advjohnvarghese

=  John Varghese's Home Assignments -1-  = 

 Part I

 * 1) ===Five ** good ** things about running a virtual law practice. ===
 * 2) **Maximum Reach:**We can reach more people through a virtual office than you can ever reach in a physical environment.
 * 3) **Maximum Flexibility:** We can have more flexibility in terms of working hours, work force and work flow management in a completely virtual office, rather than in a physical office.
 * 4) **Checks and Balances:** Checks and balances can be better employed in a virtual office rather than in a physical office.
 * 5) **Efficiency meter:**It is easier to have a one point efficiency meter in a virtual office, where entire work in located in a virtual environment, rather than in a physical(traditional) office, where each lawyer will do his own work.
 * 6) **Redundancy Cost Management:** It is easier to manage redundancy cost, in a virtual environment, where as in a physical environment, you will have to pay for the lawyer, para legal, office space, and amenities,whether or not you have work, especially if you follow a client assignment method in your office.
 * 7) Five things that could go ** wrong ** running a virtual law practice. What are the mistakes you can make, problems you could encounter, issues raised, etc.
 * 8) **Regulatory issues: ** There is a vacuum, at least for the present, in the regulatory sphere, as the entire bar regulations in almost all jurisdictions are formulated keeping in mind the traditional law practice. The absence of a clear cut regulatory definition of virtual law practice as well as the absence of clear cut laws regulating this could create a regulatory risk.
 * 9) **Client Confidence:** Many people would want to have a one on one face to face chat with their lawyer to assess and take lawyer into confidence. Virtual law practice may lose out on such clients.
 * 10) **Connectivity issues:** In places where internet connectivity is low, or faulty, virtual law office may not reach the clients in the desired manner.
 * 11) **Client Confidentiality Concerns:** Unless secure server is used, the client data may be lost due to hacking and other security issues, which though could happen in traditional law practice as well, the severity in virtual practice would be much higher than traditional practice.
 * 12) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Lucida Sans Unicode',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; vertical-align: baseline;">**Client retention issues:** When you see a client in person, if you are able to strike a personal equation with the client, it is easier to retain the client, where as in a virtual environment, such retention may not be always possible.

<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Lucida Sans Unicode',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"> Part II
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Lucida Sans Unicode',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Virtual Law Practice”: <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Lucida Sans Unicode',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;"> 1. [|A] [|**virtual law firm**] [| is a group of lawyers with diverse expertise that are banded together through technological means to provide a suite of services to its clients.] 2. A Virtual law firm is " <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">one that does not have physical office space,” one where “attorneys work together online.” <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">3, Lisa Solomon, a New York-based contract lawyer who concentrates in legal research and writing, defines a virtual firm by the technology used to deliver services to the client. []

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Lucida Sans Unicode',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> “Digital Law Practice” : <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande','Lucida Sans Unicode',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">“eLawyering”:T <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;">he practice of law online and includes everything from form-generated documents for sale and purchase to emailing your clients from unencrypted "contact us" forms on attorney websites. ( [|STEPHANIE KIMBRO, ESQ.]

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