Law Times

Law Times • may 14, 2012 Apps fun but not always crucial to practice Lawyers say key smartphone features are calendar, e-mail FOCUS about what he finds most use- ful, he says nothing beats the old-fashioned tools of the trade: simple communication. So in discussing the best I n his circle of lawyers, Taro Inoue is known as the more technologically savvy of the bunch. But if you ask him mobile applications for lawyers, he talks about the ones a phone already comes with: e-mail, text, telephone, and a calendar. "I find the most useful stuff is the built-in stuff," says the BY KENNETH JACKSON For Law Times addition, he's big on Twitter, which he finds he's using more. In addi- tion, while it's not a work function, he uses an application that allows him to read comic books when he' Apps let me stay connected and informed," says Spratt of s looking to kill time in court. " Webber Schroeder Goldstein Abergel in Ottawa. "I am sure I would use more, but our firm uses (BlackBerrys) so the selec- tion is a bit limited. he does use assist in efficiency and allow for flexibility but says that doesn't mean he' He believes the applications " 38-year-old criminal defence lawyer. "I'm very dependent on the calendar. I check e-mail. I browse the web — the very basic things." One thing he likes is Dropbox application that peo- ple can download for free or purchase depending on what they're looking for. "When you set it up, it takes everything from one folder and one computer and creates that same folder on every other computer in your system," says Inoue. If one file changes on a com- the- puter or cellphone, the same thing happens on all of the serv- ers connected to the application. There' that allows a user to write on the file, similar to making notes, on tablets. "It is possible. There are pro- s also an application Inoue, who uses both iPhone and Google Android phones as well as the MacBook Air laptop that he does most of his work on. " says doesn't think applications make lawyers' lives any faster or easier. In fact, he'll go as far as saying they slow productivity. "I really don't recommend anything for productivity," he Other than that, Inoue says. "If you're dealing with a cellphone, the screen is too small to do anything other than typing a few words. The second problem that arises is [with] most iPhones, and to a lesser extent other cellphones as well . . . apps tend to have one task. I don't know any lawyers who are centralized on their cell- phones, so otherwise they still have their computers. So you can sync your documents back and forth to some extent, but at the end of the day there has to be a home base. cations, he notes, is that they don't really talk to each other very well. In his view, people have unrealistic expectations as to what to expect from a cell- phone or tablet. Criminal Another problem with appli- " Financial security. Guaranteed payments. 100% tax free. Some decisions are easy. Michael Spratt says he also relies on his calendar and e-mail. In defence lawyer Untitled-1 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 12-05-08 11:11 AM any less. " s working working more — job not easier but smoother, iation's National magazine released the top 10 applications for BlackBerrys in December. The No. 1 application was The Canadian Bar Assoc- Apps may actually lead to me " he notes. Law Times technology columnist Monica Goyal's top 5 apps for lawyers 1. Social media apps for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn 2. Evernote 3. Timewerks 4. Skype or Vonage Mobile 5. Vlingo UberTwitter, which is actually now known as UberSocial. It doesn't really have much to do with being a lawyer as almost any professional on a BlackBerry can make use of it. It basically makes using Twitter easier. The second was an applica- addition, there's a simple news s breaking. media application to stay up to date on what' cifically for lawyers and the courtroom is TrialPad. It helps them organize case presenta- tions and allows users to dis- play images and exhibits on a projector or monitor. At the end of the day, accord- An application geared spe- Monica Goyal tion that tells people what time it is in different time zones, something that could come in handy for lawyers with clients arguably be useful for lawyers. It manages e-mail and phone activity and spits out daily and weekly reports. This could help lawyers bill clients more accu- rately for time spent on calls and e-mail. Another application turns a BlackBerry into a disco ball when you get an e-mail. In all over the place. The third, BlackTrack, could ing to Inoue, lawyers are busy. So when they're shopping for devices or software, they need to ask themselves whether they'll make their jobs easier. He suggests that even the applications that are arguably useful in some ways don't actu- ally make the job any easier. " information a little more avail- able and mobile in the sense that you can access some infor- mation and you can edit some information," says Inoue. At most, they make your LT PAGE 11 STEVE NOYES I. T. Consultant Volunteer grams that do that. I just don't find them particularly con- venient or time-saving, The McKellar Structured Settlement™

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