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Thanks for the A2A. I work at Upwork so I might be a bit biased, however I do manage my own freelance team through the platform so I'm happy to share what I see as the main benefits for an already-established freelance team. Then you can decide what's best for your business and your team.1) Reduced administrative burden:Simple time tracking: The Upwork Team App allows my freelancers to easily track their time without having to manually log hours and invoice me. They can spend more time getting work done than dealing with timesheets, sending invoices, tracking down payments, etc.Easy reporting: In our reports section, I can easily see how much time my freelancers are billing (and set weekly limits). I also check out their Work Diaries to see what they're working on and when. I can create daily/weekly/monthly reports by freelancer or team so I can understand my spending and budget for the future. Learn more here: https://support.upwork.com/entries/23135703-What-reports-does-Upwork-offer-2) Secure paymentsUpwork Payment Protection (includes Upwork Hourly Protection and Upwork Escrow Protection): These protections provide peace of mind for both me and my freelancers. You can learn more about the these programs here: What is Upwork Payment Protection?Streamlined billing and payments: Upwork automatically bills weekly for time logged to hourly contracts. Time tracked using the Upwork Team App is invoiced each Monday and automatically bills to my payment method. (If I disagree with my freelancer's logged time, I usually just work it out with them, but just in case, we also have a dispute process too.) For fixed-price contracts, we have a milestone system where I divide the project up and then the freelances submits work for approval and payment each step of the way. Basically, I can spend my time managing my team's work, rather than dealing invoices and payments.Local currency payments and withdrawals: Clients have the option to pay in USD or one of our supported local currencies: Can I pay in my local currency? Then my freelancers can decide which withdrawal method is best for their personal financial situation and local banking system. Depending on their location, your freelance team may be able to avoid third-party fees and payment delays with Upwork’s direct-to-bank local currency options. They can learn more here: What fees and other costs are associated with getting paid?I hope this helps! Of course, our support team is always happy to answer any additional your questions you may have. You can reach them here: https://support.upwork.com/

So, I came to patent law pretty late in life (38), after 8 years in the US Navy, and 13 years working at a nuclear power plant (while attending night school, including law school). My last year of law school I was taking an extra class each semester, so I would graduate a semester early, working 60 hours a week or so at the power plant, and doing about 5 hours a week law clerking at a local botique patent law firm. I was making good money at the power plant, and the law jobs I was offered were all a pay cut. I chose the one with the patent department at a general practice firm, worked there for about 9 months, and realized that life was too short to have to put up with my supervisor. I went back to the the patent firm, and spent the next 20 + years working there, mostly in patent prosecution (very small amount of trademark and copyright law, a little bit more trade secret law). At the time I started at this firm, big firms in LA and NY were requiring 2100 billable hours, or more of associates. In contrast, my firm values their employees having something of a personal life, and were only requiring 1350 billable hours. I normally started work at 9, and worked until 5….but those hours were movable. I like working at night, when there are fewer interruptions. Also, most of my work was dealing with advanced braking systems for a leading multi-national automotive brake manufacturer, and so I spent a lot of time dealing with the clients attorneys in the UK and Germany, so it was convenient to be able to talk to them at 3 am my time, before they got busy in their office. My schedule was pretty much my own to set, as long as I let people know my schedule.I normally billed a couple of hundred hours more the minimum. But there is NOTHING I hate more than filling out timesheets for billing. I mean, I even prefer painting to filling out timesheets…. and after my time in the Navy, I hate painting with a passion.For many years, our client did not have an in-house patent counsel, and we worked directly with the VP of Research and Development, and the various department heads to prioritize patent filings and develop patent strategy in monthly patent review meetings. This didn't change much after they got an in-house counsel after a merger with another company… we just added him to the meetings.I was fortunate that this one client provided enough work to keep about a quarter to a half (when we were smaller) of all the firm’s attorneys occupied full time. While we were concerned about what would happen if we lost that client, we also were concerned about bringing in other clients with significant amounts of work, because we wouldn’t have the manpower to handle it. As a result, while the firm asked the associates to bring in new work, it wasn’t a deal breaker if the associate was not a great rainmaker. It really isn’t that way most other firms.I really enjoyed patent prosecution work, seeing all the neat new gadgets, talking with people who were excited to tell you about their cool ideas. (hmmmm… neat? …. cool? am I dating myself by my terminology? Bummer!)In the last few years, I’ve been working for a different client, who are a tecnology leader in the field of MEMS (MicroElectroMechanicalSystems). This