Law Times

www.lawtimesnews.com Law TiMes / March 31, 2008 Page 3 Ten years in a technological tornado F rom dictaphones and faxes to BlackBerrys and memory sticks, from overhead pro- jectors to PowerPoint presenta- tions, from conference calls to web teleconferencing, and from physical storage to data storage on secure servers — in the last ten years lawyers have ridden a wave of technology that has seen them emerging from piles of files, mor- phing into travel-light, constantly contactable service providers with paperless or virtual offices. Lawyers who could hardly type 10 years ago can now type almost as fast as they can talk, and the current ream of technology is making even typing obsolete. The speed of change has been incred- ible, but many lawyers have taken to the technology so easily that they are not even aware they are using it, until they are asked to throw their minds back ten years, to the way things used to be. Dan Pinnington, director of Practice Pro, identifies the inter- net as the number-one catalyst for change in the past decade. "It has impacted every aspect of lawyer-client communication, with cellphones and now smart- phones and BlackBerrys, as well as e-mail and, more recently, instant messaging." He notes that while access to information online is unprecedented, the web has moved beyond postings of static content that people come to read. "We're up to web 2.0, where peo- ple are participating in the push- pull of a social community where everyone has a voice," he says. Frank Capuano, director of the legal vertical at Unity Telecom, believes the immediate contact now possible in telecommunications has created a more personalized ser- vice. "The idea of looking for the device is passé. Clients are look- ing for the individual. Cellphones and desk sets ring simultaneously, so lawyers don't need to advertise five numbers on their cards, and it's seamless to the client. They don't care if you're driving to the courthouse, at the office, the home office, or the airport. All they care about is reaching the person they need, rather than leaving a message with an assistant." All this availability means that client expectations are very high, putting great strain on a law- yer, especially a sole or small practitioner. "Some say the BlackBerry is a lifeline and some say it's a noose," says Tom Conway of McCarthy Tétrault LLP in Ottawa. "You have to use the equip- ment intelligently." Another source of instant communication is e-mail. In the last 10 years it has super- seded the postal service, cou- riers, and facsimiles, which at least got a matter off your desk for a period of time. Even the transcribing and editing process that used to take place for correspondence and documents is disappear- ing with drag-and-drop PC programs and voice-recog- nition software. Pinnington points out that 10 years ago, voice recognition was a toy for techies. "Now it is a very usable and practical tool." Conway makes use of it all the time. "I simply say a word, and a macro with my personal letterhead comes up. There is a firm-wide database of addresses. Or I can say, 'Smith file,' and all the information falls in. I dictate a letter, save it to the server, attach an electronic signature, and send it by e-mail. That leaves my assis- tant free for more important tasks like organizing my court appear- ances and [dealing] with clients more directly. That's positive for her and for me." All this technological progress is leading to the reality of the paperless office. "If you looked into my office 10 years ago you would have seen piles of boxes and documents," recalls Conway. "I seldom go to a filing cabinet, except when I prepare for trial, when the tactile nature of docu- ments seems to be helpful. It's a hugely dramatic change." Pinnington identifies real estate practice as the area that has most drastically reduced the paper trail. "It has moved from a world of entirely paper-based transac- tions to one where it is almost all electronic. There are no more trips to the registry office. Even the finance is moving into the wired world." The same phenomenon has affected legal research, increas- ing the speed of research and the amount of material available. Lawyers and their assistants no longer have to go to the library and thumb through texts. All the reporters are available online, and a few keyword searches, in a few different databases, will glean every case of relevance. The inter- firm knowledge databases are also a goldmine of opinions and infor- mation. "All the knowledge of the firm is available," says Conway. "The disadvantage is that there is so much information available, it can be difficult to understand the true nature of the case. There's still no getting around hard lawyering on how a particular decision may affect a particular case." From the paperless office, then comes the virtual office, which does away with expensive real estate costs. A virtual office on a dedicated extranet can be set up for $20 a month. "Virtual offices will happen a lot more, as there are new tools out there," says Pinnington. "A lot of software products used to focus in on one or two tasks. Now there's a huge amount of integration between software, such as e-mail, manage- ment software, and document- management software." Litigation work still calls for a physical presence in court, although electronic filing in some areas is reducing the