Online tution opportunities

 

 Growing stars.com

Indian based, Many are doing it in convenience and are earning.

 

Aim-4-A –

requires online tutors specialized in any subject to teach using audio and data conferencing.  A shared white board software will be provided for free. Internet telephone software Skype, digital tablet and pen mouse are required

 

Tutor.com –

is looking for tutors to join  the live homework help program for assignments in Math, English, Science or Social Science from grades 4-12. College students are also eligible. Most vacancies are for Algebra II, Geometry, Trigonometry, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Calculus. A tutor has to download  a program for the virtual classroom. If a classroom is scheduled, you are paid for the time you wait till the student joins you. However, during peak hours, you may be assigned students who have not scheduled classes. Tutors can also take sessions privately for about $30/hour. A tutor can work for a maximum of  20 hours a week, and payments are sent once a month.

 

Universal Class -  A teacher can create a virtual classroom online on the subject you are knowledgeable about using the tools provided. Teachers get  60% of the course fees for all students who enroll and US$5 for each certificate sold. Payments are sent once a month, after the account balance reaches US$50 .   

 

Educate Online - provides live instruction for students in grades K-12 via the internet. Require certified experienced Math and Reading teachers working from home anywhere in USA. Compensation is US$10/hour.

 

Smarthinking  requires part time online writing tutors to work between 6 to 20 hours per week. They can work from any location with a computer and internet access. The candidate should have relevant experience in teaching and a degree in English language.

 

Ehill Tutor -  requires tutors who are holding or working on a college degree or teacher certification. Online tuitions are provided according to students requirements and payment directly collected from students. Rates vary from US$10-$25 per hour

 

Limu - get paid for teaching any professional, academic or hobby related subject. Teachers are paid a percentage of the fees they charge.

 

Pearson Flexible Scoring - work from home and score student responses  through Pearson Educational Measurement's ePEN system. Minimum bachelor's degree required and should be eligible to work in U.S.A

 

Homeworkhelp - provide online tuitions or homework help to students. Payment once a month by check.

 

Homework Tutoring - homework help required for engineering, history and law
 

ETS - employs trained raters to evaluate essays online like TOEL , TSE
 

Brainfuse - provide online teaching for specific courses, textbook help and test preparation. It is more suitable for regular students using pre arranged lessons. Sometimes, students do not turn up for their scheduled lessons.

Course Bridge - offers courses on a variety of  subjects. Qualified instructors are paid 55-70% of  the registration fees paid by students. Instructors provide course material and evaluate student assignments by email.  Cheques in US$ are sent by postal mail

 

Smartthinking - online learning company requires teachers to be certified

 

Teachoutloud - self publish your audio book and get paid for it

 

Kidspan - provides online tuitions.  Teachers from all countries can apply. You have to specify experience and expected hourly teaching rate.

 

Suite University

 

Do you need to pay Wealth Tax ??

Paying income tax has become very common to all of us and we do it regularly. Though we have little confusion on the various procedures involved in filing the returns, we are pretty clear with Income Tax. Are you aware that apart from your income tax returns, you may also be required to file wealth tax returns?

Yes, every individual, who has wealth exceeding Rs 15 lakh, is required to pay wealth tax as well as file a return of wealth tax with the revenue authorities by July 31 every year, immediately following the end of the previous year (the previous year runs from April 1 to March 31). Currently, the wealth tax rate is 1%.

Wealth refers to (as per Tax laws terminologies), is the value of prescribed assets of an individual as reduced by debts owed in respect of assets. Therefore, if the asset is valued at Rs 30 lakh and the outstanding loan against the asset is Rs 14 lakh, the amount that would be considered as wealth would be Rs 16 lakh.

An important point to note is that the value for the purpose of wealth-tax would be the value of the assets as on the last day of the respective previous year (i.e., March 31). There are prescribed guidelines that need to be followed for valuation of the assets. So let us consider an example for a better understanding. Avinash owns the following assets as on March 31, 2008: One residential house valued at Rs 30 lakh; one motor car valued at Rs 5 lakh; a bank balance of Rs 1.5 lakh; shares valued at Rs 28.5 lakh and gold jewellery valued at Rs 10 lakh.

