LTO Interviews Brett Burney about the Mac vs. PC War in Legal

21
Jun
2012

Taylor Gould

Remember the “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” ad campaign?  We all do, probably, but in addition to being memorable, its slogan brought up an interesting point about how the technology devices you use impact your personal identity.  Legal professionals are no exception – but to what extent are today’s legal professionals saying “I’m a Mac” and what impact is that having on the IT personnel supporting them?  I had the opportunity to talk with Brett Burney, author of the MacsinLaw blog, founder of Burney Consultants and expert on the use of Apple products in legal practices.

Until recent years, there had always been this anti-Mac rhetoric in the legal world.  According to Burney, using Apple or Mac products was just never something that was contemplated except for a few strident pioneers like Jeff Allen and Randy Singer (www.macattorney.com) who bravely staked out the Mac lawyer frontier years ago.

This all began to change several years ago when Apple switched to using Intel processors in 2006.  After that, momentum for Macs started to build and more lawyers began to question why they were still “PCs.”  But the fact that most legal software, including document management systems which were intrinsic to daily operations ran only on PCs/Microsoft Windows, which kept lawyers from stepping over the boundary into Mac territory.

Fast-forward to present day where the infiltration of Apple products into the legal field is impressive to say the least, with the biggest driving force being the iPad.  Only introduced two years ago, the iPad has become ubiquitous at law firms.  iPhones are the next-most-common infiltrators into legal.  The ease of use, price point and previous exposure to the Apple ecosystem are all attractions that have helped open the law office’s door for Apple’s mobile products.

How does Mac fever spread?  Many times, it begins at home.  Legal professionals get Apple products for Christmas, or their kids are using them.  Once they fall in love with the user interface and intuitiveness of the products, lawyers start thinking, “Hey, why can’t my platforms at work be this easy?”  According to the 2011 ABA Technology Survey, about 130,000 lawyers are using iPads, so this is not just a passing craze.

So what’s the problem with lawyers bringing shiny iPads and iPhones into a firm that’s standardized on PCs, Windows and BlackBerrys?  In short, legal IT is generally quite busy supporting the approved hardware and software and is usually not required by management to support these devices across-the-board. That being said, many legal IT professionals are being forced to learn Mac iOS to some extent, especially if a senior partner wants to use his/her iOS device for legal work, but for the standard law firm employee, the helpdesk in many instances is not required to provide assistance.

What’s the solution to this identity crisis?  In the Mac vs. PC war, there needs to be a middle ground.   If legal professionals want to use Apple products, they need to realize that legal IT may not provide support for them, nor are they required to at many firms.  Also, it’s important to remember that despite the fact that Apple products are easy to use, they still have a learning curve.  At the same time, legal IT departments need to build some flexibility into their policies such as including iPhone and iPad compatibility as well as taking advantage of products like BootCamp and Parallels, which allow Macs to run Windows based operating systems.

Talk to your IT department to see what their policy is.  If there is no Mac support at the firm, you may need to rally support of other Apple users and lobby the IT department or the management– or both.  Legal staff and legal IT have the same goal at the end of the day - to provide the best service to their clients while still maintaining responsibility and policy compliance.  Whether people think of themselves as a Mac or a PC, they’re trying to get their jobs done with the greatest efficiency possible while sneaking in some enjoyment when they can.  The utopian view is that in the future, legal professionals and legal IT can come to an agreement that gives lawyers and staff access to the i-devices that they want without causing an earthquake within legal IT.