number of trips. The most significant change in that arena has been the need to deal with e-discovery. "A really good civil litigator now has to ask the right questions to get at the electronic data," says Conway. "If they are not familiar with how technol- ogy works, certainly in the next couple of years, they will not be competent to conduct an investigation on behalf of a client." When providing discov- ery, more and more commer- cial-litigation lawyers are not revealing documents in hard copy. "They are scanned and coded in electronic databases using litigation-support soft- ware," explains Conway. "At most examinations for dis- covery, lawyers arrive with a laptop and that's it." Conway's firm does a lot of meeting internally and exter- nally through videoconfer- encing. "Ten years ago, when we used teleconferencing, we could barely get three people on a telephone call without a problem. Now we do it three- dimensionally." This technology is also being used by the courts for prisoner interviews and cross- examinations, and is exploited by CLE providers who can originate a program in one city and stream it out nationwide. Lawyers don't have to travel as much as they used to, and if they do, they travel light, some- times just with a memory stick dangling around their neck or a three- or four-pound laptop that is equivalent to a desktop. The corporate lawyer at IT and tele- communications consultants Fox Group divides her time between Bala in Haliburton, a condo in New York, and a small island in the Virgin Islands. "I never know where she is and it doesn't mat- ter," says senior partner Roberta Fox. "She uses high-speed cellular, a laptop, and portable storage devices to take the information with her. It weighs less, costs less, stores more, and goes faster than 10 years ago." Bonnie Patrick, of Goulin & Patrick in Windsor, Ont., sounds a note of caution, though, for those who work in or travel to non-urban centres. "Technology in big centres and technology in small centres are a different animal. Some places don't have high-speed internet, and there are dead zones for cellphones. Even on the train between Toronto and Windsor, it keeps kicking in and out." Client expectations are also different in smaller centres. "Virtual offices might work in Toronto but they wouldn't work in Kenora, where people want to see their people." And there are other reasons why there has been less uptake of technology in non-urban centres, particularly in small firms. "It's hard to learn the technology on the run," says Patrick, "and many small firms don't have the money to pay for it. If it breaks down in the cities, there are lots of IT guys to call. If you're in the middle of nowhere, the nearest guy may be 10 miles away in a snowstorm. Technology is not the answer to all our prayers. You can build bet- ter planes but if you don't have an airport, what's the use?" There is a further divide between younger and older lawyers. Young lawyers are very technology-savvy and technology- dependant. As this is only likely to increase, technology has become an important tool in the arsenal to recruit the best and bright- est. More mature lawyers would prefer to have paper in their hand rather than stare at a screen, but technology even has an answer for that. "I use a tablet PC that looks like a thick pad of paper," says Conway. "I use a stylus with which I can call up documents, take notes on the documents, and my handwriting is transcribed to typed notes. It is technology that mimics the old way, sending older lawyers into a whole different era. I don't think we're anywhere near seeing the end of the impact of technology, as more lawyers start using what's out there." NEWS Key Developments in Estates and Trusts Law in Ontario, 2008 Edition Madam Justice Bonnie Croll and Melanie Yach With contributions by: Jeanne Chiang, Susan Easterbrook, Lou-Anne Farrell, Paul Gibney, Robin Goodman, Heather Hansen, Ian Hull, P. Ann Lalonde, Jonathan Lancaster, Martha McCarthy, Margaret O'Sullivan, Suzana Popovic-Montag, Archie Rabinowitz, Susan Slattery, Kristina Soutar, M. Jasmine Sweatman, Corina Weigl, Kimberly Whaley and Melanie Yach Published annually, this book brings together a team of leading practitioners who together provide expert insight into the latest noteworthy developments in estates and trusts law. Find out how these key developments will affect your practice and your clients, now and in the future. Key Developments in Estates and Trusts Law in Ontario, 2008 Edition helps you stay abreast of key statutory and case law developments in estates and trusts law in Ontario. LT1002 Canada Law Book is A Division of The Cartwright Group Ltd. • Free Shipping on pre-paid orders. Prices subject to change without notice, and to applicable taxes. For a 30-day, no-risk evaluation call: 1 800 263 2037 or 1 800 263 3269 www.canadalawbook.ca LT0331 CROLL_Key Developments in Estates and Trusts 3/26/08 10:33 AM Page 1 'Some say the BlackBerry is a lifeline and some say it's a noose,' says Tom Conway. 'You have to use the equipment intel- ligently.' BY JUDY VAN RHIJN For Law Times LT Correction The March 17 issue included a story called, SCC reiterates discovery protections. It was incorrectly reported that the case involved the death of a child who suffered a brain injury and seizure. Law Times apologizes for the error.

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