Category Archives: This Blog

Over the last 8+ years, I’ve published almost 800 articles here at The Mac Lawyer. How did it start and why do I blog? I didn’t start it to make money, become famous, or anything of the sort. While I have gained some notoriety from this blog, it’s never made any money and that’s o.k.

The truth is that I started this blog to fill a void. In my very first post, I wrote “While there are many excellent legal technology blogs online, none are specifically devoted to using Macs in the law office. I hope that this blog will become a useful resource for its readers.”

One of the “must read” blogs for attorneys is Legal Productivity, as it’s smart, well written, and full of helpful and practical tips. Tim Baran published an article today entitled “Why Do You Blog? 23 Lawyers Weigh In“. which includes contributions from the blogging illuminati, including Lee Rosen, Tom Mighell, Ernest Svenson, Bob Ambrogi, Jeff Richardson, and Sam Glover.

Tim was kind enough to interview me for his article, so if you’ve ever wanted to know why The Mac Lawyer blogs, read Tim’s article and find out. Thanks to Tim and the Legal Productivity team for including my contribution and for their consistently great work.

Yesterday was February 1st.  My last blog post was December 17th.  I didn’t intend to take six weeks off from blogging – it just sort of happened that way.  I actually received an email earlier this week from one of my readers asking if everything was o.k. and letting me know that I was missed in the blogosphere.  I assure you that I will resume regular posts in the next few days, but in the meantime, let me bring everyone up to speed on what’s been going on here…

One of the Christmas gifts I received was the personalized blueberry Pop Tarts (a/k/a the breakfast of champions) from my wife.  Not only was this gift very very cool, it was very very yummy.  If you want to get some personalized Pop Tarts for someone special, you can do so here.

I live and practice in Spartanburg, SC, and we received several significant snowfalls.  Now, in the South, significant means only a few inches, but we actually receive 8" during one "blizzard", which resulted in the schools being closed for an entire week.  The kids got to go sledding for the first time, which was lots of fun.  Fortunately, my office was only closed a couple of days as a result of this winter weather.

January saw three birthdays in my immediate family, as two of my three children and I all had birthdays within a nine day period.  I am coaching the church league basketball teams for both my oldest son and my daughter.  Both teams were undefeated in January, and both of my children had big games during the month.  We appear to be headed for successful seasons.

Not only is January one of the busiest months in a family law practice, but it also begins the "booking season" for my speaking engagements for the year.  For instance, I gave a presentation for the South Carolina Bar, and I have upcoming engagements in Nashville and Chicago among other places.  I have also been involved in several professional organizations that were particularly active last month.

I could go on, but you get the idea.  Things have been hectic (in a good way) here.  I look forward to getting back to blogging, and I thank each and every one of you for being my readers.

Since its inception back on August 14, 2006, this blog has received numerous awards and honors.  I was notified last week that based upon a recommendation from one of my readers, TeachStreet has listed The Mac Lawyer in its Featured Blogger Program.  Thanks to TeachStreet and thanks to my reader for nominating me for this honor.

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The folks at Rocket Matter conducted video interviews at the recent ABA TechShow, with such internet stars as Carolyn Elefant, Finis Price, and even little ol’ me.  Larry Port and I discuss my law practice, how I got into blogging, what I was doing at TechShow this year, and my thoughts on some of Rocket Matter’s new features.  (Note:  my interview begins at the 7:24 mark)

I was honored to be interviewed last week at TechShow by LexConference.  If you pay close attention, you might catch wind of my big announcement coming in the near future:

Ben Stevens has been practicing law in South Carolina for 15 years. He publishes three blogs, including The Mac Lawyer, and will be debuting an iPad for lawyers blog soon. Ben presented two sessions at TechShow: Mac Software for the Law Office and iPhone Tips for Lawyers.

Kelliann Blazek: What is your interest in TechShow?

Ben Stevens: I speak a lot on using Mac technology for attorneys so it’s kind of a good fit for me to plug in with these guys. I was one of the first speakers at the first Mac sessions three years ago and we’ve grown from Saturday morning with a couple Mac sessions to a full day Mac track this year. Hopefully there’ll be more programming next year.

KB: What is your fascination with Macs?