actually was tecnology that I first started working with at the brake company. Then the inventor retired, and the patents were licensed to this other firm… where the inventor began working following his retirement from the brake company.Most of my work can be done with a telephone, a computer, and an internet connection. About 9 years ago, I decided I’d had enough of Midwest winters, and so I moved back to Texas, near Austin, and only went up to our office in Ohio during the summer (didn’t immediately sell our house there… that was a bad idea, which became all to clear after the housing market crashed). My MEMS client called and said that they were moving to Austin to take advantage of the tech connections and venture capital there, and so, though they loved my work, they’d be looking for a local patent attorney. I said, “I’m guessing you didn’t hear that I moved to the Austin area last month.” They said, “Great, that solves that problem.” This small startup company has continued to grow and evolve, and soon I handed over all my work for the brake company to another attorney, and all my work was for the MEMS company. Then I started thinking about retirement, and started handing over at first a few cases, then more and more cases to other attorneys in my firm. I resigned from the firm, and became Of Counsel (members of the firm had minumum hour requirements just like associates; of counsel are independent contractors who set their own working conditions). A year ago, I even let my attorney registration go into an “inactive status”, and so changed from being a patent attorney to being a patent agent… no more mandatory CLE (continuing legal education) seminars and classes for me. I’ve slowly cut back my hours, and no longer write new patent applications or answer office actions. The only thing I do now is provide advice /historical perspective on the MEMS devices (as in, “ I think we disclosed a very similar arrangement to this invention in a patent that we got 4 years ago.”) as they are discussed in patent review meetings or when someone calls me with questiosn. The other thing I still do is go visit our client in Austin to speak with the engineers to try to get them to fill out invention disclosures, and I attend patent review meetings.I think I billed 4 hours last month. Life is good.One interesting issue unrelated to patent law that I dealt with was seizures of goods a client was importing by US Customs. Customs said that the seized goods (golf club components (heads, shafts, grips) were counterfeits of Trademarked goods. Trademark owners can file their registered trademarks with Customs, who will sieze the goods. However, the importer can hire a representative (that’s me!) to present arguments as to why the Trademarks aren’t infringed, to try to get the goods released, or make arrangements to have the offending trademark removed (sush as sand off the offending mark, and repaint the component with non-infringing indicia.As “knock off” golf club manufacturers must walk a thin line between counterfeit goods, and goods that are so different that people don’t see any similarities between their clubs and the Trademarked goods, and so aren't motivated to buy their “just as good as” clubs. As a result, for a while, I had the customs agents in Fairbanks Alaska and one in Long Beach CA on speed dial ( those ports were where my client's goods typically entered the US from China).Fortunately, our client became much better at walking that thin line, and we don’t get those calls anymore.Hope this helps provide yet another useful perspective of the life of IP attorneys.

For tracking and managing projects, I would like to suggest ProofHub.Task management software to get things done better, faster!Our online task management software empowers teams to work together, get tasks delivered on time and become insanely productive.Task management software that makes teams more accountable and productiveProofHub takes care of all the time-consuming stuff that makes task management for teams stressful, and allows teams to focus on getting things done!1A simple and transparent way to assign tasksOur online task management tool brings clarity in work allocation. Create task lists with just one click, add tasks, assign them to team members and stay away from the hassle of writing and acknowledging emails.2Create recurring tasks to save timeProofHub allows a task to repeat periodically based upon its completion date rather than having to create it time and again. You can create daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly recurring tasks so that they automatically get recreated after a designated period of time.3Add labels to keep important tasks under radarSegregate tasks, set their priority and organize your tasks using custom labels. You can also use labels to highlight tasks that require your attention, so that the most important ones are always under your radar.4Set start and end date to define task deadlinesWith our project management tool, you can set a start and end date for each task to make sure deadlines are met. Every team member knows when the task needs to be delivered, and can set priorities accordingly.5Add time estimates to make teams accountableProofHub’s task management software comes with the option to add time estimates in tasks so that everyone has an idea about how much time they need to spend on each task in order to deliver it on time.6Break tasks into subtasks for more targeted effortsBreak down tasks into subtasks, add separate time estimate, and an independent start and end date for each subtask to make teams productive; and get their focus to complete work quickly and more efficiently.7Assign tasks to multiple people and complete complex tasks easilyYou can assign a task to more than one person or to an entire group at once using our task