The Information Age is changing legal practice everywhere, from client expectations to court protocols. And there are some bottom-line tools that students should be aware of and have some familiarity of use, said Elizabeth Edwards, a reference librarian at UCLA School of Law.
“There are tools that nearly every attorney uses, but there’s also a wide range of tools that are specific to the type of law you are practicing and the type of office or firm in which you’re practicing,” Edwards said.Before coming to UCLA Law, Edwards worked at Santa Clara University School of Law as the emerging technologies research librarian and taught the class, Technology and Innovation in the Practice of Law.
The good news, she said, is that law students are already using at least one version of these tech tools as part of their legal education.
“The big issue is whether their skills in using these tools are up to a professional level when they start working as attorneys,” Edwards said. “By professional level, I mean whether a law student knows how to complete a task with the tool at hand, and can they do it efficiently — not taking hours to do something that should take minutes.”
Firms are increasingly looking for well-rounded candidates with a combination of business acumen, innovative ideas and adaptability, Arcari wrote in his blog post, “A Law Students Guide to Legal Tech.”
“Big Law firms are taking innovative approaches to deliver legal and compliance advice to their clients by developing their own proprietary legal tech. For example, many firms recently launched interactive platforms within their practice groups to provide clients with more efficient channels for receiving legal advice. Platforms such as Goodwin Procter’s Founder’s Workbench and Proptech, WilmerHale’s Launch, and Cooley’s CooleyGo exemplify client-focused legal platforms and initiatives,” he wrote.
Teninbaum said it’s not daunting to educate oneself on the subject. A great source is a book called “Tomorrow’s Lawyer,” by Richard Susskind, he noted. Websites offer insight too. LawSites is one example. The Artificial Lawyer is another. Teninbaum produces a newsletter called Lawtomatic.
So, what are some bottom-line tools that students should be aware of and have some familiarity of use?
- Cybersecurity and timekeeping management
This includes password managers and multi-factor authentication tools, such as 1Password, LastPass, Google Authenticator and Duo.
Edwards said there are two types of software that students may have little to no exposure to before a legal job and both are used heavily in law firms: document management systems and timekeeping software.
“Neither are exceptionally complicated for users, but a lot of attorneys can find them frustrating to use,” she said.
Document management systems have been integrating some of the same features as document collaboration tools (cloud storage, real-time syncing, file sharing), but awkward interfaces and slow speeds are traditional pain points.
As for time-keeping software, Edwards said it’s not always easy to use, but the hardest thing is actually the attitude of the user.
“Dividing your work-time into six-minute increments and keeping track of shifts between one task and another, from one client to another, are not things that come naturally to many people,” she said. “It takes some practice to get in the habit of capturing most of your time correctly.”
Students who end up working for firms during their summers will definitely use these tools, she added. But it’s also possible to get training if school clinics use practice management software. These are platforms that include time-keeping, document management, task allocation and more.
- Document production and presentation tools
This includes Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint; Google Docs, Sheets and Slides; AirTable and Prezi.
Most large law firms and government agencies use Microsoft Office, Edwards said. However, as a Mac user, you might use Pages.
“The best software is the app that allows you to complete a task effectively and efficiently, and is secure/keeps your data secure,” she said. “Something to keep in mind is that as students go from school to a legal job, or change employers, the technology they must use is likely to change.”
Grammarly is a great editing tool for professional writing. As is PerfectIt, WordRake, BriefCatch and Pro Writing Aid, Edwards said. Several of these tools (WordRake, BriefCatch and PerfectIt) either have modules for legal writing or are designed to be used exclusively with legal writing.
Tennenbaum said he’s assigned Core Grammar for Lawyers in the past, and students have shared they felt like it helped give them a good refresher on those important grammar rules we all theoretically learned in high school, but so often have forgotten.
- Legal research platforms
This includes Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg Law and Fastcase.
Most law firms, Edwards said, use either Lexis or Westlaw, not both.
Your law library should have subscriptions to all three. As the largest and most powerful legal research databases, platforms have a prominent place among the law library’s online research resources. Lexis and Westlaw both offer online tutorials for law students who want to practice their searching skills.
- Document and team collaboration tools
This includes Slack, OneDrive, Sharepoint, Teams, Google Drive and Dropbox.
“A lot of law firm IT departments frown on or actually prohibit use of certain cloud services, like Google Drive and DropBox, for work,” she said. “Being flexible and figuring out how to transfer your skills from familiar software to new will make you more effective, faster, and will help make a good impression on your colleagues.”
Tennenbaum said OneNote, a note-taking and sharing app, and its competitor, Evernote, are both excellent tools. They also allow for doing things like taking a photo and incorporating that into notes.
“For those on a budget, the built-in notes app that come loaded on both Macs and PCs are really solid and allow for easily sharing and archiving notes,” he said.
Edwards agrees that OneNote and Evernote are good options, as they are cloud-based, allowing some form of sharing and syncing.
“The virtue of this type of software is this: every law student I ever met is incredibly busy with classes, clubs, clinics, intern- or externships, volunteering, job seeking and personal lives,” she said. “Having a dedicated space to capture ideas and facts and dates is incredibly useful and takes some of the pressure off of having to remember everything.”
Software like Todoist or 3 Things are great for making lists of tasks and checking them off when you complete them. For more complicated projects, there is Trello, which can help you manage individual projects and also allows teams to create and assign tasks on a project, Edwards said.
Whether for documents, presentations, team collaboration and legal research, various types of law practice may have highly-specific types of software attorneys will use in that practice.
In-house attorneys may need to use contract analysis and management software, something a litigator may not ever touch, Edwards said. A litigator may find tablet software that helps them label annotate and display exhibits during a trial extremely helpful, but not other attorney would have much of a use for it. Some attorneys may need to learn how to use e-discovery software, but not all attorneys do or will.
“Be curious,” she said. “If there is a particular area of law you’re interested in, find out the types of software commonly used, what it does, who uses it and in what circumstances. When you are networking and holding informational interviews with attorneys, include questions about the tools they use day to day.”
