I have been asked to serve on the Advisory Board for the "Mac Track" at the 2009 ABA TechShow by track leader, Reid Trautz. The focus of this track is to help lawyers better understand how Macs can be useful in their law practices, and we are currently in the process of discussing potential topics for next year’s sessions.
I want to hear from YOU, my loyal readers, as to what subjects / topics are most interesting to you, and which ones would make you more likely to attend TechShow and the Mac Track? You are welcome to submit your ideas as comments below or by emailing them to me at Ben@StevensFirm.com. Thanks in advance for your help with this project.
I’d like to know about document assembly programs for the mac that run over the network so that all lawyers can share the data.
1) What is a good replacement for Microsoft OneNote? As far as I am aware, there are none – which keeps me tied to using Parallels.
2) Some bar associations and many law schools use Windows Only software for their testing. How can we convince these groups to use software compatible with the Mac?
— I realize these are probably not the questions you anticipated, but they are the top two that keep me tied to using Windows.
Ben: I believe the most important information that Mac legal users need is current and complete listings of Mac legal software. Unfortunately, most of the legal software publishers still ignore the Mac market and anything that can draw attention to those publishers who do produce Mac versions would be helpful and, hopefully, encourage other publishers to follow suit.
Second, and similarly, I think it would be helpful to provide info on how to contact legal publishers who do not offer Mac versions to show them there is a large and growing segment of the market that wants Mac products. Whatever publisher comes to market with a Mac bankruptcy package will find there is tremendous pent up demand. I am sure it is the same with other practice areas.
In my experience, most cross-platform software is mediocre to bad. To really take advantage of everything Macs have to offer, a fresh design approach is often needed. That’s rarely possible (or even desired) with a port of Windows software.
So we’re in a little bit of a catch-22. Macs won’t get great software until the user base is big enough to justify it. And the user base won’t grow huge until Macs get great software.
We are on the cusp of a revolution in trial practice. Federal “courtrooms of the future” are quickly becoming the courtrooms of the present.
Trial practice is about persuasion and persuasion is helped enormously by the ability to see and read at the same time. Macs have superior graphical interfaces, and are more reliable.
Last year, I watched in amazement in a case when my opponent armed with her own AV specialist, a laptop, a DLP projector, PowerPoint show and a backup DVD spent most of her alloted time for closing argument trying to change slides in her presentation.
User friendly means lawyer friendly to me. I have to know how to do a lot of complicated things things in a courtroom. I do not need another layer of complexity to master. I want presentation software as idiot-proof as my Mac.
As to Microsoft OneNote, I thought it was the best program Microsoft ever made, although that is not saying much.
However I like CircusPonies Notebook a great deal, and use it instead of OneNote.
As someone who designs software I can say that Mac only solutions are really not coming to the mac. Things are going web based so as much as people want to have mac only alternatives to PC based litigation software it will not happen.
Most mac users run parallels or vmware and just use windows software anyway.
By the time developers develop something for the mac, we’ll be well on our way to web based applications and there will not be a need any longer to have mac or cross-platform software.
It’s all in the browser baby and Ajax, the new programming language that everyone is using now will be the new standard.
I’d bet my career on it.
J
I think the biggest issue is case searching software. That’s the biggie.
J
Ben:
OUTLOOK. That is the one glaring hole in the Mac universe (besides custom lawyer only legal software). Entourage is a very limited subset of Outlook, and if you keep client information in an Exchange public folder, more likely than not you will not be able to access all of the fields you need. A focus on alternatives for cutting the MS tie would be of great help.
Despite huge progress in “Macinizing” most apps and web-sites, there are still plenty of hold-outs in the business world that still make it hard if not impossible to navigate their sites without MS Explorer. I assume that wary, “time-is-money” attorneys out there will balk big-time the first time they try a vendor’s site that won’t work with Safari. Accordingly, I’d suggest that you be prepared to address those concerns.
(PS: the link to the Tech Show takes you to last Spring’s site, fyi.)
Practice management and time/billing software that is Mac specific and law office specific. I held out on switching to Mac, because I liked Amicus Attorney. When Amicus released its present version and married itself to Microsoft, I made the switch to a Mac. However, we still need an Amicus like practice management and time keeping program for the Mac. I use Billings. It is okay. I have tried Bill 4 Time, but am still uncomfortable releasing my data to a third party. I have tried Daylite, (the best practice management software I have seen for Mac) but it is not as good as Amicus. In addition we need trial presentation software.