08-11-2012, 12:02 PM
THE IMPACT OF COMPUTERS ON THE LEGAL PROFESSION: EVOLUTION OR REVOLUTION
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INTRODUCTION
Computer enthusiasts like to claim that they have changed the world,
and it is hard to deny that computers have had a significant impact. Take
some examples from the recent popular press, which tell us that: computerbased
matchmaking can replace hit-or-miss human dating;1 events in Estonia
suggest that “cyberwar” may be a new threat;2 energy shortages may be
accelerated by the growing consumption of electricity by computers;3 technology
allows people to move to resort cities and maintain their big-city
professional lives, leading to a “transformation of rural communities”;4 restaurant
reservations have moved to a new level because of computerization;
5 and cell phones are used for musical performances.
As a singularly information-dependent profession, the field of law
could hardly escape the impact of the Information Age. As they do with so
many other things, the computer enthusiasts regard this impact as revolutionary.
My focus in this Essay is on how to evaluate that claim. To do so,
one must be both selective and somewhat general. “The analysis of society
and technology has been a central issue in sociology since its beginning,”7
and it is beyond the scope of this Essay to revisit or recreate such a longstanding
undertaking. Thus, examining the range of impacts of computer
technology on the legal profession necessarily requires selectivity, which
prevents deep examination of many topics.
PREFATORY NOTE: WHAT DOESN’T DEPEND ON COMPUTERS
NOWADAYS?
One reason young people believe nothing was possible before the Information
Age is that almost everything they do is now dependent on computers.
Cars and telephones work because of computers. Schools rely on
computers to collect and store information about students. Entertainments
of all sorts market their tickets using computers even if they don’t directly
rely on computers for the performances themselves. But to a significant extent,
this reliance replaces precomputer activities that were relatively similar.
Computers just do the same things more rapidly and at a lower cost.
Surveying this broad swath of activities affected by computers, I conclude
that it is not possible to isolate all aspects of lawyers’ work that have
changed because of the computer. Instead, I will focus on a selective catalogue
that emphasizes the communication, information-storage, information-
analysis, and information-dissemination capacities of computers.
While these features are certainly the ones that have had the largest impact
on society as a whole, the emphasis here will be on the way in which they
affect lawyers.
WAYS IN WHICH THE COMPUTER AFFECTS
THE LEGAL PROFESSION
Undoubtedly, it could be said that computers affect almost all regular
activities of lawyers. The following array of examples is intended to be an
illustrative rather than an exhaustive chronicle of those impacts.
Law School
Law school is where the legal profession begins for the twenty-first
century aspiring lawyer. How much does it differ from the law school of
earlier generations? Some changes are obvious at a glance. Faculty can
now communicate with students more often and readily via the Internet.
Various entertaining computer-based methods are available to enliven
classes. Internet searches presumably afford students a greater opportunity
to cruise through information about other law schools (such as old exams of
visiting Professor X). These changes are relatively superficial, however.
Law Office Operations
One need only think of word processing to appreciate the importance
of computers to the operation of law offices. But word processing, along
with the use of Westlaw and Lexis, has been going on in law offices for
more than thirty years, and the pervasive importance of computers for legal
practice extends far beyond word processing and research activities. This
impact has proven sufficiently important to be the focus of books20 and specialized
journals.21 These publications offer advice and inspiration (and,
one cannot avoid surmising, pervasive advertising) about the ways in which
law firms can employ information technology. Because larger firms seem
to have embraced such technology earlier in time,22 articles tend to emphasize
how more modest offices can do the same thing. For example, a lawyer
from a Denver firm described a two-month trial that two of the firm’s
attorneys had handled in Los Angeles. “With an Internet connection and
some printers, they were able to work as if they were in Denver,” he rhapsodized;
“I think it drove home the point that IT eliminated the physical
boundaries for the attorneys.