I think a salary based on a computation of $15 per hour x 40 per week is where we should begin the inquiry. You can always go up based on the skills demonstrated. It’s hard to come down. I love the idea of employing someone who is former military because there is a known that we are going to get. That said, we should be very careful in ensuring we get the right skill set. Doing intakes and answering phones is not hard. We can train any competent person to do it. We need someone who is agile in responding to tasks, capable of working with the increasingly complex software being employed, able to write well and skilled at editing; knows or can learn how to research to find the answers needed rather than wait to be fed the answers; and be motivated and eager. These can be called intangible competencies. The tangible minimum skills that I can think of are the following: 1. Be able to type more than 60 words per minute, corrected 2. A thorough familiarity with MS Office 3. An ability to read and comprehend written tasks 4. Draft, edit and Prepare correspondence 5. Basic familiarity with QB and Time Matters 6. A familiarity with Lexis –that means the potential candidate knows what that software is and what it does. 7. An ability to find certain rules and regulations. We tested for that by giving the candidate the MCM and asking something like can you find the rule(s) governing expert witnesses? 8. Draft a one paragraph summary about a case in the media –blog- 9. Prepare billing statements when provided information about a client, the balance remaining and the hours expended. From: Puckett Neal [mailto:neal@puckettfaraj.com] Partner, Did some digging yesterday. Have a female, 21-yr-retired Marine Gunny 4421 coming in to interview as Bethany's replacement. Has extensive military justice AND legal assistance experience. Retired in Aug from Cherry Point, where she transferred from Quantico. Recommended by retired MSgt court reporter I know (who I thought might work, too). I'll let you know. Did a little research on mil pension from pay charts. She's making in the neighborhood of $2000-2200/mo. Clearly has health care. How much do you think I should offer if we hit it off? I've already done a brief chat on the phone with her. Seems to speak well. Has a cheery voice. African American from Mississippi. No sense of writing skills, but you can bet your ass she can handle any intake and manage documents, messages and client communication. Meaning, we're covered for our January "out of office" experience. After tomorrow, we'll only have two demographics: Neal and Italian females. OK to be more diverse than that. Here's my thought. Why use an interim solution if you can possibly implement a permanent solution? She lives in Fredericksburg, which we'll have to deal with. We already have 2 parking passes. One for Mary Jo and one for Bethany. So that's covered. What are your thoughts? N Neal A. Puckett, Esq LtCol, USMC (Ret) Puckett & Faraj, PC 1800 Diagonal Rd, Suite 210 Alexandria, VA 22314 703.706.9566 The information contained in this electronic message is confidential, and is intended for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you are hereby notified that any use, distribution, copying of disclosure of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you received this communication in error, please notify Puckett & Faraj, P.C. at 703-706-9566 or via a return the e-mail to sender. You are required to purge this E-mail immediately without reading or making any copy or distribution. |