Would this mean that Avinash has wealth of Rs 75 lakh and he has to pay a wealth-tax of Rs 75000? (I.e. 1% of 75 lakh as mentioned above, it should be noted that only wealth exceeding Rs 15 lakh is taxable).

Thankfully the answer is No! While the definition of assets covered under wealth tax is extremely wide, fortunately a description has been provided for assets that fall within the purview of wealth-tax (both covered as well as exemptions thereto have been defined). Broadly, the following assets are considered as part of the taxable wealth of an individual: House, motor car, jewellery, cash in hand in excess of Rs 50,000, urban land (that is land situated, within the jurisdiction of municipality and having a population of 10,000 and more or in any area within such distance from the local limits of any municipality) and yachts, boats and aircraft.

Therefore, in the above example, shares and the bank balance are not covered as taxable assets. In addition to this, even the covered assets enjoy certain exemptions. Typically, the wealth tax is only applicable on non-productive assets. Thus, where the aforesaid assets are used for commercial purposes (like boats and aircraft) or held as stock for trading purposes (like jewellery and motor car), they are not liable to wealth tax. One must be careful in examining the exemptions that are available in respect of each asset. Let us for instance, look closely at the definition of house. Your own house, in which you reside, is not an asset subject to wealth tax, nor is a plot of land owned by you provided that it does not exceed 500 sq meters. A house held as stock in trade or used for own business or profession is also exempt, as are commercial complexes. If a residential property has been let out for 300 days or more in the previous year, the same is also exempt from wealth-tax.

Therefore, in Avinash's case, even the residential house is exempt from wealth tax (and only the car and jewellery are finally liable to wealth tax). After all this, Avinash would only be liable to pay wealth tax on the value of Rs 15 lakh, the wealth tax amounting to a mere Rs 15,000.

You must also note that dispersing ownership of the asset amongst family members may not exempt you from being taxed. Similar, to the income tax provisions, there are provisions for clubbing where assets transferred by an individual to his spouse, sons wife or to a person for the benefit of spouse or sons wife without adequate consideration form part of his/her wealth and not the transferees. While resident Indians are liable to wealth tax on their global wealth, foreign citizens please note that your assets situated in India are also liable to wealth tax in India.

Ethics in Bussiness

The character of a man is expressed in terms of his conduct or actions. These actions can be good or bad; right or wrong; moral or immoral. However they may be amoral as well which means that they are beyond the sphere of morality eg: a petrol bunk owner engaged in selling both petrol and diesel to the customers for a profit is an example of amoral conduct of business. But if the owner indulges in mixing petrol with kerosene and sells it to customers, then his act is said to be immoral. Thus right, wrong, moral and immoral are termed as moral judgments. Moral judgments require moral standards by which one judges human conduct. Ethics can thus be defined as the science of character of a person expressed as right or wrong conduct of action.

 

The intensity of consumer movements and the rising level of awareness among corporate stakeholders are making it difficult for corporate to get away with unethical business practices. Now stakeholders and consumers are no longer indifferent to unethical practices like financial irregularities, tax evasion, poor quality products and services, kick-backs, non-compliance with environmental issues, and hazardous working conditions. The Indian corporate have lately realized that integrity, transparency and open communications are the new norms of the corporate world. They also believe that the goodwill resulting from adopting a code of business ethics will in the long run, translate into economic gains in the form of stock market capitalization.

 

Survival is the name of any business game. If a company wants to survive it has to think about its profits. Most business operates on the principle that profit is not linked to ethical consideration. But there are instances which nullify the above principle. For example Johnson and Johnson often recognized as a company whose ethical behavior is exemplary.  The term profit in business is appropriate but only profit is not acceptable any more. Today every organization, whether big or small, has to justify its existence in the marketplace. It is felt that if company cannot generate profits, it has no rights to exist in the marketplace. A firm that is not performing well is considered as liability and burden to the society, as it cannot discharge its responsibility to the community welfare to its employees, revenue to shareholders and meet customer demands. Thus profit today is recognized as a characteristic of the success of a business and a justification for its existence.

