Insights and updates
from MinuteBox

In the legal profession, the battle for talent is a constant struggle for firms. With the shift to a hybrid model and more opportunities for flexible work, firms are facing new challenges in recruiting and retaining top talent. In this interview, Karen Tuschak and Tiffany Pereira share their insights on the battle for talent and the changes they are seeing in the legal profession.

• The battle for talent is a constant struggle for firms in the legal profession
• Firms are facing new challenges in recruiting and retaining top talent with the shift to a hybrid model and more opportunities for flexible work
• Firms need to focus on treating paraprofessionals fairly, offering them opportunities for professional development, and providing a good work-life balance
• Paraprofessionals can be a valuable asset to a firm by becoming a client retention tool and by being involved in marketing and client retention
• Retaining existing talent is just as important as recruiting new talent
• Firms that understand this and act on it will be better positioned to succeed in the legal profession

Karen Tuschak, a legal professional and owner of Spider Silk Solutions, highlights the importance of treating paraprofessionals fairly and offering them opportunities for professional development. Karen notes, “Firms that really get it are starting to look at the paraprofessionals as a group of themselves and are starting to offer them things outside of just fitting them in with the associates or with the legal assistants.” She also notes that paraprofessionals can be a valuable asset to a firm by becoming a client retention tool and by being involved in marketing and client retention.

Tiffany Pereira, Director of Customer Success at MinuteBox, agrees that retaining talent is just as important as recruiting new talent. Tiffany says, “It’s about retaining that talent that’s in the door. And I’ve seen it in my career and just from chatting with amazing individuals that there’s so much talent out there and sometimes we forget about the ones that have been here for years.”

In addition to treating paraprofessionals fairly and offering them opportunities for professional development, firms should also focus on providing a good work-life balance for their employees. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of work-life balance and many employees have realized that they can be productive while working from home. As a result, firms that can offer a flexible schedule and a hybrid model will be more attractive to top talent. By providing a good work-life balance, firms can attract and retain top talent, which will ultimately benefit the firm in the long-term.

Watch the full interview, The Battle for Talent in the Legal Profession here

In conclusion, the battle for talent in the legal profession is becoming increasingly challenging with the shift to a hybrid model and more opportunities for flexible work. Firms need to focus on treating paraprofessionals fairly, offering them opportunities for professional development, and providing a good work-life balance. Additionally, retaining existing talent is just as important as recruiting new talent. Firms that understand this and act on it will be better positioned to succeed in the legal profession.

On the weekend of March 11, 2023, a sense of deja-vu settled over much of North America. It was an unsettling series of financial setbacks that dangerously paralleled the 2008 financial crisis. What was the trigger of these unnerving reminders from the ‘08 global financial disaster? It was the collapse and insolvency of Silicon Valley Bank.

The SVB collapse triggered a wave of panic as investors rushed to pull their assets out of risky portfolios. The biggest loser in this latest bank run was Signature Bank, a massive entity with deep ties to real estate and legal industries. Seized by US regulators mere hours following the collapse of SVB, the Signature Bank collapse marked the third-largest bank failure in US history.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced on March 12, 2023, that all SVB and Signature Bank customers will be “made whole” in an attempt to calm the brewing storm in the financial sector. Her efforts appear to have done the job, as markets rallied on March 13, 2023, a sign that her reassurances injected much-needed positive energy across the country. The worst damage appears to be limited to the US, as Canadian officials assured residents that the SVB fallout on the northern side of the border would be very low.

How did Silicon Valley Bank collapse?

Mark T. Williams, a former examiner for the US Federal Reserve, describes the SVB collapse as “a colossal failure in asset-liability risk management.” Other venture capitalists laid the blame on decisions by the SVB CEO and CFO to liquidate assets that had lost significant value as a result of rising interest rates.

SVB Financial Group, the parent company of SVB, reported selling $21 billion of bonds on March 8, 2023. The bonds had lost significant value against rising interest rates, and the sale resulted in an after-tax loss for the company of $1.8 billion for the quarter.

This reckless decision followed an earlier maneuver by SVB Financial Group CEO Greg Becker to sell off personal SVB stock valued at $3.6 million. SVB Financial Group CFO Dan Beck also made questionable sales of shares prior to the outright collapse of the bank. Collectively, these actions triggered a wave of panic that forced the institution into insolvency.

SVB had no Chief Risk Officer since April 2022

According to the company’s own records, there has been no Chief Risk Officer overseeing risk management issues at SVB since April 2022. Those same records show that the number of meetings chaired by the company’s risk committee more than doubled in the past year.

