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In today’s Spotlight on PILMMA series episode, Raquel Gomes, the founder of Staffi, joins us to discuss how hiring virtual assistants can help law firms support their operations.
This episode and the next several will feature PILMMA speakers in our “Spotlight on PILMMA” podcast series.
As law firms scale their practices, having the right support staff in place is essential. Now, more than ever, law firms have options when it comes to how to fill these roles. You can opt for a traditional route of having someone in office. You can hire remote workers who still work for your firm directly. You can hire agencies and outsource responsibilities. Or you can hire virtual assistants who are managed by an outside company.
In this episode, we discuss:
- How hiring the right team can give lawyers time freedom
- What roles can virtual assistants fill
- The financial benefits of hiring virtual assistants
Visit Raquel online here: https://getstafi.com/what-is-stafi/.
We’ll be at PILMMA Super Summit 2025: https://optimizemyfirm.com/pilmma-2025/.
See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/.
Transcript:
Welcome to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world.
I’m your host, Lindsey Busfield. In the age of remote hiring, we are well beyond the need to exclusively have employees in office, or even in the same state.
While some roles are helpful to fill on location, you can streamline operations and find substantial savings by filling the positions with virtual assistants.
Continuing our Spotlight on PILMA series, Raquel Gomes of STAFI joins us today to discuss her upcoming PILMA presentation, How to Thrive with VAs.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
Raquel Gomes
Thank you for having me. So, let’s start out, tell me a little bit about yourself and about STAFI. All right, so I grew up in the south of Brazil in a very traditional family where my father was an entrepreneur and my mom was fully dedicated to her family.
And I heard often that because I was a woman, I had to choose. I couldn’t have everything I wanted from life.
And my mom, she lived her life like that. And I love and admire her to death, but she’s an incredible lady.
But that never sat well with me. That really created an inner fire. And I studied psychology actually to challenge those limiting beliefs.
And I decided early on that my mission was to help women believe that they can get to live a full life with everything they dream and desire.
She We’ve We’ve done it. it. well done. While having the time to do the things we love, while being able to be present for our families, while being able to stop working to go get my daughter from school, because that’s what I cherish, and, you know, to take on those guilt-free vacations where you can bond with your family and friends, and I feel that time is our most valuable asset, and being able to be present is the most expensive luxury there is, and if you’re doing everything yourself for your business, you’re killing yourself.
That’s not a life that I want for me, and it’s not a life that I want for any law firm owner out there either.
And that’s what we do at STAFI. We provide you with the support that your business needs in order for you to be able not only to grow your businesses financially, but also to be able to live the life of your dreams in your own terms.
And we do this by providing the best talent there is in Latin America. They’re fully bilingual, college-educated, trained, and ready to go.
And we also Go one step further and provide you the support to alleviate you from onboarding, training, and managing of that VA because the truth is, anyone can tell you that they can get you good VAs, but then it’s on you to onboard them, to train them, to coach them, and to incorporate them into your firm.
And that’s challenging because VAs, are in another country, they’re living in a different culture, with different pace, different expectations.
So we go one step further and we have built a methodology that provides all of that support to the law firms throughout their journey with the VAs.
Lindsey
And I think that’s a fantastic service to offer, and I want to go back to your original premise of this, where you are not just helping to build a business in terms of profitability, but you’re helping to equip lawyers to have that luxury of time freedom.
And I think that the more, you know, we advance as and keep moving forward. Our traditional definitions of success have changed, and not everybody wants to be that successful lawyer who is making hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Sure, there’s nothing wrong with that if that is a definition of success that somebody is living by, but more and more people are looking to have that time freedom as their benchmark of success, to be able to spend time with the kids, to be able to go and play pickleball on the weekends, to be able to incorporate life into And really live it to the fullest.
Raquel Gomes
So I think that that’s a beautiful mission behind the service that you’re providing to law firms. Yeah, thank you.
Absolutely. And when I started my business with my partner, it was because I desperately wanted to have more control over my time and my life, but I also wanted to generate wealth, right?
And I feel like a lot of personal injury attorneys, I see myself in them a lot because and everybody.
Thank They go in to start their firms because the same reasons. They want to have control, they want to live their life on their terms, and they also want to make a lot of money.
And you cannot do those two things unless you have a team that you can trust and delegate to. Absolutely.
So that’s what we do.
Lindsey
Absolutely. And so as we start talking a little bit more about this, for somebody who hasn’t worked with a virtual assistant before, what is a virtual assistant and what types of roles can they fill?
Raquel Gomes
So a virtual assistant is a general term used to someone that is working from home. They don’t necessarily go to an office, so they’re virtual.
They don’t go to an office. And they can help you in different areas. So what we do at STAFI is that we divide the law firm into four different areas of work.