 

A sick or loss making company is bound to misuse scarce resources. Such a loss making company makes huge liabilities; upsets the business, promotes inefficiency and finally cannot discharge its social responsibility. Considering this situation, it may be unethical for a firm to make loss. Such firms cannot exit in the marketplace as they force their employees into economic insecurity.

FAQs on Income Tax I - Basics

FAQs on Income Tax I - Basics

1. Who has to pay Income tax?
Any individual, corporate, firm, society or any judicial legal entity having income earned & received in India will be liable to pay Income tax to the Income tax Department of India.

2. Who is an assessee in Income Tax?
Assessee is a person by whom Income tax is payable under Income tax Act, 1961 of India.

3. What is Assessment year in Income Tax?
Let's say your Financial Year is from 1st April-2007 to 31st March-2008, then Assessment year for Income Tax purpose is year ending on 31st March, 2009 (1st April 2008 to 31st March 2009). In this case Financial Year would be called previous year.

4. What is a PAN (permanent account number)?
The permanent account number is allotted by the assessing officer to any person for the purpose of identification. It's a Unique 10 digits number for e.g.  KKJMN6994P.

5. Do I have to apply for a permanent account number (PAN)? How do I apply?
If you fall under any of the below mentioned categories, you have to apply for PAN in Form 49A:

• If your total income in the previous year exceeds maximum amount not chargeable to tax.
• If you are carrying on business or profession, whose total sales, turnover or gross receipts, are or is likely to exceed Rs 500,000.
• If you are assessable as charitable trust.

You have to quote your PAN on:

• Income tax return
• Any correspondence with Income Tax Authority
• Challans for payment of direct taxes
• Application for installation of a telephone connection (including a cellular telephone)
• Application for opening a bank account
• Application for opening DMAT account
• Documents pertaining to sale or purchase of a motor vehicle (other than two wheelers) & immovable property valued at Rs 500,000 or more
• Documents pertaining to a time deposit/fixed deposits exceeding Rs 50,000 with a bank
• Documents pertaining to deposits exceeding Rs 50,000 in any account with a Post-Office Savings Bank
• Documents pertaining to a contract of a value exceeding Rs 1 million (Rs 10 lakhs) for sale or purchase of securities (shares, debentures)
• At the time of purchase of Mutual fund units.
• Payment to hotels and restaurants against their bills for an amount exceeding Rs. 25,000 at any one time

However following people may not apply for PAN:

• Who have agricultural income and are not in receipt of any other income  chargeable to income tax
• NRIs
• Central Government, State Government and Consular Officers, in transactions where they are the payers.
• Application for allotment of PAN can be submitted in form No. 49A.

6. What are the types of income chargeable to Income tax?
1.     Salary Income
2.     House Property Income
3.     Income from business or profession
4.     Income from sale of capital assets
5.     Other income

7. What is residential status under Income Tax Act?
In India, as in many other countries, the charge of income tax and the scope of taxable income vary with residential status of the assessee.
There are three categories of taxable entities viz.
(1)   Resident and ordinarily resident (ROR)
(2)   Resident but not ordinary resident (RNOR)
(3)   Non-residents (NR)

The law prescribes two alternative criterions to decide the residential status of an assessee. Both criterions relate to the physical presence of the taxpayer in India in the course of the previous year which would be the twelve months from April 1 to March 31.

A person is said to be "resident" in India in any previous year if he -
(a) Is in India in that year for an aggregate period of 182 days or more; or

(b) having within the four years preceding that year been in India for a period of 365 days or more, is in India in that year for an aggregate period of 60 days or more.

The above provisions are applicable to all individuals irrespective of their nationality. However, as a special concession for Indian citizens and foreign citizens of Indian origin, the period of 60 days referred to in Clause (b) above, will be extended to 182 days in two cases: (i) where an Indian citizen leaves India in any year for employment outside India; and (ii) where an Indian citizen or a foreign citizen of Indian origin (NRI), who is outside India, comes on a visit to India.

In the above context, an individual visiting India several times during the relevant "previous year" should note that judicial authorities in India have held that both the days of entry and exit are counted while calculating the number of days stay in India, irrespective of however short the time spent in India on those two days may be.

