Generally speaking, most lawyers are not good managers, but there is an antidote for that deficiency, says Lawrence H. Freiman. It’s called the administrative or legal assistant.

Freiman, founding partner of MendenFreiman, an Atlanta business and estate planning law firm, calls his executive legal assistant, Johnnie L. Hooper, “one of those rare finds that comes to you once in a career.” Hooper takes on varied responsibilities at the firm, and Freiman sums up her role this way: “She frees me up to do the things that have a higher value for my time.”