Administrative, legal, client-facing, and marketing. And we’ve identified 80 tasks that fall under We each one of these areas that can easily be delegated by any law firm owner, and what we do actually, when you have an initial strategy session with us, is that we go over, we take the time to think about what are the things that you want to start delegating, and based on where they fall under each area, it’s going to define who the perfect match or who your next hire should be, not only from a background, experience, their technical skills, but also, their personality, their soft skills.
For example, if most of the area where you need help is client facing, this person has to be highly empathetic, they have to have a personality who thrives from human interaction, they have to be great communicators, and all of those things we’re testing for.
If the things that you need fall into legal, by the way, we’re hiring, we’re only placing lawyers in their home country to do anything legal related, but they have to score very high in attention to detail, they have to be problem solving, , they have to to be highly organized. So it’s very important that you’re taking all those things into account before you bring your new virtual assistant into the farm.
Does that answer?
Lindsey
Yes, absolutely. And I think that that answers a lot of questions about the different roles that they can fill, because a lot of people think that a virtual assistant is either clerical or exclusively doing intake or these, you know, no job in a law firm is minor, but some of these more entry level positions.
But really, there are different skill sets that can be matched to different roles that are all delegated throughout the firm.
And so when you are bringing in a virtual assistant, does the person on your team integrate with the existing management software?
Or if they aren’t familiar with it, who’s responsible for training them on how the law firm currently operates?
Raquel Gomes
Very good question. So yes. Very good We would incorporate that person, and that person will be, the more you integrate the VA into your firm, and that also means using all of the systems that you’re using day in and day out, the more successful you’re going to be on your journey with virtual assistants.
So yes, you’re going to be providing them the usernames and the passwords. We have, so at STAFI, the way we work is we have a very through vetting screening process.
It takes about five weeks to screen everyone who applies, and we only hire one percent of those who go through this whole process.
So during this process, we’re checking, I already said, the soft skills, the personality. We’re calling five years of employment to see if they would be rehired.
We’re testing them on tasks that they would have to take on at a law firm to see if they would do those effectively as well.
We’re testing their English skills, written and oral. We are calling the universities to check for They’re diplomas. We’re running background checks, global and local, to make sure that they’ve never committed a crime.
We run several interviews. One of them is assessed by a psychologist, is ran by an in-house psychologist as well.
So after they’re hired, we have a staff university, okay? So they go to the staff university for about three weeks to get them ready to go to work for a personal injury attorney.
And we work with different areas of law. Personal injury is one of them. We do immigration, we do family law, we do probate and state planning as well.
So depending in what area they’re going to be placed, those are the trainings that they’re going to be taking on.
So the training in the university is so important. We have over 400 modules that they can get training on depending on what role they’re hired for.
And they’re getting certified because when you train someone, they need to get tested or you’re never going to know if they actually learned.
the good So that’s you. So that’s what we’re doing at the STAFI University, and that’s a huge value that our clients perceive from STAFI, and once they are placed with your law firm, we have an entire team backing you up.
So I always say that when you’re working with STAFI, you’re not just getting a VA, qualified, top-notch talent from Latin America, but you’re getting an entire team supporting you and that VA.
So we have coaches that are working with the VA’s day in and day out to make sure that they are adding value to your law firm.
So we have, for example, psychologists who are mindset coaches. They’re working with the VA’s on making sure they’re in the right mindset to be able to add value because I’m a psychologist myself, and I know if you’re not doing well here and here, you’re not producing good work.
We have senior paralegal coaches with experience in different areas of law. So talking about personal injury specifically, they have years of experience with personal injury, and they’re there helping that VA that is assigned to the PI law firm, serving as…
We have an and task coaches, and they are the ones helping the VA with time management and how to prioritize tasks, and they’re helping the VA putting together SOPs for the law firm, and all of this sits on a software, a proprietary software that we’ve created called the Delegation Hub.
Our clients have access to the Delegation Hub, the representatives have access, and the coaching team has access as well as the client success team.
So this is a one-stop place where you can go in and see everything your VA is doing day in and day out.
The VAs go there, they input their daily recaps so you can easily see what they’re working with, you can go in and assign new courses from the staff university any time you want.
All of this is included in your monthly subscription. You can also go in and escalate the issues if you want something, my VA needs to get better trained in overcoming objections on the phone with clients.
A2F You So you escalate, an issue goes directly to our coaching team, and that person will be trained on how to handle your intake better, and so on.
So yeah, they are trained.
Lindsey
Yes. I mean, it sounds like they have an incredibly thorough training as well as a great support system backing the VAs.
And I think you answered my next question, which would be this management process. Because if I’m hiring somebody remotely, I’m hiring somebody from another country, and I’m expecting them to do a great job.
And let’s do say with intake, because a lot of VAs are hired for intake. If I had any feedback to give back to the VA, or I wanted them to be more empathetic, or if I wanted them to collect information differently, would that go through that delegation hub?
Or is there a point of contact if I wanted to pick up the phone and say, hey, could you train my VA a little bit better on this type of call?
