Using the iPad in your legal practice — 2016 update

It has been over 3 years since I wrote this piece – http://jasonkaykl.blogspot.my/2012/08/using-ipad-in-your-legal-practice.html – I feel an update is in order. What I want to convey is merely what has worked for me, and what hasn't. Let's start with the apps I've been using regularly for work.

For emails, I am still using the native MAIL app but now in tandem with INBOX BY GMAIL. The reason I use the second app is because I need its "defer till later" function which allows me to put aside unimportant emails which will reappear in my inbox later in the day, the next day, the weekend, or to a specific date and time, or (and this is cool but not really useful for me) to a time when I arrive at a particular place (this is useful when I need, say, a batch of emails to reappear in my inbox when I arrive at a particular location for a meeting).

My calendar is still the native CALENDAR app mostly. But since my phone is an Android, I also have the GOOGLE CALENDAR app running because the "schedule" view totally works for me.

For word processing, I use the native NOTES app for quick pieces since basic formatting is now available. I will only use PAGES when the need arises to edit the raw text since anything pasted into PAGES is pasted as raw text, while formatting is maintained when you paste into NOTES. I have not used the MICROSOFT WORD app after trying it out for a month or two. But it is a good app. When collaborating with other lawyers, I use GOOGLE DOCS because it allows for realtime editing with collaborators and we can leave comments for each other. This speeds up work tremendously.

When preparing cases, I work mainly with scanned PDF of my files – annotating them to remind myself of salient points in each case file. I still use PDF EXPERT. It is, to me, the best app on my iPad. For organising the development for each case file, I use EVERNOTE and devote 3 notes (usually) per file – chronology, examination-in-chief/cross-examination flow/questions, and the submission flow. Each case file gets a specific name, and I do not create individual folders for each case file. What I do is use tags to remind me what each case is about, for e.g. statute, court, active or closed case file, area of law, and anything that will help me tap into research already done when preparing a future case. I use the tag function as guideposts.

To convert photos to PDF, I use SCANNER PRO, and I have PDF PRINTER on standby to convert web pages to pdf (this can also be done with the 'save to PDF in iBooks' function now available on the latest iOS).

I still use DROPBOX and GOOGLE DRIVE for my cloud storage needs. iCloud is on by default.

For instant messaging, I have WHATSAPP and TELEGRAM on the phone, and TELEGRAM on the iPad. Having Telegram on both the iPad and phone is liberating because there is the option of typing out longer messages (and it's easier to proofread on the iPad), sending it to myself via Telegram, and then forward to others via WhatsApp (which is the preferred app for most of the people on my contact list). There is less chance of typographical errors. I also use ZELLO on occasion – usually when coordinating large events or outings.

As part of my continuing education, TED talks are still a staple. I use the YOUTUBE app. Channels that I find particularly good are The RSA and The School Of Life.

New things that I currently use: IKEA's ISBERGET tablet stand. Cheap, and works brilliantly when I'm conducting a case at court.

Things/Apps that I do not use anymore: The stylus. iPad works best with fingers. That is its magic. As for all the other apps that I mentioned in the first article but not in this, I don't/rarely use them anymore.

And this article? Written on the iPad with the 2-thumb typing method, and final editing using a laptop.

Explore the apps mentioned in the article:-

• Inbox by Gmail – https://appsto.re/my/gcI81.i
• Google Calendar – https://appsto.re/my/8XXm2.i
• Pages – https://appsto.re/my/EysIv.i
• Microsoft Word – https://appsto.re/my/PWh9I.i
• Google Docs – https://appsto.re/my/qimpY.i
• PDF Expert 5 – https://appsto.re/my/nGcwS.i
• Evernote – https://appsto.re/my/m49Yq.i
• Scanner Pro – https://appsto.re/my/lva5t.i
• PDF Printer – https://appsto.re/my/QHkDz.i
• Dropbox – https://appsto.re/my/63ZHt.i
• Google Drive – https://appsto.re/my/Z2yrE.i
• WhatsApp – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whatsapp&hl=en
• Telegram Messenger – https://appsto.re/my/psM6O.i
• Zello – https://appsto.re/my/WcWsE.i
• YouTube – https://appsto.re/my/WxoBG.i

Jason Kay is a lawyer residing in Melaka.  His interests include legal aid (YBGK) (Bar Council LegalAid Centres) and war crimes (Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal).  He blogs at Open Letters, and tweets @JK_mlk

NYLC report - Seminar on Tablets & Touch Screens: Transforming Practice Through Technology

NYLC Top-Up Series | Seminar on Tablets & Touch Screens: Transforming Practice Through Technology (28 Oct 2013)    

Contributed by Vishnu Jeevapragasan, Officer, National Young Lawyers Committee and photos by Satha Selvan Subramaniam, Senior Administrative Assistants, Bar Council

The Bar Council National Young Lawyers Committee (“NYLC”) organised its first NYLC Top-Up Series seminar on 28 Oct 2013.  The NYLC Top-Up Series is a series of seminars, workshops and talks catered specifically for young lawyers.