A "non-resident" is merely defined as a person who is not a "resident" i.e. one who does not satisfy either of the two prescribed tests of residence.

An individual, who is defined as Resident in a given financial year is said to be "not ordinarily resident" in any previous year if he has been a non-resident in India 9 out of the 10 preceding previous years or he has during the 7 preceding previous years been in India for a period of, or periods amounting in all to, 729 days or less.

Conditions	ROR	RNOR	NR
In India >= 182 days in FY	Yes	Yes	No
NR in India in 9 out of 10 preceding FYs	No	Yes	NA
In India for <=729 days in preceding 7 FYs	No	Yes	NA
In India >= 60 days in FY and >= 365 days in preceding 4 FYs	NA	NA	No
(FY = Current Financial Year)

* Threshold limit for resident women assessees below 65 years of age and resident individuals of 65 years and above to be further increased to Rs. 1,35,000/- and Rs. 1,85,000/- respectively.
• Plus surcharge @ 10% applicable if total income exceeds Rs. 10,00,000/
• Education Cess @ 2% is payable on tax plus surcharge

However if you are a company or a partnership firm you will have to pay tax on all income earned. Till 31st March 2003, "not ordinarily resident" was defined as a person who has not been resident in India in 9 out of 10 preceding previous years or he has not during the 7 preceding previous years been in India for a period of, or periods amounting in all to, 730 days or more.

8. Is it compulsory to maintain books of accounts?
Yes, IF you are carrying on legal, medical, engineering or architectural profession or the profession of accountancy or technical consultancy or interior decoration or any other notified profession. And Yes, IF you are carrying on business or profession (other than professions mentioned earlier) and IF the income from business or profession exceeds Rs.1,20,000/- or the total sales, turnover or gross receipts in the business or profession exceeds Rs. 10 lakhs in any one of the three years immediately preceding the previous year.

9. Is it compulsory to get the books audited?
(i) Every person carrying on business shall get his accounts audited if the total sales, turnover or gross receipts in business exceed Rs. 40 lakhs in the previous year.

(ii) Every person carrying on profession shall get his accounts audited if his gross receipts exceed Rs. 10 lakhs in the previous year

An American IT company was hired by a farmer in India to milk cow

 

Client has 2 cows and u need to milk them

 

1 . First prepare a document when to milk them (Project kick off)

 

2 . Prepare a document how long you have to milk them (Project plan)

 

3 . Then prepare how to milk them (Design)

 

4 . Then prepare what other accessories are needed to milk them (Framework)

 

5 . Then prepare a 2 dummy cows (sort of toy cows) and show to client the way in which u will milk them (UI Mockups & POC)

 

6 . If client is not satisfied then redo from step 2

 

7 . You actually start milking them and find that there are few problem with accessories. (Change framework)

 

8 . Redo step 4

 

9 . At last milk them and send it to onsite. (Coding over)

 

10. Make sure that cow milks properly ( Testing)

 

11. Onsite reports that it is not milking there.

 

12. You break your head and find that onsite is trying to milk from bulls

 

13. At last onsite milk them and send to client (Testing)

 

14. Client says the quality of milk is not good. (User Acceptance Test)

 

15. Offsite then slogs and improves the quality of milk

 

16. Now the client says that the quality is good but its milking at slow rate (performance issue)

 

17. Again you slog and send it with good performance.

 

18. Client is happy???

 

By this time both the COWs aged and cant milk. (The software got old and get ready for next release repeat from step 1) !!!!!

A financial wisdom to overcome crisis

Warren Buffet's New Year Letter - Globally applicable every time............give some time......... its interesting.

 

We begin this New Year with dampened enthusiasm and dented optimism. Our happiness is diluted and our peace is threatened by the financial illness that has infected our families, organizations and nations.
Everyone is desperate to find a remedy that will cure their financial illness and help them recover their financial health. They expect the financial experts to provide them with remedies, forgetting the fact that it is these experts who created this financial mess.

