Has the computer really improved work at a legal practice?

Small Firms

I was having a conversation with my best friends dad who is a lawyer at his own small practice. You could classify the guy as a computer phobe. So I asked him what he does at work. First of all he told me that he does not have a computer in his personal office.

He takes the following steps to answer an email.

1. his secretary receives the email on her computer

2. she prints it

3. he reads it

4. he dictates a reply to the email

5. she types a reply up

6. she prints the reply

7. he checks the draft and approves it

8. she makes appropriate changes and finally sends the email off (Note this is quite similar to how letters were answered pre-computers in his firm)

What could have taken a short time has now been made a tedious exercise which is inefficient, takes more time and uses more paper, all of which computers are supposed to improve especially in business practice. What has gone wrong…I feel that the law society should be promoting technical training in order to ensure members can use technology to its full potential. Considering a large amount of their members are older and probably will be able to continue to work for some time it is still not too late. As technology comes more part of our daily lives, the lack of experience by these individuals such as my friends father will fall further behind.

Better to start later than never…

Large firms

One would think big firms must have embraced the use of computers in the office. I believe to some extent yes. There is much better collaboration and possibly better communication. With the use of such applications as lotus notes where colleagues can post meeting times for all without individually contacting each person is quite beneficial. My mother who works in I.T. says however that while applications like lotus are beneficial, people send way too many unnecessary emails, and their communication and writing skills are diminished considerably.

As Russell mentioned in class of how he sent a contract to the US to get checked, the other firm printed it out, scribbled notes, then re scanned it to send back to Australia. Here is a typical example of the misuse of technology.