To their detriment, too often clients as well as lawyers skim or skip the first and second stage of proposed transactions. When they do this they enter a forest with no clear path to follow.

When they follow the three stage transaction or contracting process they move from casual dating, to going steady, to getting married. It’s that simple.

There are  for most intellectual property and business law transactions. The first stage is needs assessment. The second, deal points definition. Only after the first and second stage are at least properly considered should anyone go to the third stage – formal contract drafting.

In both business and personal relations, problems and costs are likely to be much higher when the first two stages are ignored. The problems can include aggravation in negotiations and litigation. They can cause loss of reputation and morale, and even bankruptcy and business insolvency.

Parties to a proposed business transaction should do the following in the first and second stages:

Work out what they want to achieve in commercial, technological and other non-legal terms – for example write the functional specification and technical specification
Define with precision the intellectual property they want to have dealings about – this may require the assistance of professional advisers and consultants
Clearly set out the respective rights and obligations of each party; and additionally, any prohibitions or security to be applied or given by the parties or one of them.

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After doing this, our recommendation is that the parties the thoroughness of work done in the first two stages.

If there is still comfort, try an intermediate drafting step,rather than rushing to contract drafting.

This may involve preparing a heads of agreement, memorandum of understanding, letter of intent or other similar document. They can clarify the intention of the parties subject to preparation of a formal detailed contract. They can do this by documenting what is assumed, known, understood or agreed so far. This provides another opportunity to test the work done in the first and second stages.

For the first and second stages it is useful to ask business process questions. Walk through the proposed end to end arrangements, visualize them in graphics, and ask whether the rights, obligations and consequences are clear for each of the parties and other stakeholders. If there are gaps in logic, fill them before going to the formal contract drafting third stage! The penalty for not filling gaps will be greater complexity, higher risk, higher legal costs, stressed parties in negotiations, and less predictable results.

If you need to, use a lawyer in first or second stage definitional work. But do not give instructions to commence drafting of a formal contract until the needs assessment and deal points definition stages are finalized.

For more details contact the Intellectual Property / Patent / Trademark / Copyright Attorneys & Lawyers at

The legal transcription process refers to the creation of legal documents from audio and video recordings of court proceedings, trials or any other legal information recorded or dictated in law firms, insurance companies, etc. Outsourcing it has been steadily increasing in recent years, partly due to enhanced levels of security now applied by the better transcription service providers. Legal practice management has undergone dramatic change. This change has brought about the need for fast, reliable and efficient legal transcription solutions.

Legal transcription is a vital service.  Like medical transcription, the quality of legal transcripts can affect an individual’s well-being. For businesses, litigation is an area of growing concern, and premium-quality legal transcription can greatly enhance a business’s operation. For Attorneys, Public prosecutors, Legal departments of large corporations, Non-governmental organizations, Financial firms, Insurance companies, Community legal programs, State and Federal agencies, e.t.c who cannot afford to loose their precious time, outsourcing legal transcription services is the best alternative. It helps improve focus on core competency and enhances productivity.

To handle all your legal transcription work effectively and efficiently, outsourcing companies have excellent and dedicated team of legal transcription specialists and business related professionals in each and every area. Apart from benefiting from their quick turnaround time, cost-effective services and accuracy, companies can also benefit from their expertise in providing legal transcription services. The outsourcing company does its best to ensure that its clients get total customer satisfaction. Outsourcing also can save on time, effort, resources, expensive technology and infrastructure and a company will not have to hire extra staff.

Some outsourcing companies have a virtual legal secretary or legal assistant service, with trained specialists who can provide the type of specialized support legal professional needs at a fraction of the usual cost. The important thing with dealing with lawyers is the need for accuracy, following correct protocols and procedures, and dealing with large amounts of information. Security of information and integrity of personal details is also important. Some of the legal transcription services provided include:

Legal Deposition Transcription Accidents & Injuries Transcription Business Law Transcription Cars & Motor Vehicles Transcription Criminal Defence Transcription Divorce & Family Law Transcription Employee’s Rights Transcription Estate Planning Transcription Health Care Law Transcription Immigration Transcription Lawsuits & Disputes Transcription Money Matters Transcription Real Estate Transcription Education Law Transcription Arbitration transcription Trial transcription Licensing Appeals Transcription Public hearing transcription Mediation/Arbitration Transcription Settlement Negotiations Transcription Witness Testimony Transcription Expert Consultations Transcription Evidence/Legal Argument Transcription Medical Board Hearing Transcription Legal Correspondence Transcription Legal Scoping Transcription Court Reporting Bankruptcy & Debt Transcription Consumer Rights Transcription Civil & Human Rights Transcription Intellectual Property Transcription Professional legal transcription services in German, French, English, Spanish and Portuguese

