prior US law firm experience | Expected | Rare | Every placement |
| Matched to your practice area | If you screen for it | No | Yes |
| Ramp time before useful | 2–4 weeks | 2–3 months | 1–2 weeks |
| US time-zone overlap | Full | 0–3 hours | Full |
| Bilingual EN/ES | Rare, carries a premium | Rare | Standard |
All three columns are what the firm actually pays, not what the assistant earns. US figures use public salary data for a legal assistant plus employer burden, a desk and a practice management seat. General VA agencies typically bill $2,000–$3,000 a month with their margin already inside the rate. Ours is $1,500 a month all-in — cheaper than a general agency, and every placement has already worked at a US law firm. The last three rows are the ones that decide it: a general agency will send you a capable administrator who needs two to three months to learn what a conflicts check is, and the intake calls in that window are cases you don't sign.
Four routes to legal admin support, on the terms that actually differ.
| LatHire | Legal staffing agencies | General VA agencies | In-house hire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $1,500–$3,200 | $2,500–$4,500 | $2,000–$3,000 | $6,000+ |
| Prior US law firm experience | Every placement | Usually | Rare | If you screen for it |
| Matched to your practice area | Yes — PI, immigration, family, criminal | Sometimes | No | If you screen for it |
| Ramp before useful | 1–2 weeks | 2–4 weeks | 2–3 months | 2–4 weeks |
| Knows your matters? | Yes — dedicated to your firm | Usually | Yes | Yes |
| Works in your practice software? | Yes — tested before placement | Sometimes | Needs training | Yes |
| Bilingual EN/ES | Standard | Varies | Varies | Rare, carries a premium |
| Time-zone overlap | Full US hours | Varies | Often night shift | Full |
| Confidentiality agreement | Signed before placement | Varies | Varies | Standard |
| Placement fee | None | Common | None | $5,000–$10,000 |
| Contract | Rolling monthly | Term minimum | Monthly | Employment |
| Replacement | Free, any time | Varies | Varies | Rehire from scratch |
On price alone we sit below both a legal staffing agency and a general VA agency, which surprises most firms — the assumption is that specialist means expensive. It doesn't here, because we recruit directly in Latin America rather than reselling someone else's bench. The row that actually matters is the second one. A general agency will send you a capable administrator; we send someone who has already sat in a US firm and knows what a conflicts check is, a statute of limitations means, and how to speak to a caller who has just been in an accident. On a legal account the first two months decide it, and that's the difference between the two.
Every assistant below has previously worked at a US law firm — verified with the employer, not taken from a CV — and each is matched to a practice area. Ask for a live intake roleplay before you decide; you should hear how they handle a distressed caller, not just read about it.
A virtual legal assistant runs the administrative machinery of the firm so your attorneys and paralegals spend their hours on billable work.
One boundary worth stating plainly: they do not practise law. No legal advice, no independent legal analysis, no court appearances, no signing on behalf of a client. Everything below is administrative work performed under attorney supervision.
Answering new client enquiries live, running your qualification script, capturing the facts your attorneys need, and booking the consultation before the caller reaches the next firm on their list. Speed-to-lead is where most firms quietly lose cases.
Sending, chasing and tracking retainer agreements and e-signatures, then opening the matter properly — conflicts check logged, file structure created, client details in your system.
Court dates, filing deadlines, statutes of limitation, depositions and client meetings, with reminder chains so nothing turns into a missed deadline. Managed in Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, Filevine or Smokeball.
Keeping clients updated on their matter, returning routine status calls, collecting documents and signatures, and escalating anything that needs an attorney — in English or Spanish.
Preparing routine correspondence, retainer packets, medical record requests and demand packages from your own templates and precedents, formatted and ready for attorney review.
Requesting and chasing medical records, police reports and bills, indexing what arrives and flagging what's still outstanding — the follow-up work that stalls personal injury files.
Time-entry cleanup, pre-bill review, invoicing, payment follow-up and trust account record-keeping in Clio or QuickBooks, so billing goes out on time instead of at month end.
Native Spanish plus C1–C2 professional English at no premium. For firms with Spanish-speaking clients this usually replaces a translation workaround or a second hire.
All-in monthly rates — international contracts, payroll, taxes, compliance and account management included. No deposit, no placement fee, rolling monthly. Every rate assumes prior US law firm experience, because that's the only kind of candidate we put on a legal account. We don't place general virtual assistants here and then train them on your practice.
Firms usually come to us at one of five moments. Intake is by far the most common, and the one where the return shows up fastest.
