Editor’s Note: Naperville, IL commercial litigator and prominent technologist Bryan Sims was nice enough to spend a little time with us here at SIC touching on some technology matters impacting small law firms. Many of you likely already read his blog, The Connected Lawyer, and likely have seen him at one of his many continuing legal education speaking engagements. If you need an expert witness or speaker on the problem of metadata (what is it?) or the effective use of Adobe Acrobat he’s your guy. And on a personal note I think of him as one of my earliest friends which friendship began in the blogsphere (we’ve actually now met in person). I’m going to role out this interview in a few chunks over the next weeks because apparently Bryan is soooo connected that he just couldn’t stop tapping his keyboard in response to my questions.
List 5 “Must-Have” pieces of technology for an attorney (hardware or software).
1. A Good Backup System.
Let’s start with the boring stuff first. No one gets excited about the backup systems/protocols. However, this could be the most important decision you make. Much of what you do is stored electronically. When you lose data (whether from a hard drive crash or other problem), you want to be able to be back up and running as quickly as possible, without having to re-create all of your work.
There are two key components to a good backup system: First it has to be multi-layered. By this I mean you should have a local backup (external hard drives work well for this) and a remote backup, located far from your office in the event of a natural disaster. Remote backups over the internet (with a reputable service) provide the best protection in the event of a catastrophic fire or natural disaster. However, absent this, you don’t want to be trying to restore all of your data from the internet if your hard drive crashes. It will simply take too long.
The second key component to a backup system is that it has to be automatic. Buy a program (such as EMC Retrospect or Acronis True Image) that will automatically make your backups. If your backups are not automatic, you will not do them and you will be very unhappy when your hard drive crashes.
2. Laptop:
The second key piece of technology that a lawyer should have a is a laptop. The key thing here is that you should be able to work from anywhere. This does not mean that you should work all of the time. Instead, it means that you should be able to work from wherever you want. To do this properly you need a laptop.
3. Scanner:
Another aspect of being able to work from anywhere requires that you have access to you documents. The best way to accomplish this is to make sure that, to the extent possible, you work with electronic copies of your documents. To get these documents into your computer, you need a scanner. Once you move to working with electronic documents only, you will be amazed at how much more efficient you become.
4. SmartPhone:
Although I consider a laptop a must, I don’t expect you to carry it with you everywhere. As a result, I believe that a smartphone is an essential piece of technology. This allows you to be somewhere other than your office and still handle not only telephone communications, but also to review email, documents, and faxes from the palm of your hand.
Again, the purpose is not to work all of the time, but rather to allow you to work from where you want to be, whether that is in your office, on your back deck, or on a business trip. For example, my wife gets to travel for business. At times, I go with her. Because I make use of mobile technology, I know that when she is in meetings or otherwise working, I can do the same. Once she is done, we can spend time vacationing.
Also, I see a lot of people getting hung up over which smartphone to buy. Should they get an iPhone, or a Storm, or a traditional Blackberry, or a Pre? The reality is get what works for you. Start by deciding what company has good service in the locations you will use your phone (such as your home and office). Once you decide on a service, pick a phone from that company that you like best that allows you to work the way you want. The iPhone may be perfect for the attorney next door, while you may prefer the Pre. There is no perfect phone. Pick the one that works best for you.
5. Virtual Fax:
Once again, lawyers lag behind the rest of the world. If you talk to people in other industries, they never use faxes anymore. All such communication is done via email. Lawyers, however, still insist on using faxes rather than email. That, however does not mean that you remain tied to a fax machine. Get a virtual fax service and you can send and receive your faxes via email. Not only does this free you from the operating cost of a fax machine, but it also means that you receive your faxes wherever you can access your email. There are a variety of services available with differently priced plans. Shop around and you can find a service that is right for you.