The two-hour session, entitled “Tablets & Touchscreens: Transforming Practice Through Technology” was held at the Raja Aziz Addruse Auditorium and  attended by 31 participants consisting of Members of the Bar, pupils in chambers, private sector employees and staff of law firms. 

The seminar was conducted by Jason Kay and Foong Cheng Leong.  Both speakers have managed to successfully integrate current technology into their respective practice.

Jason Kay was the head of the Malacca Legal Aid Centre in 2010 and 2011, and is currently a member of the Bar Council National Legal Aid Committee.  He has published two articles on utilising technology alongside legal practice, namely, Using the iPad in Your Legal Practice (Re: Lex, September 2012) and How Technology Can Help Your Legal Practice (Praxis, Oct-Dec 2012).

Foong Cheng Leong is the Chairperson of the KL Bar Information Technology Committee. He runs a paperless and virtual office utilising numerous apps.

The main goal of the seminar was to allow the participants to learn and implement technological solutions to their practice as well as day to day operations.  During the seminar, Jason Kay educated the participants on free apps in the current market that would simplify their current daily rituals, which amongst other things included taking notes, storing and distributing business cards, navigating, storing documents, converting file types viewing and referencing files and much more.  He also provided simple and concise instructions on how to utilise these apps in a way that can genuinely make an impact on the amount of waiting time a litigator may have in a day.  

Foong Cheng Leong, among other things, demonstrated how participants could go through court judgments in various jurisdictions ranging from Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Malaysia and much more.  He also showed participants how they may obtain these judgments for free, obtain translations for free and browse and search through judgments.  He also shared his experience in creating a virtual library — an impressive and fairly comprehensive e-library of over 9,000 cases on over a hundred topics.

Participants were thoroughly engaged in the seminar and echoed that enthusiasm in the question-and-answer session.  There was a lot of banter and curiosity and many of them came out refreshed and admitted that this seminar would make a tremendous amount of difference in their practice.  Some participants requested that more of such seminars be conducted to cater towards conveyancing practitioners or more senior Members of the Bar.

How technology can help your legal practice

"This article was published in Praxis, Chronicle of the Malaysian Bar, and is reproduced herein with the kind permission of their Editor"

How technology can help your legal practice.

by Jason Kay

The landscape of legal practice has changed significantly with the introduction of new technology.  From manual typewriters to electric ones to computers, and the corresponding development of sending information by post or fax and now email, the law office of today is vastly different from that of 30 years ago when many of our current senior practitioner were just coming out of law school.  It may be virtually unrecognizable 30 years from now with the speed technology and science are progressing.

But for now, do take a few minutes from your busy day, and allow me to share with you what changes you can incorporate into your practice that may yield benefits many times over.

The essentials.

Your hand/mobile phone:  

Unless you have a legacy phone which you only use to make calls and handle SMS, yours will probably be a smartphone.  Smartphones are phones which are essentially mini-computers.  If you have this, you have a treasure in your hands.  Your smartphone can access the internet, your emails, and most allow you to do editing on the soft copy of your documents.  Researching and having access to the wealth of information all over the internet with your smartphone is no longer the stuff of science fiction - it is almost as if you have the Star Trek ship’s computer with you at all times.

When used properly (and in tandem with a good legal assistant/personal assistant/paralegal/secretary/clerk back at your office - I’ll use the word “clerk” to denote the whole group from now on), your smartphone can save you valuable time.

For example, when attending court, you do not have to bring your physical diary.  Your diary can be online, synchronized on the ‘cloud^[1]’ and accessible to your clerk to monitor.  You can easily view several diaries (for example the diaries of other lawyers in your firm, or lawyers that you are working with on a particular case, if they grant you viewing access) at once to avoid scheduling conflicts. 

 

After court, while in the canteen or on your way back to your office or your next meeting (I assume you have a driver or take public transport), you can dictate your report letters to your clerk to prepare the draft for you.  That draft can then be emailed to you to check and sign - digitally - without you having to make the trip back to your office.  On days with back-to-back meetings and/or emergencies, this keeps you productive and this minor, but important, work which will not fall through the cracks and be delayed.

