The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/34686
BEST From the PRACTICES Click here to read more! www.iltanet.org archives page, you’ll find great content from past issues like this article from the December 2010 issue: 10 Essential iPad Apps for Lawyers. 10 Essential iPad Apps for Lawyers With these 10 essential apps for lawyers, you’ll be well on your way to making the iPad more than some fancy new gadget to show off to your colleagues. Instead, the iPad will become a genuine tool to help you practice law more efficiently and effectively. As a final note, iOS 4.2 was released for the iPad in November, adding features such as multi-tasking, foldering of applications and over-the-air printing, making the iPad even more powerful. Evernote (Free): A great program that allows you to save notes and ideas, attach files and pictures, or even record voice memos and then share these things across all your devices. So, if you’re in court, in a deposition, or simply away from your computer and you need to make a note, use this app and it will be waiting on your computer at the office when you return. by Wes Billingsley Dropbox (Free): Dropbox allows you to store and share up to 2GB of files in the cloud. Dropbox synchronizes your files across multiple computers and with multiple users. As an added bonus, the iPad version does a great job of rendering Microsoft Office and PDF files for you to view and even forward via e-mail. Dropbox provides only a limited amount of security options, so highly confidential material must be treated with more care. Alternative applications offering similar functions include SugarSync and ZumoDrive. Dragon Dictation (Free): Dragon, one of the world’s leading transcription software developers, has released Dragon Dictation to the iPad. The best part is it’s free! Dictate memos to yourself and share them with your support staff later at the office. Fastcase and WestlawNext (Free): The major legal research providers, LexisNexis and West, both have customized iPad apps to allow subscribers direct access to their content. While the layout of each is slightly different, loyal subscribers will likely continue to prefer the content they are already familiar with. Additionally, if you are willing to spend the $54.99, there is even a Black’s Law Dictionary app available for the iPad. GoToMeeting (Free): The ever-popular online meeting resource is available on the iPad. This version of GoToMeeting offers many of the same features as the PC and Mac versions, with the added benefit of being able to join the meeting on the go. Feeddler RSS Reader (Free): Hands down, the best RSS reader for the iPad. RSS feeds allow you to keep up with vast amounts of information from all kinds of online sources, and Feeddler’s easy-to-follow interface allows you to quickly gather and digest the specific information that is most important to you. Citrix Receiver (Free): Citrix has long been a key component of many major law firms, and the Citrix Receiver app is a great solution that allows secure-access to legal applications, virtual desktops and data. Like it or not, with a combination of Citrix and Elite, attorneys with an iPad can now enter their billing from just about anywhere. Remote desktop alternatives for those without a Citrix environment include ezDesktop ($14.99), Remote Desktop Lite (free) and Desktop Connect ($11.99). 22 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer iWork for iPad ($29.98): for all three apps or $9.99 for each: Pages (word processor), Numbers (spreadsheet app) and Keynote (presentation app). These will enable you to create fairly sophisticated documents, although it’s probably recommended that you invest in a Bluetooth keyboard if you are planning on creating full-fledged contracts or presentations via the iPad. iAnnotate PDF ($9.99): This app lets you review, mark-up, annotate, redact and even add signatures to PDF documents, which you can then save and share with others. Infinote (Free): Infinote is a notetaking, task-managing and brainstorming application designed from the ground up to take advantage of the iPad touch screen. The true beauty of Infinote is how simple and fun it is to use. If you are someone who is always plagued by the missing Post-it or you’ve told yourself that you purchased the iPad so you can go paperless, then this is the app for you. Peer to Peer the quarterly magazine of ILTA 23 tracked changes within a document. The revised document can then be saved back to our servers for further formatting and distribution. If we do not go with Documents to Go, I recommend Quickoffice Connect or Office2 HD. It will also be important for our lawyers to be able to read and annotate documents, such as case law, contracts, briefs or other files that we receive. The best file reader is GoodReader — it allows the lawyers to read almost any type of file, organize files into logical folders and annotate them with highlights, comments or other markups. iAnnotate PDF is also a good program for marking up PDF files, but as the name indicates it will not read other types of documents. • Meetings In addition to creating documents, lawyers also attend a lot of meetings. That’s why I think it is important we provide some basic meeting functionality on the iPad. Fortunately, our WebEx provider has an app that allows us to conduct meetings from an iPad. Citrix also has a meeting app if we should ever change vendors, but currently that app does not allow the iPad user to start and conduct the meeting. Another tool I’ve experimented with and like is Fuze Meeting, which I think will be easy for our lawyers to use, if we choose to go in another direction with our meeting software. • Legal-Specific Apps While there are a lot of apps that help a lawyer be productive, it’s the legal-specific apps that really make using an iPad worthwhile. Most of these apps are related 30 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer to trial practice right now, but our litigators can certainly make use of them. A few apps, including iJuror and Jury Tracker, make it easy for lawyers to select juries and monitor their reactions throughout a trial. TrialPad is a terrific app for showing evidence at a hearing or trial; while it is not as powerful as full-featured tools like Sanction or Trial Director, it is perfect for a lawyer attending a hearing or small trial who does not need all of that technology. Finally, a new tool called Deponent App allows lawyers to prepare for depositions, suggesting questions for certain types of cases and storing documents that can be shown to the witnesses. As you can see, there are many ways a lawyer can effectively practice law on an iPad, and the app developers are just getting started. Just imagine what lawyers should be able to do when 2020 rolls around. I have every reason to believe our lawyers will be using them by then. So why not get started now? ILTA Tom Mighell is a Senior Consultant at Contoural, Inc. where he provides records management and electronic discovery consulting services to corporations and legal departments. Tom is the author of “iPad in One Hour for Lawyers,” published by the ABA Law Practice Management Section. He will serve as Chair of the ABA Law Practice Management Section in 2011/2012. Tom received his B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached at tmighell@gmail.com. Peer to Peer