THE AGE OF THE APP:
ATTORNEYS NOW INCLUDED
by Tom Bennett of Thompson Coburn LLP
Tablet computers and smartphones more powerful
than the highest-end PCs of 10 years ago are at the
center of a shift toward mobility for lawyers and
other office workers. Attorneys literally can work
"on-the-go," annotating a PDF while waiting in line
at Starbucks, updating time entries in the doctor's
waiting room and even making last-minute changes
to a document on the golf course. Enabling this
move to a work-from-anywhere culture are many
apps designed with the mobile attorney in mind.
At two ILTA-member law firms, attorneys and
support staff are using iPads to perform several
functions that were, until recently, tied to a physical
workspace. Fowler Bell, based in Lexington,
Kentucky, has rolled out several iPad apps to its
100 attorneys and found a mixed level of adoption
and success. Thompson Coburn, a 320-attorney
firm headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, has
seen a gradual increase in the number of iPads
and in the variety of ways they are being used
by attorneys to deliver legal services. Despite the
different approaches these two firms have taken to
support iPad use, the similarities in the challenges
they have faced offer insights for firms considering
increased iPad support.
