This article was first published in the Wisconsin Law Journal special edition for the 2003 Wisconsin Law and Technology Show, November 2003
By David P. Whelan, director, ABA Legal Technology Resource Center

The image of the professional calmly sipping coffee, one hand idly scrolling through a computer screen of documents and appointments remains more popular outside the legal profession than in. A laptop is the primary computer for only about 20% of lawyers although about 66% have access to a laptop from their law firm, according to the ABA’s 2002 Legal Technology Survey. While there is greater use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) than in years past, with more than 40% having access to one at work and 36% using one, the PDA lawyers rarely use anything beyond the calendar and address book functions.

Are You Mobile?

There appear to be good reasons for lawyers not to use mobile technology. Most lawyers are sole practitioners or are in small firms and their practice may not require them to travel regularly or, if they do, to travel “high tech”. Lawyers identified the office and the home as the two places where they perform, on average, over 90% of their law-related computing.

The technology tools that lawyers use to practice law - word processing software, telephone and e-mail, case and practice management, legal research - do not require substantial computer resources nor do they appear to be desired when the lawyer is mobile. Over 70% of lawyers use cell or wireless phones, while less than 4% use a PDA or wireless connection to check e-mail while on the road.

Even though lawyers do not appear to be going mobile in great numbers, there is no reason to miss the opportunities afforded by elements of the portable office, many of which require very little in the way of technology investment. Whether you decide to take just part of your practice with you - your PDA calendar, for example - or whether you decide to become a full-fledged road warrior, consider the many options available for the portable lawyer.

Start Simple

The first step is to consider what portable tools or technologies you might benefit from using. Primarily this is going to be hardware, although your goal may be to get additional software functionality. One example is voice-recognition, a technology that has wandered in the wilderness for some time but that is now gaining momentum. One of the reasons may be that the most popular voice-recognition software packages are being bundled with hand-held digital dictation recorders. You can forget the headset and being tethered to the PC. Instead, dictate your document as you might have in the past: in the car, at home, on the train. When you return to your office, you can upload the dictation to your computer where the voice-recognition software will complete the process. You can also use the software on your PC, but the dictation recorder gives you the flexibility of being mobile. Look at the Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus digital recorders and find one bundled with Scansoft’s Dragon Naturally Speaking® or another voice-recognition software, although Scansoft appears to be distributing all of them, including IBM’s Via Voice®.

The cell phone is still the most predominant device for mobile lawyers. It is relatively low tech and it is one of the most important tools in a law office for maintaining contact with clients. Although certain wireless companies provide e-mail and Web access via their phones, there is no clear trend of adoption of these technologies by lawyers. But even the cell or wireless phone is headed for choppy waters as it begins to converge with the PDA.

Get Personal

Personal digital assistants are making inroads beyond the “executive toy” crowd because they can be such a handy tool for carrying around a lot of basic information: notes, address book, calendar and docket, even documents, maps, and other information. They are becoming more valuable though as they merge with phones, eliminating one device by providing both communications and information management capabilities. There is the “one less thing to lose” benefit, but the greatest value is having information readily available while - or just before - you talk to a client.

The expandability of PDAs is part of their allure. It is not just the addition of phone capabilities, but also the availability of full-size keyboards, word processor and spreadsheet software, and the increasing amount of storage memory. A combination of a PDA and full-size keyboard with a word processor can be a lightweight - and inexpensive - alternative to a laptop. Can it replace a laptop? It is clearly not going to do everything a laptop can, but you should consider that much of what your office computer provides may not be useful while you are on the move.

PDAs using the Palm operating system, rather than the Windows PocketPC/CE operating systems, dominate in the legal profession. Palm, Handspring, Handera, and Sony Clie’s all offer Palm. Palm and Sony also have wireless LAN enabled PDAs, and Handspring offers a Palm OS-based phone, the Treo. Other PDA/phones are available from Kyocera (Smartphone) and Research in Motion (Blackberry). Use one of the large PDA Web sites, like Handango.com or Palmgear.com to find out about the latest software and accessories for your PDA.

Take Your Law Office With You

There is really no middle ground between the PDA and the laptop. When you commit to a laptop, you are choosing the largest, most expensive portable tool but it is also the most powerful. The laptop can become your home and office computer, traveling with you wherever you go. That flexibility alone can make a laptop purchase worthwhile - no need to learn a new operating system or a different configuration of icons on the desktop, no forgetting of documents on one computer while you use another - and it can mean that your law office is wherever you are.

Your laptop investment can benefit from other portable peripherals. An inexpensive portable inkjet printer, for example, can easily slide into your laptop bag and yet greatly enhance your ability to share your information with a client, the court, or other lawyers. Handheld scanners, whether “pen” shaped or slightly larger, allow you to store information on your laptop immediately, without having to photocopy or deal with additional paper. A digital camera enables you to travel to a site - accident scene, disputed land, billboard trademark infringement - and photograph and upload to your computer additional evidentiary material.

Mobile Lawyering

There is no reason to view mobile technology from the perspective of how much travel you do. If you can benefit by incrementally adding technology to be more effective away from the office - a cell phone, a PDA, a laptop - consider adding it to your toolkit. If you are already using portable technology, make sure you have investigated the many inexpensive ways to enhance your initial investment. You might be surprised at how much of your law office you can carry with you.