Every new year, I adopt a couple of old maxims as my beacons to guide my future. This self-prescribed therapy has ensured that with each passing year, I grow wiser and not older. This year, I invite you to tap into the financial wisdom of our elders along with me, and become financially wiser.
 
Hard work: All hard work brings profit; but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Laziness: A sleeping lobster is carried away by the water current.

Earnings: Never depend on a single source of income.

Spending: If you buy things you don't need, you'll soon sell things you need.

Savings: Don't save what is left after spending; spend what is left after saving.

Borrowings: The borrower becomes the lender's slave.

Accounting: It's no use carrying an umbrella, if your shoes are leaking.

Auditing: Beware of little expenses; a small leak can sink a large ship.

Risk-taking: Never test the depth of the river with both feet.

Investment: Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I'm certain that those who have already been practicing these Principles remain financially healthy. I'm equally confident that those who resolve to start practicing these principles will quickly regain their financial health.

Let us become wiser and lead a happy, healthy, prosperous and Peaceful life.

Patent Application filing in Indian Patent Office

Patent Application filing in Indian Patent Office

An application for a patent can be filed by the true and first inventor. The assignee or legal representative of the inventor can also file it. It can be filed individually or jointly. If an application is filed by the assignee, proof of assignment has to be submitted along with the application. The applicant can be national of any country.

An application can be filed directly at the Indian Patent Office or via the Patent Cooperation Treaty having a corresponding Indian application or in the form of a Conventional application. A patent application can be filed at any of the four patent offices in India. Patent Offices are located at Kolkata, New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.

Every application filed directly at Indian Patent Office shall be accompanied by a provisional or complete specification. In case of PCT or Convention application, applicant can file only the complete specification. Provisional applications are generally filed at a stage where some experimentation is required to perfect the invention. A complete specification has to be filed within 12 months extendable to 15 months from the date of filing of the provisional specification. If an application is filed with a complete specification, the Controller on request has the power to convert the complete specification into a provisional one. If a complete specification follows a provisional specification, the controller on request can post date the date of filing to the date of complete specification. Filing of a provisional specification allows the applicant to get an early application date.

Provisional Specification shall contain:

a) Title
b) Written Description
c) Drawings, if necessary
d) Sample or model if required

The complete specification shall contain:

a) Title
b) Abstract
c) Written Description
d) Drawings (where necessary)
e) Sample or Model (if required by the examiner)
f) Enablement and Best Mode
g) Claims
h) Deposit (Microorganisms)

a) Title
Title is generally a word or a phrase indicating the content of the invention.

b) Abstract
It is a short paragraph describing the invention in a precise manner.

c) Written Description
This is an important part of the specification. It contains the complete and elaborate description of the invention. Written Description generally starts with a background of the invention. It explains the invention clearly and comprehensively, with the help of examples, drawings and models, where and when required.

d) Drawings
The written description might be supplemented with clearly labeled drawings, where and when required.

e) Samples or Models
On initiative of the inventor or when required by the patent examiner samples or models might be submitted to the patent office. Such samples or models will provide a better understanding of the invention.

f) Enablement and Best Mode
The applicant has to enable his invention in order to allow a person with ordinary skill in the art to make and work the invention. He should not only enable, but also describe the best mode of carrying out the invention.

g) Claims
Claims define the metes and bounds of the invention. They are the most important elements in a specification.

h) Deposit
If an invention involves microorganisms, which cannot be described by writing, a sample of the microorganism has to be deposited at an internationally recognized depository. There is an internationally recognized depository at Chandigarh, in India

A provisional specification cannot be filed if an application has been filed in a foreign country, before the Indian filing, and if the application is a PCT application. A complete specification has to be filed within twelve months of filing the provisional specification. Each specification should contain only one invention. If there is more than one invention in a specification, separate applications have to be filed for each invention. If an Indian application has corresponding foreign applications, the applicant has to keep the Controller informed of the status of the foreign applications.
The following documents have to be submitted at the time of filing a patent application:
a. Form 1 - Application for the grant of patent
b. Form 2 - Provisional or Complete Specification
c. Form 3 - Statement and undertaking by the applicant
d. Form 5 - Declaration as to Inventorship
e. Form 26 - Authorization of patent agent or any other person.
Hope you have learned the patent filing procedure in India.
Posted by Senthil at 12:48 AM
Labels: Indian patent, Indian patent office, Patent Application

