Are you an iLawyer yet?

28
Sep
2010

Christy Burke

Charting the Legal Industry's Mac Invasion

“Are you a PC or a Mac?”  This is today’s version of an identity crisis, though it’s requiring attention more from IT personnel than psychiatrists. A few years ago, almost every legal professional would have said “I’m a PC” whether they liked it or not.  That said, there have always been a few avid Mac fans that would have heartily disagreed and staked their claim to a passionate Mac minority.

Because the vast majority legal software vendors have historically focused on servicing PC users, many legal professionals have had to use PCs simply because they needed legal software that was only PC-compatible.

Then came the venerable triumvirate of the iPhone, the iPad and cloud-based SaaS solutions to change all that, rather handily loosening the PC and Blackberry strongholds.  As a result, it appears as though we have a growing trend of law firms “going Mac”.

Brett Burney of Burney Consultants is a legal technology and independent IT and litigation support consultant.  He works with law firms of many sizes and is seeing the shift from PC to Mac happening all over the place.

Burney says, “I’m seeing more lawyers switch from Windows to Mac for a number of reasons.  The 2009 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report reported that 4% of respondents now use the Mac OS up from 3% in 2008.  One major catalyst was when Apple switched the Macs from the IBM PowerPC processors to Intel-based processors in 2006.  That opened up possibilities for lawyers to continue using legal-specific Windows software applications on their Macs, usually in a virtualized environment.”

He also notes that Apple’s success in the consumer market and the blurring of boundaries between home and office have contributed to the Mac trend in legal.  “Since many lawyers have a Mac, iPhone or iPad for their home or family, they have gotten familiar with Macs in general.  Also, since Apple has slowly but steadily increased its support for the business world over the last few years with the iWork software suite, file-sharing capabilities, Exchange support, security and more, lawyers than ever are talking about using a Mac more now.”

Fully authorized to say “I told you so” to lawyers that have recently woken up to the glory of Macs is attorney Jeff Allen, sole proprietor of Graves & Allen and also tech editor of GPSolo magazine and the eReport legal technology newsletter.  Allen says he was one of the first, if not THE first, Mac lawyer.  Allen setup his law office on the Appletalk Mac network in 1985 and his office has run on Macs ever since.  For the past 25 years, he has been an evangelist for Macs and is not at all surprised that lawyers are increasingly leaning toward Mac solutions.

Suitably armed with both an iPhone and an iPad, Allen is a force to be reckoned with.  He notes, “The iPhone started the shift to Macs in legal; it is the best smart phone on the market and has far more utility than the Blackberry.  The iPad is less useful than it will be after it gets an upgrade to iOS 4.  Mac has the best and most reliable hardware.  The Mac OS is incredibly stable, very seldom fails or crashes, and allows for recovery from problems with relative ease.  The Time Machine backup system is as slick as it gets.  Plus, Apple’s tech support, though not perfect, is markedly better than that of any of the Windows hardware or software.”

As a New Yorker, I am required to ask…”So what’s the catch?”  Macs sound too good to be true – are they?  Brett Burney says, “Many lawyers are swooned by ads for Apple and claims of how easy it is to switch to a Mac and that it promises a much better world than Windows.  Many times, they’re calling me because they had a bad experience with Windows systems or just spent a lot of money on Windows software.  Switching to Mac from Windows is not instant magic and will not happen overnight.  As fantastic as Mac OS is, it is still a different environment than Windows.  The rewards are plentiful and gratifying, but moving to the Mac requires a learning curve and lawyers must be prepared for that.” If you love Mac and Apple products feel free to proceed, but be sure to proceed with adequate caution, especially if you are a legal IT person with a large user base where the effects of migration are exponentially greater than for solos.

So how far does this Mac invasion stretch?  Allen notes that Macs have been primarily adopted in small firm and solo settings.  However, a few pioneering larger firms have certainly caught on to the Mac trend, but they are clearly in the distinct minority.  Back in June, Eversheds stuck its neck out and standardized on the iPad and decided against the Blackberry and one of the largest all-Mac firms is Chapman and Cutler LLP with around 220 attorneys (and approximately the same number of staff members). Time will tell as to whether more mid-sized and large firms will jump on the bandwagon.  In the meantime, solos and small firms are the main Mac converts.

