In a recent hearing in federal court, one of the partners with whom I
work got the opportunity to use a tablet to make an incredible impact
on our client’s case. The partner was cross-examining a witness, and
the witness was testifying that his company had never taken a position
that the partner knew that the company had taken publicly. The
partner pulled out his tablet, accessed the witness’s company’s
website where it had made the statements, and using the court’s digital
overhead projector, showed the court on the spot that the
witness was lying. It grabbed the judge’s attention and made a clear
impact on his decision. It was a win for the client, but it was also a
win for technology. What if the partner had not had his tablet or had
not known how to use it effectively?
Every skill and incremental advantage is important to making a young attorney indispensable. We obsess about our research, our ability to speak, and our writing. We obsess about our billable hours and collections. We obsess about whether we are important to our firms and to our clients. The good news is that one very real way for young litigators to make a contribution is through developing skills in technology. Whether the partners you work for still have not figured out how to program their VCRs (much less their DVRs) or are on the cutting edge of every new technology, you, as a young lawyer, should develop technological skills with which you can contribute to your firm’s litigation practice.
Don't Be a Liability: Baseline Technologies
There are a few technologies that partners will expect young lawyers to understand as a baseline; you must understand these so as not to be a liability to yourself, your firm, and your clients. These technologies include smart phones, remote access software, trial presentation software, and document management software.
The growing consensus among both partners and associates alike seems to be that use of a smart phone is a basic part of a litigator’s job. This should not be surprising as recent statistics show that nearly half of Americans as a whole use smart phones; however, it is worthwhile remembering that the use of a smart phone—or otherwise tethering yourself to your email, calendar, and cell phone—is expected. There is no reason, for example, for you to appear in court, have the judge try to schedule the next hearing, and not be able to access your calendar to provide input.
Similarly, there seems to be a basic expectation among litigation partners that associates should have remote access to their work computers and be familiar with using that access. There are a number of different technologies available, but the bottom line is that you should be able to pull up your brief from your home, add citations that you obtain through research on your home computer, and send the brief back to the partner or client for whom you are working.
The third must-use technology is trial-presentation software. There are a number of different software programs available; young lawyers should learn the software that their firm uses. This technology is not new, and its use is in fact expected by many jurors and judges, but many young lawyers may tend to believe that some other person should be responsible for learning to use that software.
As one senior lawyer at my firm put it, you may not be able to cook a fancy meal, but that does not mean that you should starve if someone else does not cook for you. There may well be instances in which a young lawyer will rely on a paralegal or litigation assistant to run trial presentation software at a hearing or trial, but every young lawyer should be able to operate the software competently in case he or she must do so. Many young lawyers will not have the option of letting someone else run the software, and they should be willing and ready to take care of the technological opportunities available to them.
Trial presentation software is used by lawyers in hearings, trials, and mediations. One of my favorite stories about the use of trial software relates to mediation. A client my firm represented was in contentious negotiations. With the opponent threatening litigation, a mediation was scheduled. The day before the mediation, we assisted our client in filing a declaratory judgment action, thereby initiating the litigation. The visual presentation of the complaint for declaratory judgment made a visible impact on the client’s opponent and resulted in a settlement for less than the client had offered its opponent before the mediation. It might have been the professional presentation that affected the opponent, or it might have been that the presentation showed the seriousness of the litigation; regardless, the use of technology in the presentation helped cause an attitude change in the litigation and mediation.
The final must-use technology is litigation document management and document review software. It goes without saying that young lawyers will often be expected to carefully review documents, whether they’re documents to be produced or documents that have been produced by the opposition. Those document productions could range from a few hundred pages to a few million pages or more. As a young lawyer, you are expected to be able to use technology—when appropriate—to review large quantities of documents and depositions. As one partner told me, a partner wants an associate to be able to plan a review of 50,000 documents; navigate, shepherd, and review them; and be able to transform those documents into a few usable and persuasive exhibits for a hearing, a brief, or a trial.
As part of using and working with document management technology, young litigators should familiarize themselves with electronically stored information and the protocol for its treatment in a particular case. It is important, for example, that young lawyers be able to discuss requests to produce metadata or to produce documents in native format.
Make a Unique Contribution: Advanced Technologies
Most of the baseline technologies discussed above are not new, and your ability to use them may be expected. How then can a young lawyer make a unique and important contribution in litigation that others may not make at their firm?
