Virtual Assistant for Business and Commercial Litigation: Cut Case Admin, Keep Matters Moving

Commercial litigation is a document business. One breach of contract matter can generate thousands of pages of discovery, a dozen deposition notices, and a calendar of court deadlines that shifts every time opposing counsel files something. Too often the partner billing at $400 an hour is the person Bates-stamping exhibits at nine at night, because nobody else has the file open.

This article covers what a litigation support VA actually handles day to day, the case management and e-discovery software our people work in, what the support costs next to a US hire, and how a five day onboarding runs. It is written for business litigation partners, managing attorneys, and firm administrators who want more capacity without adding a salary, benefits, and a desk.

What a Business and Commercial Litigation Virtual Assistant Handles

Commercial matters have a predictable admin spine. Once you map it, most of it can move off attorney desks. Here is what a dedicated legal VA typically owns:

• Case intake and conflict check prep. Collecting party names, related entities, subsidiaries, and adverse parties, running them through your conflicts database, and flagging every hit for attorney review.

• Document production support. Bates numbering, exhibit indexing, privilege log data entry, and organizing productions by request number so nothing gets served twice.

• Discovery tracking. Maintaining a master chart of interrogatories, requests for production, and requests for admission with service dates, response due dates, and meet-and-confer status.

• Deposition coordination. Scheduling across multiple counsel, booking court reporters and videographers, preparing notices for attorney signature, and circulating transcripts with errata deadlines flagged.

• Court calendaring and docket monitoring. Pulling CM/ECF and state portal notices every morning, entering trigger dates, and drafting downstream deadline calculations for the attorney to confirm.

• E-filing preparation. Assembling pleadings, motions, exhibits, certificates of service, and proposed orders into filing-ready packets, then filing once an attorney approves.

• Client communication and status updates. Sending scheduled matter updates, chasing outstanding client documents, and logging every touch in the case management workflow.

• Billing and trust support. Entering time from attorney notes, cleaning up narratives, building prebills, and following up on aged receivables.

• Vendor and expert coordination. Onboarding e-discovery vendors, tracking expert invoices against budget, and keeping engagement letters and retainers current.

• Trial prep logistics. Building witness binders, assembling exhibit lists, tracking demonstratives, and keeping the trial notebook version-controlled.

One boundary matters here. Our VAs are not licensed attorneys and do not practice law. They do not give legal advice, appear in any proceeding, sign pleadings, or make strategy calls. Every deadline calculation, filing, and client-facing legal communication goes to a supervising attorney before it leaves the firm. ABA Formal Opinion 08-451 permits outsourcing legal support work when the lawyer keeps supervision, protects confidentiality, and avoids conflicts, and our staffing model is built to sit inside those requirements. Every VA signs an NDA and completes attorney-client privilege and confidentiality training before touching a matter.

Software Our Commercial Litigation VAs Know

We match on tool experience, not just general admin skill. A VA who already lives inside your stack is productive in days rather than months. Common systems our legal admin support staff work in:

• Case and practice management: Clio Manage, Filevine, Litify, MyCase, PracticePanther, Smokeball, and CaseFleet for chronologies.

• Document management: NetDocuments, iManage, SharePoint, and Adobe Acrobat Pro for Bates numbering and redaction prep.

• E-discovery and review platforms: Relativity, Everlaw, and Logikcull for tagging, load file handling, and production logistics under attorney direction.

• Filing systems: PACER and CM/ECF, plus state portals including eFileTexas, Odyssey eFileCA, and NYSCEF.

• Billing and accounting: LawPay, QuickBooks Online, Clio Manage billing, and TABS3.

• Communication and workflow: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, RingCentral, Zoom, and Asana or Monday for matter task boards.

If your firm runs something less common, we screen for it during the match. We would rather take an extra week to find the right person than place someone who needs three months of training on your case management workflow.

