Law Office Technology: Why It Needs To Be In Your School’s Curriculum and How To Get It There. Kenneth Hirsh, Wayne Miller, David Whelan Law Office Technology

Law Office Technology: Why It Needs To Be In Your School’s Curriculum and How To Get It There. Kenneth Hirsh, Wayne Miller, David Whelan

Law Office TechnologyWhy it Needs to Be in Your School’s Curriculum and How to Get it There

Kenneth HirshDirector of the Law Library and Information Technology and Clinical Professor of Law, University of Cincinnati College of Law

Wayne MillerAssistant Dean for Academic Technologies, Duke University School of Law

David WhelanManager, Legal Information, Law Society of Upper Canada


THE LAST TEN YEARSDavid Whelan


Slow Start

Early promise of Application Service Providers goes bust with Silicon Valley

Windows XP Pro debuts in 2001 and ends up the significant business desktop OS for the decade

Typical lawyer has a Dell desktop running Windows 98 and either Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect


Document Driven

Microsoft W

ord 2000

Microsoft W

ord 2002

Microsoft W

ord 2003

Microsoft W

ord 2007

Corel WordPerfe

ct 9

Corel WordPerfe

ct 10

Corel WordPerfe

ct 11

Corel WordPerfe

ct 12

Corel WordPerfe

ct X3

Corel WordPerfe

ct X4

Source: Wikipedia.org, 2009 American Bar Association Legal Technology Survey

Open Office 1.0

Open Office 2.0

Open Office 3.02001 Lawyer Usage

55% Microsoft Word44% Corel WordPerfect

2009 Lawyer Usage95% Microsoft Word30% Corel WordPerfect1% Open Office


Same Old Swiss Army™ Knife

High adoption of Microsoft Office has led Microsoft products to dominate in other areas

Microsoft Outlook top product for:

E-mailContacts CalendaringCustomer Relationship Management

Practice Management

EncryptionAnti-Spam Source: 2009 American Bar Association Legal Technology

Survey


What about legal technology?

Industry has matured in the 2000s– Fewer products, higher product versions, except in

niche or emerging areas– Increased focus on enterprise versions– Increased curiosity about “legal vertical”– Acquisitions by larger companies focusing on

professional services workflow– Software-as-a-Service model gains traction


Consolidation

Thomson ReutersLexisNexis

WestlawLexisNexis

ProLaw

EliteTimeMatters

Applied Discovery

Findlaw

ProDocHotDocsPCLaw

Juris FinancialsCaseMap

PlumTree Portals

LivenoteCourtExpress

Global Securities Information (GSI)

DealProof

FinPlan Divorce Planner

Netdocuments


Large Firms are Enterprise Business

National Law Journal Top 250

Source: National Law Journal, NALP

About 40% of law school

graduates go into a firm with

101 or more lawyers

About 33% of law school

graduates go into a firm with

2-10 lawyers


Enterprise IT

Business AppsIntegrating complex

business applications as well as custom legal

applications

InternationalHelp desk sourced for 24

hour coverage, data centers co-located with in

multiple sites

Source: 2007 ILTA Technology Survey

Cost RecoveryDeveloping apps for resale

as services to clients, licensing to vendors

BudgetFirms with more than 500 lawyers are budgeting an

average of $14.8 million on IT

Microsoft CentricNetwork OS, Desktop

OS, E-mail Server, Virtual Server,

Sharepoint


Tech and the Solo or Small Firm

Simpler but not necessarily rudimentary– Solo and small firm lawyer usage similar to 100+

firm lawyer except Less likely to use a smart phone with wireless e-mail Less likely to have a server-based environment More likely to use a thumb drive

– Typical lawyer will have a Dell desktop running Windows XP, Office 2007 and Internet Explorer, and have broadband Internet. Source: 2007 ILTA Technology Survey

2009 American Bar Association Legal Technology Survey


Opportunities

Adoption of legal technology continues to lag– Ignored in purchase of “consumer” technology

Law office technology with lower adoption:– Metadata removal tools– Document management– Practice management software– Conflicts checking

Source: 2009 American Bar Association Legal Technology Survey


Opportunities

“When would you recommend that an attorney begin using practice management software?”

As soon as [you] open your doors. Practice management software is mission critical.

Source: February 27, 2009 survey of 90 solo lawyers on the Solosez discussion list hosted by the American Bar Association


Enable the Evolution

LaptopWindows

Microsoft OfficeWeb Browser

FacebookE-mail


THE LAW OFFICE TECHNOLOGY COURSE AT DUKE LAW SCHOOL

Kenneth Hirsh









LESSONS LEARNEDWayne Miller


Know your audienceSurvey students, before and

afterEngage their summer

experience in classRead your evaluations!



Be prepared to make changes It’s difficult during the semester

– plan ahead Identify the most important

changes and concentrate on those (maybe a “theme” suggests itself?)


Plan for Succession Of three founders, two are no

longer available Invite potential co-instructors to

sit in The content is more important

than the individual


We started “small” We started the course designed for

a small firm or an individual Covers all the essentials Addressed ourselves to basic

software Large firms insulate lawyers from

tech issues, we thought!


We retooled for large More emphasis on concepts

(conflicts checking, for instance) More abstract discussion of

software categories But – how to engage students in

class?


Spring 2007 Spring 2008 Spring 2009

Introduction and Overview of Technology in Law Practice

Introduction Introduction

Office Practice – Administrative Tools

External Communications and Introduction to Ethical Considerations

External Communications and Introduction to Ethical Considerations

Case and Litigation Management Tools

Office Practice - Administrative Tools

Office Practice - Administrative Tools

Overview of Knowledge Management


Electronic Filing and Service



Client Communications

Large and Complex Case Management


Presentation Technology

Information Literacy Information & Media Literacy

Information Literacy The Internet Beyond Legal Research

The Internet Beyond Legal Research

The Internet Beyond Legal Research








Case and Litigation Management Tools




AssignmentsExercises:

–Meta-data scrubbing–Negotiation at a distance–Business research–Presentation


AssignmentsFinal Project (60% grade)

–Students work in groups of 2 or 3

–30% for in-class presentation–30% for final paper


Sample topics Extranets Technology in law firm disaster planning Attorneys & blogging – tools, ethical issues, as

attorney advertising, role in high-profile trials The Blackberry and similar devices - legal

implications of the technology; social issues for lawyers.

More to be posted on Blackboard…


Grading for Final Project Graded by the following criteria: timely

completion, thoroughness, creativity, appropriate use of technology in the presentation, relevance to and reflection on issues facing the legal profession, and appropriate selection and documentation of sources.



Videoconferenced guests Law librarian – history of technology in

law Ediscovery attorney & an economics

consultant – ediscovery concerns and current business practices

Courtroom 21 – future of courtroom and assistive technologies


Midsized firm tech comm. Helps me – I can be IT director rather than a

partner of the firm We discuss what the approach should be for our

firm Changed course dynamic, helping (along with a

morning slot!) with the engagement of students in the class

Helped focus guest speakers, our exercises and in-class discussion


Next: full-scale sim? No, too much to undertake Exercises are the easiest element

to focus narrowly on a simulation

Might help with final projects, too

Documents

Law Office Technology: Why It Needs To Be In Your School’s Curriculum and How To Get It There. Kenneth Hirsh, Wayne Miller, David Whelan Law Office Technology