First, young lawyers are infinitely more familiar with (and nimble in the use of) social media. One associate in my firm received a lot of praise for his practice of consulting it at the start of every case. He would set up a Google alert for the parties (see our committee's Summer 2012 article on how to set up free Google alerts), would check our opponents' LinkedIn and Facebook pages, and would look for positions or admissions from other litigants. In one case, he discovered almost immediately before a trial that the opposing company had recently become embroiled in several different lawsuits and was apparently shifting assets around to hide them. As a result of his discovery, we were able to cut through our opponents’ attempts to hide their activities and assets. In another case, a claimant suing her insurance company took the position that she and the decedent had been in a common-law marriage. But the lawyers in the case saw on one of her online profiles that she told the world that she was single, dooming her claim for a common-law marriage. Needless to say, the claimant did not prevail, and her own description of herself as single helped greatly.
The second way young lawyers can use technology to make a unique contribution is through their ability to navigate through legal and nonlegal sources of information on the Internet. At first glance, this would not seem to be something unique to young lawyers, but the reality is that younger lawyers are more accustomed to sifting through the enormous amounts of available information to discover what they need to know. Accepting that premise as true, a young lawyer’s goal must be to use his or her skills in this arena. Doing so will pay dividends, even if the work is not assigned. The information can often be used in briefs, at hearings, or even just to have a better basic understanding of the case.
For example, in one case at my firm, our opponent made a series of representations on its website about its products. Later, when the company realized it was going to be involved in litigation, it removed the pages that contained the offending statements. But after searching saved versions of the opponent’s website on the Wayback Machine (a group that archives web pages), we were able to discover previous versions of the pages that we could use in the case.
There is no shortage of information available. Whether you are looking for information about witnesses, codefendants, experts, judges, or even opposing counsel, being willing to search the Internet and to organize information you find into usable materials can make a small difference that ultimately results in a big difference in outcome. Doing so without being asked may be even better, and it can demonstrate to your client and your firm (your other client as a young lawyer) that you can make an exceptional contribution.
Finally, young lawyers can make a unique contribution by being willing to share what they know and teach their bosses and other more senior firm personnel. Partners, senior counsel, or senior associates will often find themselves doing research—or creating presentations—with technology that they are not experienced using. By taking the time to introduce the people for whom they work to a new technology, or a way to use that technology better (by, for example, searching more efficiently), young lawyers can help the overall litigation effort, earn themselves the gratitude of those for whom they work, and help make themselves indispensable.
Keywords: litigation, technology for the litigator, smart phones, remote access software, trial presentation software, document management software, document review, social media, Wayback Machine
source;http://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/technology/articles/spring2013-0313-young-lawyers-indispensable-through-technology.html
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Every skill and incremental advantage is important to making a young attorney indispensable. We obsess about our research, our ability to speak, and our writing. We obsess about our billable hours and collections. We obsess about whether we are important to our firms and to our clients. The good news is that one very real way for young litigators to make a contribution is through developing skills in technology. Whether the partners you work for still have not figured out how to program their VCRs (much less their DVRs) or are on the cutting edge of every new technology, you, as a young lawyer, should develop technological skills with which you can contribute to your firm’s litigation practice.
Don't Be a Liability: Baseline Technologies
There are a few technologies that partners will expect young lawyers to understand as a baseline; you must understand these so as not to be a liability to yourself, your firm, and your clients. These technologies include smart phones, remote access software, trial presentation software, and document management software.
The growing consensus among both partners and associates alike seems to be that use of a smart phone is a basic part of a litigator’s job. This should not be surprising as recent statistics show that nearly half of Americans as a whole use smart phones; however, it is worthwhile remembering that the use of a smart phone—or otherwise tethering yourself to your email, calendar, and cell phone—is expected. There is no reason, for example, for you to appear in court, have the judge try to schedule the next hearing, and not be able to access your calendar to provide input.
Similarly, there seems to be a basic expectation among litigation partners that associates should have remote access to their work computers and be familiar with using that access. There are a number of different technologies available, but the bottom line is that you should be able to pull up your brief from your home, add citations that you obtain through research on your home computer, and send the brief back to the partner or client for whom you are working.
The third must-use technology is trial-presentation software. There are a number of different software programs available; young lawyers should learn the software that their firm uses. This technology is not new, and its use is in fact expected by many jurors and judges, but many young lawyers may tend to believe that some other person should be responsible for learning to use that software.
As one senior lawyer at my firm put it, you may not be able to cook a fancy meal, but that does not mean that you should starve if someone else does not cook for you. There may well be instances in which a young lawyer will rely on a paralegal or litigation assistant to run trial presentation software at a hearing or trial, but every young lawyer should be able to operate the software competently in case he or she must do so. Many young lawyers will not have the option of letting someone else run the software, and they should be willing and ready to take care of the technological opportunities available to them.