Raquel Gomes
How does that communication work? communication work? What So that’s a great question. We wanted the clients to communicate on their own terms.
So whatever you prefer. The delegation hub, you have access to it 24-7. have your username and password. can simply go in and ask a late and say, I would like my VA to be trained in this, this, and this.
This is the issue. And then we’re going to be creating a performance improvement plan for that VA. And we’re going to be working with that VA.
And you’re going to be providing feedback on how that’s going. But we also have a client success team who is fully dedicated to our clients.
They’re actually all lawyers and coaches. So they’re meeting with the clients very often to help them, you know, come better at delegating if they need or help them ensure that that VA is getting fully integrated into their law firm, giving them tips and how to doing that.
If there’s any challenges, they’re there to support you every step of the way. Right? So you have both ways.
You have the delegation hub, and you have the client success team. You can escalate anything either way. Okay. Okay.
Okay. hmm. Our coaching team is actually led by incredible lawyers. went to Duke University. She has 30 years of practicing law in the U.S.
She has a license. She has an active license. And she’s also a coach. And, you know, she’s making sure that all of those coaches that are under her, I think right now we have about 15 coaches, that they are doing a good job and that those PIPs are being written and we are working with that VA.
They, you know, they need to ensure that that person is improving in that specific area that you escalated for.
Lindsey
And so when you do have a VA assigned to a law firm, is that VA exclusively working for this law firm or do they split time between multiple law firms?
Raquel Gomes
They don’t. So that’s something we don’t allow actually. They are exclusively working with each one of our clients and they’re really truly part of your team.
You know, like I’ve. I’ve had the same, my entire business has been, you know, we have like right now over 250 law firms, clients, we have about over 400 VAs assigned.
And my entire business has been leveraging top notch talent from Latin America. And we do that for you too, on your behalf.
And the secret is for success. I mean, there is multiple steps. Actually, I’m going to be covering that on my presentation during PILMA, which is very exciting.
But one of the things that makes a huge difference in your success with leveraging virtual talent from Latin America, because we only work with talent from Latin America, is fully incorporating them into your culture and treating them just like you would if you were to hire someone in person.
You know, include them in all those communications, those meetings, make them feel part of the team. Don’t go to them only for specific tasks.
Don’t isolate them. So the more you incorporate your VA with In your culture and with your team, the more successful you will be in leveraging a talent that will cost you so much less, right, to grow into your business.
Lindsey
Well, and let’s talk about that a little bit. So how does the cost of a VA compare to hiring in-house staff for the same tasks?
Raquel Gomes
I would say it’s about one-third of the cost of hiring the same type of talent. It could even be higher because think about it.
When we’re placing someone to do paralegal case manager work, they’re lawyers in their home country. They went to school for the same amount of years that a lawyer in the U.S.
went to school to. They passed the equivalent of the bar in their home countries. And you’re going to hire a lawyer here, you’re not going to pay anything less than $100,000, and that lawyer just came out of school.
So the fact that you’re going to be paying $2,900 a month with all of the support that we offer, all of the training, they’re ready to go.
And they’re lawyers. It’s at least one third of the cost, if not much more. And it’s going to depend where you’re located because there are states that, wow, the employment taxes are higher than other states.
Lindsey
Yeah.
Raquel Gomes
And also all the benefits that you have to take on your own and things like that, that also brings up the cost a lot.
But it’s incredibly, how do I say, there’s incredible savings.
Lindsey
Right. It’s a great value for the law firms. And then you include things like management, where you don’t have to hire somebody to manage this VA and give them feedback.
You don’t have to pay for the additional training because that’s built in. So there is a lot more value beyond just the flat rate of the income for this person.
And so clearly that is a great essential, especially for firms of all sizes, but for smaller firms that are finding they need some more support as they grow and scout their growth.
I can see this being an excellent tool. to help in the operations process for growing law firms. And so let’s talk about PILMA, because I know you’re excited about your presentation coming up, but what are you looking forward to the most about the PILMA Conference?
Raquel Gomes
What I’m looking forward the most is those connections that I build every time I go to a conference. You know, I meet with so many amazing law firm owners, talking specifically about personal injury law firm owners.
They are so business savvy, you know, they’re like, I love meeting more and relating and building relationships with personal injury attorneys because I feel like we’re very similar.
They’re through entrepreneurs and they are looking forward to learning new things. They’re open to new ways of doing things, you know, ways that are going to bring them more value, more productivity, more profit, give them more time to do the things they want to do with their life.
So… I love that crowd, and what I’m looking for is really building those true connections that happen from a conference like this.
Lindsey
Well, you will not be disappointed. I have been to DePilma before, and the connections that you make, and the people that you can learn from, it’s just an incredible event, and I can’t wait to meet you in person out there.
Raquel Gomes
I know. Likewise. I’m super excited.
Lindsey
Come see us. We’ll be there. Yay! Well, thank you so much, Raquel.