Historically solo and small firms have not been on the forefront of a major legal technology trend; in fact, they have been a forgotten part of the market.  However, in the case of Macs in legal, they certainly have been on the cutting edge.  Julie Kiernan is a Business Manager and Paralegal at Kiernan Personal Injury Attorneys PA in Buffalo, Minnesota.  Completely PC-free, Kiernan’s firm is fully outfitted in Macs – they use the Macbook, Macbook Air, iMac, Mac Mini, iPad and iPhone.

Kiernan tells the story of her firm’s path to Mac: “We had PCs, but after I purchased my first iPod, I bought a Macbook and started using it for trial.  Then the PC network kept crashing after a Norton Antivirus update, so we switched to an all-Mac network in 2007.  The interface is great and user experience is so much better.  Also, we like the built-in reliability and security of Macs.  Macs drastically reduced our IT and consulting support, no blue screens of death, drivers that are included, beautiful interface and user-friendly layout.  The OS is constantly updated and it really does ‘just work.’”

As a Mac shop, Kiernan’s firm opted for a web-based case management system called Clio rather than the PC-only client/server software alternatives.  She remarks, “When we switched, if I had wanted to continue to use the PC case management software, Time Matters, by LexisNexis, I would have had to run it in emulation mode using Parallels. LexisNexis, the Time Matters developer, does not officially support that setup, so I could have had technical problems without support from LexisNexis.  Also, using Time Matters in emulation mode would have reduced other functions on my Mac by forcing me to use PC versions of MSWord and Adobe Acrobat in order to integrate with the PC-based Time Matters. This would have resulted in our primary software being PC software, run in emulation mode, just to use Time Matters, and it would have defeated my reasons for switching to a Mac. I was tired of dealing with Windows headaches and viruses and did not want to install Windows, even in emulation mode, on my Mac.”

Kiernan says her firm uses only Mac OS X native software and the system runs without a hitch.  Clio, Adobe Acrobat and MSOffice all run natively on the Mac.  She appreciates that Clio was designed for law firms specifically and that it runs equally as well on PCs and Macs because it only requires an internet connection and is OS-independent.

Clio’s President Jack Newton has been charting the Mac trend with great interest because it has meant significant growth for his business since Clio launched two years ago in October 2008.  Newton says, “We have seen a tremendous increase in the number of solo using Macs and Apple products in recent years.  One of the most interesting trends of 2010 is that larger firms of 10+ attorneys are starting to make the switch as well.”

Newton says that there are many reasons behind this phenomena, but that cloud computing is one of the most important technology developments for the Mac.  He notes, “Prior to the emergence of cloud computing, law offices were told that Macs simply were not a viable alternative to Windows due to the lack of compatible software to run on them.  With cloud-based version of practice management, billing and document automation software, that argument has finally gone away.  The Mac is now officially considered a viable platform for a law office.”

Lawyers who want to learn more about Macs have a number of resources at their disposal.  Last year, a conference called MILOfest had a terrific lineup of speakers and the show will take place again this coming November 11-13 in Orlando.  Newton will be a speaker at this year’s MILOfest 2010 on the topic of “Putting Your Practice Into the Cloud”, detailing how cloud-based products like Google Apps, Dropbox, Evernote and Clio can be used to help a law office run efficiently.

So what’s your answer to the question – are you a PC or a Mac?  Maybe you’re a lawyer at a large firm that has PCs, but you have an iPhone.  Or maybe you’re a solo practitioner who loves the iPad but carries it around in addition to your laptop.  There’s no saying that you have to be all PC or all Mac, and that is a relief to many who love the design, features and cool factor of the Apple products.  Time will tell as to how far this Mac trend will go in the legal industry.  The iLawyers out there certainly have some convincing arguments for switching, but the market is so entrenched with PCs that any major paradigm shift is bound to be rather gradual than immediate.