As the company divested assets from its stock portfolio in a blatant effort to rebuild capital, SVB customers rushed to withdraw $42 billion of cash in less than 48 hours. All these actions: the losses from the sale of stocks, the client loans devalued by higher interest rates, a lack of diversified banking customers (SVB primarily tailored to Silicon Valley tech startup firms)—created a chain reaction that led to the collapse of the bank.

A Chief Risk Officer and a properly functioning risk committee might have relayed the risk management concerns of poor fiscal decisions to the company’s CEO and CFO. Presumably, those stark warnings would have prevented those decisions from being made, which might have avoided the outright bank collapse.

SVB collapse comes on the heels of the FTX collapse

The SVB collapse is another reminder of the pitfalls of overinvesting in nascent industries. The SVB collapse comes only months following the collapse and disgrace of FTX, a cryptocurrency firm that engaged in a series of alleged cases of fraud.

While the end results are identical, there is a key difference between the two cases. The SVB collapse appears to have been the result of poor risk management policies and extremely short-sighted decisions on disbursing assets and liabilities. The FTX case involves criminal charges that have led FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried into criminal indictments that risk significant jail time.

Use entity management software and don’t be like SVB

Since the lack of a Chief Risk Officer in the SVB executive hierarchy played a major role in the bank’s collapse, the case serves as a sharp reminder for other business entities. It’s important that you have proper managers, established organizational charts, and clear corporate compliance policies in place to avoid making these same mistakes.

Entity management software is one of the best resources to help implement corporate compliance policies. You can build a detailed org. chart within the platform, creating an organizational hierarchy and chain of command to manage all important business decisions.

If there are any decisions with potential legal consequences, your team can review the org. chart and use the platform to create diligent minute book records documenting how those issues are managed. Additionally, you can send any documents that require signatory approval – for items such as the sale of company stock – to the appropriate executive. You can include the transfer, signature, and filing of those documents in your minute book. This will help ensure your entity manages all decisions with appropriate, and logical strategies.

Corporate compliance is a phrase that has made waves in the mainstream media over the past several months. Legal professionals that represent law firms or in-house corporate counsel have always understood the importance of corporate compliance. The phrase has become more common in non-legal settings ever since the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

The charges levelled against former FTX CEO Sam Bankfam-Fried include several counts of fraud that could see the 31-year-old face several years in prison. Nestled within the indictments are statements about the lack of organizational hierarchy within the FTX ecosystem. Prosecutors allege that FTX was devoid of structured leadership, organizational charts, and ownership charts for the deliberate purpose of allowing SBF to misappropriate client funds.

What’s the purpose of organization charts and ownership charts?

Corporate compliance refers to a series of laws, regulations, and standards that apply to corporations and the industries from which they operate. Compliance as a practice includes the internal policies and procedures to comply with federal and provincial/state laws that mitigate risks of fraud or other illicit activities.

Organizational and ownership charts help corporations abide by jurisdictional laws. They also shed more light on corporate transparency.

Organization charts inform key business decisions that include things like mergers or acquisitions, tax liabilities or, yes, corporate regulatory compliance in certain jurisdictions. In-house counsel can also use organization charts to connect with the appropriate executives regarding those key decisions. The charts even enable external auditors or regulators to connect with the appropriate party to discuss any compliance issues with the organization.

Ownership charts serve a similar function. They break down what percentage of the company is owned by each shareholder. The charts also distinguish preferred shareholders from common shareholders, and they can also summarize the voting rights (if any) awarded to each owner. They allow key votes regarding the future of the organization to proceed in a structured and organized manner.

Why organization charts and ownership charts matter

The FTX case is a perfect real-world example of why organization charts and ownership charts matter. The lack of corporate governance meant no internal executives were monitoring the flow of cash in and out of the FTX exchange. SBF allegedly used this haphazard organizational structure to defy corporate compliance policies. According to the indictments, he fraudulently used money from customer accounts to finance FTX’s sister company, Alameda Research, his trading firm.

Another great example is a fictionalized account of non-compliance. Fans of the Sopranos will know that the character of Tony Soprano was a silent partner in a garbage collection firm called Barone Sanitation. He used the legitimate business as a front to launder profits from his illegal businesses. The money was later returned to Soprano in the form of a paid salary from Barone Sanitation, hiding his ill-gotten gains from federal scrutiny.

While many corporate executives legitimately operate their businesses, there are bad actors out there (in real-life and on TV) who will manipulate companies that fail to abide by the rules of corporate governance. organization charts and ownership charts maintain accountability and transparency across the organization to prevent bad actors from implicating entire business entities in criminal activity. Internal counsel and external regulators can use these charts to enforce good corporate compliance and governance throughout the entire entity.