Your computer:   

In today’s practice, if you do not have a very capable clerk, you should already have more than a basic working knowledge of word processing software, usually either MSWord or OpenOffice.  Beyond the basic typing and printing, you should already know (or soon learn) how to:

 

• format your document (using tabs, margin stops, and tables),
• use mail merge (useful if you do bulk work with standard-form-type documents),
• index your document (with foot/end-notes for a more eye-catching written submission), and
• annotate your document (with comments when collaborating with others).  

Why should you bother learning all the above?  Well, as a lawyers, our main (if not only) asset is our ideas.  It stands to reason that we should put down our fee-generating ideas in a readable (and, if possible, stylish) manner.  MSWord/OpenOffice is a tool.  If we learn to use it well, the time and effort invested will more than pay for itself in the long run. 

Your fax machine:   

Almost all offices would have a normal fax machine.  They generally come in 3 different versions (from basic to advanced) which are: thermal paper, ink-jet/carbon paper, and powder/laser print.  What you should consider getting/adding to your office is an AIO (all-in-one) machine which combine 3 or more of the following functions: fax, print, scan, email.  With AIOs, you will be able to take advantage of the “scan” function.  This is essential in the process of digitizing your files so that you can have easy access to it wherever you are without actually having to lug the thick heavy physical files.  Just make sure you get one with a scan function that includes OCR (optical character recognition).  This will help a lot when you do your getting up on the digitized documents.

Putting it together:  Convergence and Synergy.

Convergence is a wonderful word that means "the sum is greater than the parts."  Synergy is another word describing a similar concept.  What you already have (handphone, AIO, and computer) can work wonderfully to improve your practice, and ultimately, the quality of your life.  You just need to start using them together to increase their benefit manyfold. 

How you can specifically do so is, unfortunately, beyond the ambit of this introductory article.

The iPad.

One other item that you should serious consider adding to your toolbox is the Apple iPad (or any other tablet with similar capabilities).  I have written on how the iPad can improve your practice - “Using the iPad in your legal practice”^[2].

In brief, the iPad is vastly superior to your computer/laptop when getting up a matter.  Reading from it is a joy.  There is hardly a boot-up delay which allows you to almost instantly put your ideas down in writing.  You can write on it with your finger or a stylus, and if you prefer to type, it’s a simple matter of adding a wireless keyboard.

Conducting trials with the iPad is possible - I have managed to do so with an iPad and a laptop (to take down notes), and with the physical file on the table, just in case.

PDF - a special mention.  

PDF is the acronym for “portable document format”.  In plain-speak, it means what you see on the computer monitor is what you will see when you print it.  This is a powerful format which will be very necessary when you start working with your digitized files.  Working with PDFs require specialize programmes to fully harness its benefits.  For your computer, you should purchase “NitroPDF”^[3] (USD119.99) and on the iPad, the app “PDF Expert”^[4] (USD9.99).

Why should you digitize your files?

By digitizing your files and putting them on the cloud, they are available to you wherever you go.  This allows you to literally have all your office files, and your whole library^[5], with you at all times.  You will be able to do that urgent work while on holiday (if absolutely necessary), or not.  You now have a choice, unlike in days of yore when a holiday really means being cut off.  What if an important and simple task that can greatly benefit your practice (but needs to be done immediately) comes along while you are on holiday?   Would you not be glad that you had the tools and the ability to take that few hours and get the job done?  I would.

Is this change to the landscape of legal practice good?  Absolutely.  The legal profession is a service industry.  The only difference with the other players in this industry is that we are professionals in the truest sense of the word, dealing with very complex and difficult issues and we have very high ethical standards.  At our core, we assist people in what is usually the darkest hours, or the most trying/momentous time, in their lives.  Having the tools and ability to work faster, more efficiently, and effectively is always a good thing.

The learning curve of what I have described in the foregoing is not too steep - it takes 3-8 weeks to master.  After about 2 months, you should be able to start seeing tremendous results. 

The key is to keep practicing to use the tools you already have together.  Good luck with your practice.

And this should be mentioned:  Do not play (too many) games on your handphone/iPad.  They are a waste of time.  A little bit, yes.  But not too much.  Time is precious

 

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^[1] “Cloud” here is used to mean the storage space for data that is stored on a server connected to the internet and accessible from various devices which have internet access.

^[2] http://www.loyarburok.com/2012/08/21/firing-up-legal-practice-ipad/

^[3] http://www.nitropdf.com/

^[4] http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdf-expert-fill-forms-annotate/id393316844?mt=8

^[5] if you digitize your books, or subscribe to the online legal reports - do note that there are a wealth of free resources out there, some examples being http://www.kehakiman.gov.my, http://www.federalgazette.agc.gov.my, and statutes - just go to Google and type in this search string, “(name of Act) site:agc.gov.my” without the double quotation marks, and you should be able to download the pdf version of the statute as at 2006.