Some of the advantages legal transcription clients enjoy are:

Internet Security (encryption, disk wiping utilities, encrypted hard disks, firewalls, and ultra-secure passwords for all electronic transcripts) Browser-based transfer of audio and video files as well as legal transcript documents Legal transcripts provided in any format: hardcopy, diskette, CD-ROM, DVD, e-mail, ASCII, e-transcript, PDF, html, MS Word, or as condensed transcripts Minimum, flexible turnaround time (several options according to clients’ specific needs are offered). Supervision of legal transcriptionists by law professionals Superior Quality Control of transcripts

The Wide Scope of Work as a Legal Assistant

The legal profession is not limited to lawyers or judges only. It is much beyond what you can think about. One of the most important legal professions today is the job of legal assistant. The legal assistants are also known as paralegals. Paralegals or the legal assistants are the ones who are so trained that they can assist lawyers in delivering the legal services. Legal assistants perform a vital role in providing legal services by helping lawyers draft documents, prepare for trial and perform other legal duties. They work in corporate law departments, private legal firms, for the government and other law practicing areas under the guidance of an attorney. About 7 out of 10 paralegals work for legal firms while others work for corporations and government agencies. The paralegals, however, cannot give any legal advice or represent a client during the court proceedings or sign documents that are filed with courts or even establish legal fees.

Qualification Required

Paralegals or the legal assistants don’t have any formal paralegal training, says A. Harrison Barnes. The legal assistants should possess a 2-year associate’s degree, a 4-year bachelor’s degree and a paralegal certificate. Legal assistants who have a bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies have the maximum prospects of getting a suitable job. Most legal assistants advance their legal careers through a paralegal certification. They just need to clear an examination and have one year of experience in this field.

The paralegals, says A. Harrison Barnes, need to undergo some courses in their degree program that teach them the fundamentals of law and also the specific details and skills that are required to perform their task. Some of these courses are family law, court rules, draft contracts and forms, legal terminology, civil litigation, real property law, legal writing, research and analysis, civil practice and procedures.

Skills Required

Together with their paralegal degrees, students also acquire the skills that are required to perform well in their legal job. They must have gained an excellent knowledge of legal terminology, substantive law, state and federal rules of law procedures. They should have the capability to analyze and solve problems. They must have the faculty of critical thinking along with writing skills and human relation skills. Organizational skills, too, are very much required especially in order to handle so many case files and exhibits that may number in hundreds. Communication skill is also very important for a legal assistant for they are the ones who interact with experts, witnesses, clients, vendors, other lawyers and court personnel. They also should have the ability to perform strong research which is required to prepare research memorandums, according to A. Harrison Barnes.

Salary and Job Prospects of Paralegals

According to A. Harrison Barnes, the owner of the famous job search portal, BCGAttorneySearch.com, the opportunities in the paralegal field are in plenty. In fact it is ranked as part of the 20 best jobs in the United States of America. The main reason for the growth in the paralegal field is the healthy legal market and the job attrition. The increase in demand is also increasing the legal fees and this is why the clients are resorting to the legal assistants than the highly priced lawyers. The increasing load of the cases is also increasing the demand for paralegals.

The job prospects in the field of legal assisting are increasing on a daily basis. Thus, more and more students are getting attracted to this field. Even the salary of the paralegals is a reason that is attracting the students, says A. Harrison Barnes. If you have enough experience, academic qualifications, and a favorable practice environment and are located in a good area, then you can expect an attractive salary for yourself. The average salary of a paralegal is ,496. The median national salary of the legal assistants was ,600 in May, 2007. Legal assistants with special skills can also draw an annual salary in six figures.

The best way to grab a legal assisting job is through the help of A. Harrison Barnes’s BCG Search.com. This job search engine is one of the best in the recruiting field. It is the place where you can get yourself your dream job as a paralegal. They have a team of more than 40 experienced lawyers who guide the clients in every way to get the most deserving job. The team works 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to help their clients get the desired results.

BCG Search has A. Huge database where jobs from all over the world are updated on a daily basis, thus allowing the clients access to all the jobs in the paralegal job market. It is guaranteed that you will be very satisfied by the services provided by them and will definitely score a good paralegal job for yourself.

The Legal Profession: Is it for you?

Legal profession helps you gain prestige, wealth and the chance to perform intellectually challenging, interesting and exciting job.

But you need to know that just gaining a Jurist doctor (J. D) degree is not enough, you also need to know as well as understand the lifestyle that the professionals in the legal industry lead and also the way you can make your legal career a successful one. You have to plan your moves after deciding on the goals of your legal career and your life. Thus before taking any step you need to consider on many factors.