E-filing of patent application in India

E-filing of patent application in India

Govt of India launched E-filing of patent and trademark applications on 20th July 2007 and 1000 patent applications were filed till 24th July 2008, which is only 3% of total filing. The awareness about the E-filing in India may be less or patent agent may be sceptical to file through electronically. Here you can find the process of e-filing patent application in India. [Source: Indian patent office]

Steps for e-filing of patent application:

1. For using this Portal click on link 'On-line Registration for New User'
2. Complete On-line Registration process for getting User Id & Password.
3. Login to E-Patent portal after successful registration.
4. Download Client Software for preparing Patent Application(s) offline.
5. Fill Patent Application offline and generate an XML file using Client Software.
6. After creating application (XML) file offline, Digitally Sign the XML file (Max. file size permitted 15 MB) for uploading on to the IPO Server.
7. Login into E-Patent portal for uploading Application XML file on IPO Server.
8. Upload & Submit Digitally Signed XML file to IPO Server.
9. Process Application for EFT (Fee Transaction).
10. Review Application Status on E-Patent Portal.
11. On successful EFT acknowledgment details would be displayed/ generated.

Understanding patent rights

Understanding patent rights

When an inventor comes up with new and innovative product, most of the time inventor feels that he can get patent right on his product to have monopoly and to make, use and sell his patented product.

Here is the important point to note by all new inventors is that patent does not provide positive right to make, use or sell his patented products, but rather it provides negative right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention. Do you understand the above statement? If your answer is no, then please read further.

Here you will get a clear picture by reading the following simple example “stool and chair invention concept”, which is familiar to all patent practitioners.

A portable seating appliance art ‘stool’ having platform with three legs was invented by Abraham. And he applied for a patent and obtained patent grant for his invention.

Another inventor Bartholomew had come with invention “chair”, in which he added a fourth leg, back support and arm support to have more comfortable. As the “chair’ has improvement over the ‘stool’, the patent office granted a patent to Bartholomew for his invention.

Now there is interesting question, who owns what rights?

Abraham invented basic portable appliance art ‘stool’, and he can exclude others from making, using, or selling his stool invention and also he can make, use and sell his invention ‘stool’ with out any fear of infringing others patent right. Hence, he has both negative right and positive right on his invention.

Where as, Bartholomew can only exclude [negative right] others from making, using or selling devices which has four leg, back support and arm support, and his patent does not give him any right to make these devices. Indeed, since chair also has a platform and three legs [which is equivalent to stool], if chairs are made without obtaining a license from Abraham, then it will be infringing Abraham’s stool patent.

Thus, it will be clear that a person having a patent does not give that person the right to practice his invention. The basic patent only has both positive and negative right, where as all improvement patent enables their owner to exclude others from practicing their patented products.

Legal Outsourcing Approved by American Bar Association

By Melissa Lafsky

This summer, the American Bar Association (ABA) delved into the debate over legal outsourcing, issuing an advisory stating that the growing trend of sending legal work offshore is "a salutary one for our globalised economy."

The news brought joy to the growing number of legal process outsourcing (LPO) companies, who despite meteoric growth over the past few years are still struggling to carve out a permanent niche in the market.

Outsourcing has been on a meteoric rise, in spite of—or, perhaps, fueled by—an economy that has tightened to near strangulation. With the formation in 2007 of India’s first outsourcing trade organization, the National Association of Legal Process Outsourcing Companies (NALPOC), along with continued growth among domestic LPO companies, the outsourcing of legal work is becoming a wider and more generally accepted practice, particularly as companies search for ways to trim their budgets.

The type of work that dominates outsourcing includes large, labor-intensive document reviews, intellectual property matters with an emphasis on patent work, and corporate work—all of which have been a longstanding part of the billable work for law firms. With their bread and butter billables now sent to attorneys or other legal professionals in New Delhi or cheaper U.S. markets such as Gainesville, Florida, attorneys in the U.S. have been feeling their trepidation grow as the market shifts towards cost-cutting on law firm bills.