Trial presentation software is used by lawyers in hearings, trials, and mediations. One of my favorite stories about the use of trial software relates to mediation. A client my firm represented was in contentious negotiations. With the opponent threatening litigation, a mediation was scheduled. The day before the mediation, we assisted our client in filing a declaratory judgment action, thereby initiating the litigation. The visual presentation of the complaint for declaratory judgment made a visible impact on the client’s opponent and resulted in a settlement for less than the client had offered its opponent before the mediation. It might have been the professional presentation that affected the opponent, or it might have been that the presentation showed the seriousness of the litigation; regardless, the use of technology in the presentation helped cause an attitude change in the litigation and mediation.
The final must-use technology is litigation document management and document review software. It goes without saying that young lawyers will often be expected to carefully review documents, whether they’re documents to be produced or documents that have been produced by the opposition. Those document productions could range from a few hundred pages to a few million pages or more. As a young lawyer, you are expected to be able to use technology—when appropriate—to review large quantities of documents and depositions. As one partner told me, a partner wants an associate to be able to plan a review of 50,000 documents; navigate, shepherd, and review them; and be able to transform those documents into a few usable and persuasive exhibits for a hearing, a brief, or a trial.
As part of using and working with document management technology, young litigators should familiarize themselves with electronically stored information and the protocol for its treatment in a particular case. It is important, for example, that young lawyers be able to discuss requests to produce metadata or to produce documents in native format.
Make a Unique Contribution: Advanced Technologies
Most of the baseline technologies discussed above are not new, and your ability to use them may be expected. How then can a young lawyer make a unique and important contribution in litigation that others may not make at their firm?
First, young lawyers are infinitely more familiar with (and nimble in the use of) social media. One associate in my firm received a lot of praise for his practice of consulting it at the start of every case. He would set up a Google alert for the parties (see our committee's Summer 2012 article on how to set up free Google alerts), would check our opponents' LinkedIn and Facebook pages, and would look for positions or admissions from other litigants. In one case, he discovered almost immediately before a trial that the opposing company had recently become embroiled in several different lawsuits and was apparently shifting assets around to hide them. As a result of his discovery, we were able to cut through our opponents’ attempts to hide their activities and assets. In another case, a claimant suing her insurance company took the position that she and the decedent had been in a common-law marriage. But the lawyers in the case saw on one of her online profiles that she told the world that she was single, dooming her claim for a common-law marriage. Needless to say, the claimant did not prevail, and her own description of herself as single helped greatly.
The second way young lawyers can use technology to make a unique contribution is through their ability to navigate through legal and nonlegal sources of information on the Internet. At first glance, this would not seem to be something unique to young lawyers, but the reality is that younger lawyers are more accustomed to sifting through the enormous amounts of available information to discover what they need to know. Accepting that premise as true, a young lawyer’s goal must be to use his or her skills in this arena. Doing so will pay dividends, even if the work is not assigned. The information can often be used in briefs, at hearings, or even just to have a better basic understanding of the case.
For example, in one case at my firm, our opponent made a series of representations on its website about its products. Later, when the company realized it was going to be involved in litigation, it removed the pages that contained the offending statements. But after searching saved versions of the opponent’s website on the Wayback Machine (a group that archives web pages), we were able to discover previous versions of the pages that we could use in the case.
There is no shortage of information available. Whether you are looking for information about witnesses, codefendants, experts, judges, or even opposing counsel, being willing to search the Internet and to organize information you find into usable materials can make a small difference that ultimately results in a big difference in outcome. Doing so without being asked may be even better, and it can demonstrate to your client and your firm (your other client as a young lawyer) that you can make an exceptional contribution.
Finally, young lawyers can make a unique contribution by being willing to share what they know and teach their bosses and other more senior firm personnel. Partners, senior counsel, or senior associates will often find themselves doing research—or creating presentations—with technology that they are not experienced using. By taking the time to introduce the people for whom they work to a new technology, or a way to use that technology better (by, for example, searching more efficiently), young lawyers can help the overall litigation effort, earn themselves the gratitude of those for whom they work, and help make themselves indispensable.
Keywords: litigation, technology for the litigator, smart phones, remote access software, trial presentation software, document management software, document review, social media, Wayback Machine
source;http://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/technology/articles/spring2013-0313-young-lawyers-indispensable-through-technology.html
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