If you have an advanced degree and enough career experience and wish to pursue a career in law then A. Harrison Barnes suggest you to follow the legal career advice he gives you. You will be able to know how to proceed with your legal career and how to make it successful. The most important thing that a person should do is to make your own research on the legal profession. The very common mistake made by most people is to make assumptions. They get attracted by the fantasies of the legal industry and decide on moving in the legal industry to pursue a legal career. You must do research and gain knowledge about the legal industry. It is important to prepare yourself mentally for what is in store. You have to know people who are in this profession. The person may be your friend or a family member or anyone but make sure that the person can provide you with complete knowledge about the legal industry. They should belong to the kind of legal area that you are willing to pursue your legal career in.

If you get a chance to meet any legal professionals, you must talk to them as if you are interviewing them says A. Harrison Barnes. You need to ask them about the kind of work they do, the actual realities of the legal area, the hours they work for, about the kind of lifestyle they lead and the lifestyle you can expect while working in that particular practice area of law. You need to ask them about the different working environments which includes working under any legal employer or government or other environments.

Once you are aware of all the details about the legal career that you are thinking about you can think whether the area suits you. You have to decide if you will be comfortable working in such area of law. Will this area of law be able to fulfill your financial and personal satisfaction needs? Make sure that you simply don’t get attracted by the salary that the legal profession brings you.

The salary is definitely a cause for attraction but you have to be practical enough and not get swayed by mere attraction suggests A. Harrison Barnes. The salaries you are attracted in calls for very long hours of hard work. On an average, a top associate who earn A. High salary while working with a big legal employer has to give 2,000 to 2,300 hours every year. This record does not include non-billable hours. There are even legal employers who ask their employees to even work on weekends. Thus many lawyers realize that their life is under the control of the legal employer for they do not have anything named family. They do not have enough time to spend with their family and thus acting as a big blow for family oriented individual says A. Harrison Barnes.

Thus it is suggested that you choose the legal area and the legal environment on the basis of the lifestyle that you wish to lead. The legal profession ensures you with salary that will help you lead a good lifestyle with your family.

You have to know that the top national and international legal firms are large with multiple offices. They have a line of high profile clients and provide huge profits to partners. They have very sophisticated and intellectually challenging work. They are the ones who provide high salaries to the legal associates. Boutique is the area where specialized people in healthcare or municipal law and others can look for job. You can expect good prospects for your legal career. Smaller local and regional firms are the best for junior attorneys says A. Harrison Barnes. Do a thorough research before getting into this career as it is quite demanding.

A profitable opportunity is available when an individual pursues the prospect of generating a home business around the sale of prepaid legal services.   The opportunities may be profitable but many individuals have raised some very legitimate concerns in regards to selling prepaid legal services.   It is important to address the concerns that have been identified, although once addressed an individual will see the potential available with prepaid legal services.   Some of these concerns that will be addressed in this article reference the concern about the prepaid legal scam and about the opportunities available to make money with this service.

The legitimacy regarding prepaid legal services should be the first topic to be addressed.   Simply defined prepaid legal services represent a collection of experienced attorneys who are offering their services to any member of the prepaid legal services.   These attorneys are waiving their usual very high rates in exchange for a small monthly membership to the program.   

For a member of the prepaid legal services they now have access to experienced lawyers who are willing to assist you in your legal matters included in your monthly membership fee.   When the idea of prepaid legal services was first developed it met with great success which inspired criminals to corrupt the opportunities by creating a prepaid legal scam.   This prepaid legal scam made the same promises of a legitimate service at the same monthly rate but offered no real legal assistance.   These few incidents placed a negative opinion about prepaid legal services in the minds of many, helping to block the opportunities available with prepaid legal.   Time has passed and the prepaid legal scam has been forgotten, allowing legitimate businesses to once again offer these services.

The second concern regarding the money making opportunities available should be no concern at all.   The marketability of the prepaid legal plan is high since the product can appeal to any individual that you sell to.   Almost every person invests in prepaid health insurance even though they are not currently sick.   They do this so that when they do get sick or have an accident they have insurance to protect them from the incredibly high costs of the medical field.   Individuals should chose prepaid legal services for the same reasons of financial protection.   Individuals do not invest in a prepaid legal membership because they are in legal trouble now; they do it so that they will be protected in the future when legal concerns develop suddenly.   These memberships will help the individuals save themselves from the high costs that are related to legal services.

Individuals buy the prepaid legal services to protect themselves in the future although there are services that they can take advantage of without requiring an emergency.   If you are looking to buy a car or invest in a home property then contact an attorney to review your contracts and help you understand the legal jargon.   

On many occasions, individuals blindly sign the contracts that they cannot escape from simply because they made the decision to sign even though they did not completely understand the legal implications.   Let the lawyers with prepaid legal services be that support so that you are not trapped in a contract that is not beneficial to you.