Enquiries go to voicemail during hearings, or come in Spanish and never get returned. Every one of those is a signed case that went to the next firm on the list — and it is the fastest thing on this page to fix.
Partners and associates are formatting letters, chasing medical records and doing time entry. Every hour spent there is an hour not billed, and it is the most expensive admin in the building.
An in-office legal assistant costs $73,000 a year fully loaded once you add tax, benefits, a desk and a software seat. For a solo or a small firm the role is obviously needed and just as obviously unaffordable at that number.
A meaningful share of your callers speak Spanish and you are handling it with a translation line, a bilingual paralegal doing double duty, or not at all.
Deadlines are tracked in someone's head, records requests fall through, and pre-bills sit until month end. You do not need more lawyers — you need someone whose job is the process.
Overlap, language profile and rate by market. All rates are all-in monthly costs for a full-time assistant with prior US law firm experience.
Eastern Time with no daylight-saving shift. The deepest pool of bilingual assistants with US firm experience, and our first recommendation for intake roles — particularly personal injury and immigration.
Central and Pacific overlap. Strongest market for Spanish-language client handling and immigration practices serving Mexican nationals.
One to two hours ahead of Eastern, with the highest average English proficiency in the region. Best for document-heavy roles — correspondence, demand packages, matter notes.
Eastern Time year-round and the lowest cost band with solid bilingual availability. Good value for records chasing and high-volume file administration.
Central Time and the highest English fluency in Central America. Premium rates for the region — our usual recommendation for partner-facing and executive assistant roles.
One to two hours ahead of Eastern. Portuguese-native with strong English, useful for firms with Brazilian clients or cross-border immigration work.
We don't place general virtual assistants on law firm accounts. Every candidate we put forward has already worked at a US law firm, and we match them to your practice area — a PI intake specialist goes to PI firms, an immigration assistant goes to immigration firms.
That's the whole reason this page exists separately from our general VA service. Legal admin looks like ordinary admin until a caller describes an accident, a statute is about to run, or a conflicts check gets missed. Experience is the only thing that prevents those, and it can't be trained in a fortnight.
We capture what you need delegated, the tools you work in, the hours you want covered, whether you need Spanish, and your budget range.
3–5 hand-picked virtual assistant profiles with intro videos, full résumés, tested English scores and skill scorecards. Request more any time, or browse the pool yourself.
Assess each candidate in depth, then run your own working test if you want one — a real inbox triage or a calendar scenario. Interview the ones you like. Skip the ones you don't.
We handle contracts, international payroll, taxes and compliance. Your assistant joins your email, calendar and project tools like any other team member.
Need a second assistant, a switch to part-time, or a replacement? Your account manager handles it — included in your monthly rate at no extra cost.
What clients typically see from a full-time LatHire virtual assistant. Ramp speed depends on how much of your process is already written down — the more context you can hand over on day one, the faster this moves.
The hours a full-time assistant covers, aligned to your working day rather than a night shift.
Typical time to full productivity once your tools, context and SOPs are handed over.
What clients most often report reclaiming in the first month — mostly inbox, scheduling and follow-up.
Verified professional English, scored on a live call and shown on every profile before you interview.
Annual attrition across our placed assistants, against 30–40% typical for the role in the US.
From intro call to shortlist. Most clients interview that week and onboard within seven days.
High enquiry volume, heavily bilingual, and won or lost at intake. Assistants qualify against your case criteria, chase medical records and bills, and keep demand packages moving.
Constant document collection, form preparation from your templates, USCIS deadline tracking and client updates — almost always in Spanish as well as English.
Sensitive intake handled with care, hearing and mediation calendaring, document collection from clients who need chasing, and steady status communication.
After-hours enquiry follow-up, court date tracking, discovery deadline reminders and client contact between appearances.
Client questionnaires, document gathering, signing appointment scheduling and file maintenance across long, slow-moving matters.
Closing coordination, title and lien document chasing, deadline tracking and the follow-up between agents, lenders and clients.
Delegation only works if you can ask a question and get an answer the same hour. All LatHire talent sits within two hours of US time — that's the difference between nearshore and offshore, and it's the reason clients who tried a night-shift VA and gave up tend to stick with this one.
The differences that show up in month three, not month one.
No upfront fees — We source, vet, and present candidates before you pay anything. Interview first — Meet and approve every candidate before they join your team. Free replacements — If a hire doesn’t work out, we replace them at no cost. Payroll & compliance handled — International payroll, contracts, and labour compliance across LATAM. Rolling monthly — 30 days’ notice. No annual lock-in.
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