“There's a natural filtering that’s occurring, and it’s being driven by cost pressure from large corporations,” said Daniel Reed, CEO of UnitedLex Corp., an Atlanta-based LPO firm with a roster of Fortune 500 and Global 500 clients. “These corporations are under material cost pressure that are driving the change, so it's forcing what’s already occurred on every other level--be it HR, accounting, supply chain—to the legal market,” said Reed.

Lawyers’ anxiety about outsourcing’s speedy and near-unstoppable rise has already manifested itself in the courts. In May of 2008, Newman McIntosh & Hennessey, a law firm in Bethesda, Maryland, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that outsourcing legal work to India allows the U.S. government to intercept confidential documents, thereby violating both attorney-client privilege and the constitutional rights of defendants. The firm also wrote lengthy letters to bar officials in both the District of Columbia and Maryland “seeking opinions on whether outsourcing arrangements violate constitutional protections and legal ethics rules,” according to the ABA Journal.

While the suit is still underway, LPO executives consider it baseless. “That argument is really a weak one. There’s just no validity to it whatsoever,” said Reed.

Regardless of its merits, the lawsuit set the stage for the ABA’s position paper, which specifies that sending legal work overseas is ethically permissible so long as the lawyer doing the outsourced work takes steps to ensure the protection of the client’s confidence and preserve attorney-client privilege. The advisory also states that attorneys should ensure that any foreign lawyers performing the outsourcing work are suitably trained and competent, and that all bills for their work are reasonable.

An official stamp of approval from the ABA was a boon for LPO firms worldwide, and helped set the stage for outsourcing to take on an even larger share of the available market, particularly with the economy entering a state of insecurity.

“The opinion clarifies that there really is no legal deficiency or legal issue in where the work is performed, as long as there is integrity to the structure of lawyer oversight and lawyer review,” said Reed. “[International offshoring] is really no different than what goes on today on the West Coast, Arkansas, in all these different areas where legal work can be performed cheaper. This ABA position clarifies that [the organization is] not going to cloud the issue any more by attempting to state that offshore work isn’t ethical.”

Reed also emphasizes that despite the recent controversy, outsourcing is only a sliver of the larger legal pie: “There's a huge amount of flux right now in this market, with all these contract law firms that are crushing the market by lowering their rates on document review to shockingly low levels. The offshore part is a tiny fraction of what’s going on out there.”

Despite the turmoil brought by change, the future, Reed says, will be positively driven by logic and basic economics: “I think the outcome will be a very natural stratification where there are different levels and areas that are appropriate for different levels of service. Law firms will continue to do what they do--provide very high level legal analysis and review. But for work that doesn’t require that level of expertise and cost, it will be parsed out to different layers during different levels of the cycle. The right work will be filtered to the right level.”


http://www.lumenlegal.com/newsroom/Legal%20Outsourcing%20Approved%20by%20American%20Bar%20Association%20industry.htm

Legal Outsourcing from Canada to India

* Legal Outsourcing from Canada

Faced with escalating legal cost, a Canadian Corporate firm has started outsourcing legal work to India. The new company called Legalwise is offering the same service in Canada, starting in Feb 2008.The Toronto-based Legalwise has 430 lawyers trained in common law principles, similar to Canada, in Mumbai and Pune ready to work for Canadian clients. The Indian lawyers can review documents, draft contracts, abstract a lease, perform due diligence or research and deliver a host of other services that a lawyer in Canada would normally assign to a junior or an assistant

US Law Firms moves to India

* US Law Firms moves to India

Howrey is opening its own office in India, although outsourcing is not what it is doing there, insists Robert Ruyak, the firm's managing partner and CEO. The firm's new India establishment isn't a law office, though, since Indian law prohibits U.S. firms from practicing there. The firm has a large number of document-intensive litigation, intellectual property and international arbitration matters, the legal publication reports—and much of the firm's document work already is being done right now by some 200 employees, most of whom aren't lawyers, working in a Falls Church, Va. office, in the Washington, D.C. Howrey plans to hire both Indian graduates of both U.S. colleges and Indian colleges and graduate schools and train them in Falls Church before sending them back to their home country.