Licensed attorneys charge the highest percentage of billable hours to legal clients. Paralegals also have opportunities to increase billable hours for a firm. The most common ways for paralegals to increase volumes of billable hours are through the following:

• Discovery work
• Legal document preparation
• Research and analysis
• Client communications

The last point is critical for billing more time to paying clients. ParalegalEDU is a resource that educates legal professionals on how to build a sustainable career. According to their research, the most important personality trait that aspiring paralegals require is people skills.

Why do paralegals need people skills?

Paralegals are on the front lines, handling client communications. They often act as a buffer between clients and practicing attorneys. They receive client messages over the phone or in their inbox, and they’re responsible for relaying those communications to the attorneys.

In small law firms, paralegals often function as office managers in addition to their clerical duties. In these positions, they act as the voice of the firm when clients call to discuss their cases. They’re also the first point of contact when clients arrive at the firm for an in-person meeting with their attorney.

In any scenario, there’s a great deal of client interaction that paralegals must manage. People skills allow paralegals to respond to clients in calm, reassuring ways. It’s not uncommon for clients in the midst of personal setbacks or corporate litigation to unleash their frustrations on paralegals.

How paralegals can service clients more effectively

Paralegals must maintain their professionalism regardless of how unprofessional a client may behave. It takes patience and discipline to maintain those skills.

However, there are ways that paralegals can improve the way they interact with clients. These approaches allow paralegals to provide faster, more helpful service to clients, which provides a number of business benefits to the entire firm.

Use entity management technology to expedite clerical work

There have been many statistics gathered on the typical law firm experience. According to the findings, only 2.5 hours in a standard eight hour workday are billable hours charged to clients. That means legal teams, and paralegals in particular, are spending nearly 70 percent of their working days on clerical and document work.

Instead of allowing your paralegals to fall into the documentation trap, invest in entity management technology to help streamline the clerical workload. By uploading all minute book records and corporate documents to cloud-based servers, your firm modernizes minute book management.

Paralegals can use advanced search parameters to find the documents in question in a matter of minutes. If clients are already in bad moods, your paralegals can calm those feelings by providing quick, efficient answers to their pressing legal questions. It improves the quality of service, boosts client satisfaction, and enhances the reputation of the firm.

Entity management software supports remote client meetings

At a time when more people want options for remote work, it enhances the client experience if you can accommodate those desires. Entity management software allows your firm to conduct all client meetings and document reviews at their convenience.

Since entity management platforms are cloud-based solutions, they’re accessible from anywhere. Simply have your paralegals share administrative access with your client’s main point of contact. Once they have access, they can view the records from the convenience of their own homes, their offices, or any destination with an internet connection.

Providing clients with the option to conduct meetings remotely makes things easier for them. An easier experience is a more enjoyable experience that increases the probability they’ll retain your firm’s services for future business.

Paralegals convert saved clerical time into client-facing service

Finally, since entity management software streamlines clerical and administrative tasks, paralegals will earn back large portions of their working calendars. They can use this saved time to provide more direct service to clients, including strategic discussions that take some of the workload off the practicing attorneys who will argue the merits of the case.

This is a perfect example of a win-win-win scenario. The client has an extra voice counseling them on how to best persevere through the case. The paralegal gets to spend more time helping build Legal Recurring Revenue for the firm, and they get to expand their responsibilities beyond the standard clerical and documentation work. The attorney also earns back more time to polish their arguments when negotiating cases.

Paralegals have great people skills; help them use those skills wisely

Managing client relationships is a difficult task in any environment. When those relationships are built around legal cases that risk hampering the client’s future, the clients are prone to be in bad moods when interacting with legal teams.
Paralegals have the skills to support clients, but the right legal technology gives them an added edge to deliver quality client service. Introduce entity management technology to your own legal community and convert those benefits into opportunities to improve client satisfaction.

Paralegal burnout is a state of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion caused by prolonged workplace stress, excessive workloads, and feeling overwhelmed by repetitive administrative tasks. It often leads to decreased productivity, job dissatisfaction, and high turnover rates in legal teams.

Paralegals are under an enormous amount of pressure. They work extremely long hours, and they’re often responsible for managing the office, corporate records, filing systems, and minute book updates. In some cases, paralegals must even manage the time of the lawyers whose cases they support.