management software. This allows team members to work together, easily accomplish complex tasks and boosts team collaboration.8Add files to tasks for bringing clarity in task managementUpload files in tasks either from your computer, or from third party applications like Google Drive, DropBox, Box and OneDrive or from within ProofHub itself, to make task management more transparent and precise.9Keep your tasks confidential with private task listsKeep your tasks confidential by limiting their visibility to only those people who are working in collaboration with you on these tasks. Private task lists give you the luxury of having a completely private workspace.10Post comments on tasks to simplify task executionIn our task management tool, you get the option to post comments on tasks. This makes it easy to add additional information or specific client requirement; bringing clarity to the task execution process.11Email-in to manage tasks when you can’t access the toolEmail-in feature in our task management tool lets you add tasks via email when you don’t have access to your ProofHub account. With Email-in you can also reply to the comments on the tasks and stay on top of things.12Track time spent on tasks to stay ahead of deadlinesOur task management tool gives the option to track time using timer, which gets saved in timesheets. You can also track time manually, and use the time data to prepare invoices and bill the clients efficiently.13Indicate progress percentage to keep an eye on task statusWith each task in the task list you get an option to indicate its progress percentage, which provides a clear picture of how much work has been done, and how much is left to be done in the task.14Download task lists for performance evaluationTo keep a documented record of how team members are performing, our task management software gives the option to download task lists in CSV, which you can further use for performance evaluation as well.15All tasks across all your projects brought togetherTake a quick look at all your tasks, across all the projects from All tasks section. No need to jump from one project to another for keeping an eye on work responsibilities and task dependencies.16Import tasks from CSV to give your team a head startIn our task management software, you get the option to import tasks from CSV files. This saves a lot of time for managers and team leaders, which they have to spend on work distribution and management.17Create a copy of task lists/tasks to make allocation quickCopy task lists option in our task management tool speeds up task distribution and allocation process for projects with similar tasks. You can also create the same task across multiple projects and in different task lists.18Add task lists to quickies to access frequently used tasksEasily access task lists, which you frequently use, by adding them to quickies. You don’t have to jump into different task lists every time you have to access urgent tasks, or the ones that you work on frequently.19Task history to get an in-depth info of the taskWho created the task? When was it updated? When was a change made in the progress percentage? Everything you need to know about the task, right from the time it was created until now, you can get to know about it in task history.Time tracking tool for teams that like to make the most of their timeProofHub’s online time tracking tool allows teams to set time estimates, track time spent on tasks and maintain a record of every minute they spend working on tasks.Manage your time efficiently and bill the clients accurately with our time management softwareOnline time management system in our tool lets you know how teams are using their time, by keeping record of every minute being spent at work so that they can manage time efficiently and you can bill the clients accurately using the time data.1Set time estimates for better time management in your projectsWith ProofHub’s time tracking tool, teams get the option to set time estimate for each task and subtask, so that everyone can have an idea of how much time they need to spend on that task and manage their time efficiently.2Track time spent on tasks using timer to measure team productivityYou can track time spent on each task and subtask accurately by using the timer in our time tracking tool to keep track of the productive time of each individual at work. You can also make manual time entries.3Use timesheets to record time data and performance evaluationAll your time data gets recorded in neat and beautiful timesheets that can be downloaded in our time management tool, and you can use the time data to manage them efficiently as well as during their performance evaluation.4Mark timesheets as private to keep your data confidentialWith ProofHub’s time tracking software, you also get the option to mark your timesheets as private. This allows you to maintain confidentiality and keep the time records of your team secure within the tool.5Export timesheets for easy and hassle-free invoicingExport the timesheets generated in our time tracking tool directly to third party invoicing applications like Freshbooks, and save a lot of time during the invoicing process and also be sure to have an accurate and hassle-free billing process.6Get by-minute details of your resources using time reportsTime reports in our web based time tracking software lets you compare the time spent on tasks against estimated time set during the planning phase so that you can plan better and give more accurate time estimates to clients for the future.7All your time data brought together at one central placeWith the All time feature in ProofHub’s time tracking tool you get a central place to keep an eye on your entire team’s time data in a clear and presentable manner, so you don’t have to waste time in gathering the data for individual team members.