http://kpoplacements.com/lponews.htm

Today is the day to quit such a management style

Personalize yourself . Type of boss

Personalize yourself . Type of boss you are

LPO developments worlwide

EMC Signs Resell Agreement With Clearwell

by Aaref Hilaly on February 2nd, 2009

Today, EMC and Clearwell announced a partnership under which EMC will resell Clearwell through its EMC Select program. It is easy to see why the deal makes sense. EMC's storage products (EMC Celerra and EMC Centera) and its content management systems (Documentum, Legato) are deployed at thousands of enterprises and government agencies across the world, so this massively expands Clearwell's distribution and reach. For its part, EMC benefits from being able to sell the most widely deployed e-discovery solution in corporate America which, in the past 6 months, has also received strong endorsements from industry analysts like Gartner and Socha-Gelbmann.

But beyond being great news for EMC and Clearwell, this announcement is significant for two other reasons. First, it demonstrates once again that e-discovery has become an established software category which is adjacent to, but different from, content management. This realization has driven not just this deal, but also several other recent moves such as Autonomy's acquisition of Interwoven, IBM's new e-discovery products for IBM CommonStore and FileNet 8, and OpenText's partnership with Recommind. It takes evangelism from large companies like EMC and IBM to educate the market about a new software category, so these deals will accelerate the pace at which enterprises adopt in-house e-discovery solutions.

The second reason why the EMC-Clearwell partnership has broader significance is that EMC's approach is fundamentally different to that of its competitors. Unlike IBM or OpenText, EMC has a dedicated group of e-discovery specialists, led by Andrew Cohen, the Assistant General Counsel, which helps EMC's IT-oriented salesforce work more effectively with corporate legal teams. If, as I expect, this approach of marrying e-discovery domain expertise with great technology salespeople and a leading e-discovery software product is successful, then I would expect other major technology companies to follow suit.

All indications are that e-discovery will be one of the few areas of software spending to grow in 2009. Partnerships like this can only accelerate the trend.

Top UK Law Firm Osborne Clarke Outsources Middle Office [ Outsourcing ]to Integreon

2/2/2009

Top UK Law Firm Osborne Clarke Outsources Middle Office
[ Outsourcing ] — Ron @ 6:06 am

Top UK law firm Osborne Clarke has outsourced a significant portion of its support services ("Middle Office") to Integreon. 

The Osborne Clarke press release explains

"Osborne Clarke (OC) today announced a unique and innovative response to client demands for greater efficiency from the legal industry with a £50 million deal with Integreon to create the UK legal sector's first onshore shared services centre. The seven year deal will see approximately 75 of OC's business services employees transferred to Integreon.
Client demands led OC to look at the way law firms buy and use support services. Over the last 12 months, the firm has put its own working practices under the microscope as well as those of competitors. It concluded that the legal industry would move to focus on core legal services in future. Support services would be provided by a new generation of businesses focused on high end multiple service provision to the professional services community."

I now work for Integreon and strive to maintain my objectivity. In May 2003, one of my first blog posts was Central Back Offices and Outsourcing. In it, I reported on Orrick building it shared services center in Wheeling, WV. I wrote

"It's surprising that more firms are not moving in this direction. More and more law firms have multiple offices across many time zones, domestic and international. Housing a significant number of staff in downtown real estate is expensive. Moreover, the argument that staff need to have access to lawyers loses weight as the percent of lawyers located in the "home" office declines. And with the increasing use of e-mail, instant messaging, and video conferencing, the need for physical proximity diminishes."

As I suggested a couple of weeks ago in The Crisis Goes to Waste as BigLaw Muddles Through, law firms can hardly argue that they have rationalized or optimized how they deliver support. Shared services certainly seems a big step in the right direction. Some other firms have created shared centers: White & Case, Baker McKenzie, Reed Smith, and Clifford Chance.

Is the shared services approach (outsourced or not) trickle now becoming a trend? I've long thought shared services makes economic, operational, and strategic sense for law firms. It will be interesting to see what impact the economic crisis has on how law firms provide critical support services.

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