Lately, I have been having more and more conversations with colleagues about the ways in which attorneys can use the iPad in the daily practice of law. When I have these talks, I receive varying responses to my suggestion that the iPad is a legal tool that can be used for both litigation and transactional attorneys. Some cringe at the very thought of it and contend it will never stick, some shake their heads suspiciously at me as though I have made something up, and others are genuinely engaged and ask good questions about practical challenges to using the iPad and what are the good applications that they should download. For those who are hesitant, I often point out the obvious changes in the technology that we as attorneys have experienced over the past 10 years or so and where we are headed. Whether we want to admit it or not, the chase is going paperless.
Over the past 10 years or so, we have generally evolved from pen-and-paper-toting barristers to desktop computer folk who accepted the use of email to savvy laptop-carrying professionals who work wirelessly. Now, with tablet devices like the iPad that have an ever-expanding list of applications that provide more versatility than computers and laptops, there are signs of a new breed of attorney emerging, a breed that wields the iPad in effective ways. Admittedly, if one looks at smartphones as an example, this evolution has been happening for some time and tablets are just the next step. That is, somewhere in the past 10 years, someone handed us a BlackBerry or smartphone that provided us constant connection to email. Our cellphones became smart and granted us immediate access to our email and calendars, i.e., useful tools in the practice of law. So a lot has already changed in the past 10 years and, like the evolution to smartphones, the iPad is now ready to carry us forward in the paperless chase.