BS: It’s more or less just the ability to get things done effectively and enjoy doing it. I used to look at PCs as something I had to use. I look at Macs at something I enjoy using. We work together. The stability and simplicity of the operating system. The fact that it just works and it works quickly. My wife still uses a PC so we’ll go and look something up on the Internet. She’ll open hers and it’ll take two minutes bumping and grinding and fans coming on and it’ll eventually start up. I just open my lid and I’m typing away.

KB: You’re launching an iPad for lawyers blog in a few weeks. What do you envision the impact of the iPad will be on lawyers?

BS: I think the iPad, just from the Internet connectivity standpoint and the form factor, is going to be great for attorneys to have something more usable than a netbook. I’ve had netbooks before and the problem was the keyboard was too small and cramped to type on. So having something bigger, but not too big, that’s light and that’s intuitive, like the iPhone is. Just to be able to use the Safari component will be one thing but then when you integrate the ability to view and edit .pdfs and mark them up and documents and emails and all the other things. Before you get into all the apps that are out there now, I think it’s going to be a game-changer for attorneys.

KB: Do you think the iPad will be a technology that will be readily embraced?

BS: I do. If you think back to when the iPhone came out, there was this big question about, “Is it going to be as good as they say?” or “Are people going to buy it?” And then when it came out, people are standing in lines and camping out overnight and now everyone’s got one. Now the only complaint is the network’s not great. It’s not the phone’s not great. It’s the coverage. You take that same technology and put it into something a little bit bigger. I really think it’s going to change the way people practice law.

Source: "Ben Stevens of The Mac Lawyer: LexBlog Interviews" by Kelliann Blazek, published at LexConference.

One of my readers informed me earlier this week that The Mac Lawyer was one of the featured sites in "60 Sites in 60 Minutes" presented at the Special Libraries Association‘s 2009 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO held in Washington, DC this past June.  The speakers at this seminar were Gayle Lynn-Nelson from LexisNexis and John J. DiGilio, MLIS, JD from Reed Smith, LLP.  I truly appreciate being included in this prestigious list along with two other blogs, The Common Scold and Mashable.  You can download the seminar handout, which includes all 60 features sites, by clicking here or here.

A Spartanburg-based family attorney is making a name for himself nationally. Ben Stevens is the Mac lawyer, the No. 3 blogger in the American Bar Association Journal’s Blawg 100. On April 2-4, he headed two technology seminars at the annual ABA Techshow in Chicago. In addition to www.themadawyer.com, Stevens of Stevens-MacPhail PA shares his thoughts at www.scfamilylaw.com, fully embracing technology within the legal profession.

GSA Business: For starters, how did you become this guy enthralled with Mac computers?

Ben Stevens: The Mac part came about out of frustration in dealing with PCs. With the expense and downtime we got to the point we couldn’t afford to have them in a busy practice.

Having worked with Macs in college and law school, I knew it was a stable platform, and we just decided as a firm to bite the bullet and make the switch. Since then our tech support and overhead has dropped to basically nothing. We do still have a (Microsoft) Windows server, so our computer guy comes every once in a while to do that. But as far as the Macs, they work and they keep us working.

GSA: I imagine some people would say you are limited in terms of software systems and compatibility.

Stevens: PC people have a lot of excuses why they shouldn’t use Macs. And most of those are tech people who don’t want to lose their jobs, and I understand that.

There are more programs written for Windows than Mac, especially in the legal software community. But there are two things.

One, most software is going Web based. The practice management software, our email and our electronic paper filing system are all Web based. As far as PC programs, we can run them virtually. I can do anything PC people can do and my Mac stuff, while they can just do their PC stuff.

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I will be in New Orleans this Thursday through Saturday attending the ABA Law Practice Management Section Spring Conference at the Hotel Monteleone.  As I have mentioned before, I am on the editorial board of Law Practice Today webzine and serve as an advisor on the Technology Core Group, both of which will hold meetings at this conference.  

In addition, I am planning to have dinner Thursday evening with Ernest Svenson (publisher of Ernie the Attorney) and Jeff Richardson (publisher of iPhone, J.D.). If any of my readers will be at this conference or in the New Orleans area between now and Saturday, please let me know and perhaps we can meet in person.