What It Costs

Pricing at 5CVAS starts at $9 per hour. A general legal admin VA handling calendaring, intake, document organization, and client follow-up runs $9 to $13 per hour. A senior remote paralegal with several years of US litigation support experience, comfortable with discovery charts, e-filing across jurisdictions, and privilege log work, runs $12 to $16 per hour.

Compare that against a US litigation secretary or paralegal. Base salary in most metros lands between $58,000 and $78,000. Add payroll taxes, health coverage, PTO, software seats, and office space, and the fully loaded cost typically reaches $34 to $46 per hour. A dedicated VA at 40 hours a week and $12 per hour comes to about $24,960 a year, with no benefits load and no long-term contract. You pay only for hours worked.

Most litigation firms start with 20 to 25 hours a week on one practice group, prove the workflow, then scale. There are no packages and no minimums, so you can add hours during a heavy discovery window and pull back afterward.

How to Onboard in 5 Days

Onboarding a legal VA fails when firms hand over a login and hope. Here is the sequence that works:

• Day 1: Scope and access. List the five tasks eating the most attorney time. Set up email, case management, and document management logins with permissions scoped to those tasks only. Sign the NDA and confidentiality acknowledgment.

• Day 2: Shadow and document. Your VA watches a paralegal or attorney run each task live, records the session, and writes the first draft of the standard operating procedure in your words.

• Day 3: Supervised reps. The VA runs each task with a reviewer checking every output. Corrections go straight into the SOP so the same mistake does not repeat.

• Day 4: Volume test. Push a real workload through, a full discovery chart update or a week of docket entries, and time it. This is where you find the gaps in your own process, not just theirs.

• Day 5: Set the rhythm. Lock in a daily priority note, a weekly 15 minute check-in, and clear escalation rules for anything deadline-related. Move review from every item to spot checks once accuracy holds.

By the end of week two most firms are handing off entire task categories rather than individual assignments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a virtual assistant calculate court deadlines?

They can draft the calculation and enter it into your calendar, but a supervising attorney must confirm it. Deadline computation carries malpractice risk, so we treat attorney sign-off as non-negotiable.

Are your VAs licensed paralegals?

No. They are trained legal support staff, not licensed attorneys or certified paralegals in a US jurisdiction. Many have several years of experience supporting US litigation firms, but all work under attorney supervision.

How do you protect attorney-client privilege?

Every VA signs an NDA, completes confidentiality and privilege training before starting, and works from a dedicated device with access limited to the matters assigned. You control permissions inside your own systems.

Is outsourcing legal support work ethically permitted?

ABA Formal Opinion 08-451 addresses this directly and permits it when the lawyer supervises the work, protects client confidences, and screens for conflicts. Some state bars add disclosure or billing requirements, so check your jurisdiction.

Can a VA e-file in federal and state court?

Yes, once an attorney reviews and approves the filing packet. VAs commonly handle CM/ECF and state portal submissions, confirmation receipts, and service documentation.

Do I get the same person every day?

Yes. You get a dedicated VA, not a rotating pool. That continuity is what makes case knowledge build up instead of resetting every week.

What hours do your VAs work?

They work your business hours, including Pacific and Eastern time zone coverage. Overlap with your team is set during scoping.

What happens if the match does not work out?

We replace the VA at no additional cost. There is no long-term contract, so you are never locked into a placement that is not producing.

How much attorney time does this actually free up?

Firms we work with typically recover 15 to 25 hours a week per attorney or paralegal once the handoff is stable. The gain comes from removing task-switching, not just the tasks themselves.

How do I get started?

Book a quick call at calendly.com/contact-5cvas and we will scope your needs, then present matched candidates within 5 to 7 days.

Commercial litigation does not slow down because your team is short-handed. If discovery admin, docket entries, and prebills are eating hours your attorneys should be spending on strategy and client work, a dedicated legal VA is the cheapest capacity you can add. Book a call at calendly.com/contact-5cvas and we will scope the work and present matched candidates within a week.