Wednesday, November 19, 2014

That PDF-thing

"Don't send me that PDF thing. I don't know how it works."

"Yeah, me too, I'm terrible with computers", the other attorney chimed in.

We were concluding my client's deposition and as is customary at the end, attorneys were ordering depositions from the court reporter. The other attorneys clearly wanted nothing to do with the PDF thing.

To be fair, I was the youngest in that room by 30 years.

Attorneys are notorious for being late (if not the last) adopters. I don't get it. Somehow it has become permissible for the legal field to collectively hold up its hand, prohibiting cutting-edge technology from interfering with its dust-covered wall-to-wall legal books mentality.

There are exceptions. Attorneys are converting their firms to paperless format. But the truth is that they are still the exception.

Moments like these make attorneys look like the elderly relative bemoaning "MyFace" and "Twitterbird" at  family gatherings.

Attorneys, step it up. Jurors can relate to you when you're holding an iPad at trial, but not when you are feverishly flipping through 100 legal pad pages. Clients want to send you emails and have you respond the same day, not just when your assistant helps you check your e-mail inbox.


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