Key Signs of Paralegal Burnout

Watch for these warning signs that a paralegal may be experiencing burnout:

• Chronic fatigue and exhaustion that doesn’t improve with rest
• Decreased productivity and difficulty concentrating on tasks
• Increased cynicism or negativity about work and colleagues
• Physical symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, or frequent illness
• Emotional detachment from clients and cases
• Feelings of ineffectiveness despite working long hours
• Dreading coming to work or frequent thoughts about quitting

Paralegal burnout is bound to happen for many legal professionals. Everyone has their limit, and sometimes people just simply need a break. But when paralegal burnout does occur, it also robs firms or in-house counsel of exceptionally great talent.

So how do you help your talented paralegal team avoid feelings of burnout? What are some alternative methods to reduce clerical work and lift some of the pressure off their shoulders?

Common Causes of Paralegal Burnout

If feelings of burnout become overbearing, it’s not uncommon for paralegal turnover rates to skyrocket. Here are some of the main reasons why paralegals feel burned out in their professions.

Inefficient minute book documentation

According to the 2021 Legal Trends Report, the average attorney (including paralegals) bills only 2.5 hours of an 8-hour day to clients. That means nearly 70 percent of an attorney’s or a paralegal’s day is spent managing administrative or clerical work. Paralegals are more likely to be wrapped up in documentation than the practicing attorneys themselves.

Most of these minute book processes are inefficient and outdated. These archaic workflows are part of the reason that paralegals are unable to dedicate more of their own time towards client services. The more interesting parts of legal work are rare experiences for paralegals swamped by arduous corporate documentation processes.

Excessive critique of their work

All documents submitted in court filings or directly to judges are placed under meticulous scrutiny. Attorneys know exactly what they want documents to say when submitted as evidence in any case file. That means there’s very strict and sharp criticism towards the structural integrity of the documents, and those criticisms fall directly upon the paralegal.

Dana Medley-Vogel has been a paralegal for over a decade. She’s had plenty of firsthand experience with criticisms of her submitted documentation. She encourages any new or experienced paralegal to learn how to let those criticisms go and avoid taking it personally.

“It doesn’t mean you didn’t write it well — it means that the attorney may have something different in mind. Or, sometimes you start something and they change their mind by the time you finish it. For some people, that’s very difficult.”

Lack of authority to make decisions

It’s not always the case that people are constantly managing up so they can grow in their careers. But many paralegals do aspire to become fully licensed attorneys. They want to have more input on client relations and charge higher billable hour premiums. They want the authority to call their own shots.

One of the main limitations for paralegals is that it’s their primary duty to ensure all minute books and corporate records are properly documented. When the caseload piles up or attorneys are constantly changing priorities, it’s very difficult to get through all of that paperwork. Paralegals see their dreams slip further and further away, contributing to symptoms of burnout.

Why Manual Tools and Spreadsheets Make Burnout Worse

Many legal teams still rely on spreadsheets, shared drives, and manual tracking systems to manage corporate records and minute books. While these tools may seem cost-effective, they actually accelerate paralegal burnout in several ways:

• Version control nightmares — Tracking which spreadsheet is the “correct” version wastes hours and creates anxiety
• Manual data entry — Copying information between documents introduces errors and tedious rework
• No automation — Every deadline, filing, and update must be manually tracked and remembered
• Difficult collaboration — Sharing files via email chains creates confusion and duplicated effort
• Compliance anxiety — Without automated reminders, paralegals constantly worry about missing critical deadlines

Consider Sarah, a paralegal at a mid-sized law firm managing corporate records for 50 clients. She spends her Monday mornings cross-referencing three different spreadsheets to check for upcoming annual filing deadlines. By Wednesday, she discovers a colleague updated a different version of the master spreadsheet, and now she has to reconcile the differences. On Thursday, a partner urgently needs a shareholder agreement from 2019—she spends two hours searching through mislabeled folders before finding it. By Friday, Sarah is exhausted, frustrated, and questioning whether she made the right career choice. This cycle repeats every week.

How MinuteBox Helps Reduce Burnout for Paralegal Teams

Since documentation and endless piles of paperwork are among the biggest contributors to paralegal burnout, investing in a solution that simplifies the whole workload can make a transformative difference.

MinuteBox is entity management software that helps paralegals sort, file, tag, and organize minute book records in a digital cloud-based solution. The technology provides a single source of truth—one minute book room with infinite storage capacity. Cloud-based servers host all important corporate documents, creating a convenient and secure way to manage the minute book records.

Simply feed all your minute book records into professional scanners. The platform automatically populates these records in the cloud, structuring them in the form of standard PDF-style documents. The servers are protected by biometric and hardware key authentication that’s restricted to only those members of the legal team who have authority to access the account.

Key benefits that reduce paralegal burnout include:

• Automated compliance calendars that track deadlines and send reminders
• Instant document search that finds any record in seconds
• Single version of truth eliminates spreadsheet confusion
• Secure client portals for easy document sharing
• Automated workflows that reduce repetitive manual tasks

Suddenly, the time a paralegal spends searching and sorting through records becomes a fraction of what it once was. If clients have questions about their minute book records, the answers can be found and shared within a matter of minutes. Paralegals can subsequently spend more of their time on aspects of the job, like client relations, that they most enjoy doing.

Entity management platforms help attract and retain talent

People are excited about innovative companies. They feel a drive and attachment to brands that promote more innovative methods of getting things done.

Entity management platforms are the innovative solution to modernize minute book management. By helping firms streamline how they manage client records, the technology helps paralegals and practicing attorneys alike make more efficient use of their schedules.

If your firm can promote itself as an innovative company that minimizes the amount of time spent on documentation, you have a leg up on attracting and retaining top quality talent. Give those innovative go-getters a reason to consider your firm by investing in technology that saves valuable working hours on corporate record keeping. You’ll attract great paralegals and help them avoid the conditions that spur burnout.

A debate rages amongst legal professionals and corporate compliance officers about the best approach to digitize and modernize minute book management. There are certain professionals who abide by the benefits of entity management software (EMS), and there are others who subscribe to the merits of document management software (DMS).

There are many similarities between the two solutions, and there are just as many important differences. To ensure you select the best solution for your own unique purposes, let’s break down how to distinguish between the two types of software.

Modern minute book management is more efficient

Before we dive into the two types of solutions, let’s first summarize the underlying purpose of selecting one of these technologies. That fundamental purpose is to modernize how your legal practice or in-house corporate counsel effectively manages all pertinent minute books and corporate documents.

Modernized minute book management utilizes technological solutions to streamline workflows and efficiently improve recordkeeping processes. Using technology, legal teams can input, update, sort, file, and retrieve minute book records in a matter of seconds. These platforms are intuitive and backed by advanced security features, such as biometric and hardware key authentication. The advanced security parameters protect those records for only those individuals who have been authorized to access the account.

What is entity management software?

Now, let’s break down the two types of technology. We’ll begin with a brief summary of entity management software.

Entity management software is a type of specialized technology that enables legal firms and in-house legal departments to manage multiple legal entities. Advanced entity management solutions are cloud-based softwares that streamline how legal departments manage corporate minute books for dozens or hundreds of entities.

The technology is best suited to assist legal professionals with automating clerical tasks that include each of the following:

• Corporate compliance deadlines that are managed using a built-in tickler system
• Automated documentation of company by-laws, corporate resolutions, cap tables, shareholder ledgers, and legal registers
• Tracking all issuances and transfers of corporate shares from entity to shareholder, as well as amongst various shareholders
• Creating org. charts that report on all corporate owners, officers, and directors

Entity management software is protected by advanced security features that protect all corporate records from unauthorized access. Solutions like MinuteBox are among the leading secure entity management solutions, having received official ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications, each of which validates MinuteBox’s commitment to corporate data security.

What is document management software?

Let’s segue into a summary on document management software and its primary purposes. Document management software is a less advanced version of entity management software, primarily used to help corporations manage the lifecycle of their documents.

Document management software is characterized as a digital filing cabinet that helps companies transition away from paper records. Examples of prominent document management solutions include platforms like Google Drive or DropBox.

While document management software helps companies transition away from paper records and support environmental, social, and governance (ESG) corporate policies, it’s a less capable solution for corporate entity management.

Minute book records that contain corporate finances and shareholders’ personal information require advanced security features to protect the corporation from unauthorized hackings or malfeasance. To ensure corporate information is securely stored in the cloud, legal teams and in-house corporate counsels are better equipped with entity management software.

Benefits of modernized minute book management

Utilizing technology, like entity management software, to manage minute books and update corporate records is far more efficient than traditional processes.

In the past, law clerks and paralegals were required to update all records by hand using paper documents. In addition to the time-consuming nature of this workflow, there was a greater risk that records could be lost, misplaced, stolen, or shredded due to the fickle nature of paper documents.

Legal entities that use technology to modernize minute book management eliminate those security risks, and they make outdated workflows redundant. Since these platforms are intuitive, they save teams valuable working hours. The traditional minute book management process used to take up to 5.5 working hours out of a working legal professional’s day. Using technology, more of that time is earned back, allowing legal talent to reinvest that time towards billable hours for clients that increase Legal Recurring Revenue for the firm.

Are you ready to modernize your own minute book management workflow? Join the MinuteBox revolution and incorporate the most advanced entity management solutions into your established workflows.