Vol. 73, No. 1, January 2000

President's Perspective

Roads Converge:
Law and Technology

By Leonard L. Loeb

What's ahead in the year 2000 and beyond? Law and technology will intersect to change the practice of law - from the way documents are created and stored and how meetings are held, to the way attorneys, clients, and others in the judicial system communicate.

As attorneys, we will be faced with many technology options. We will need to determine which path is right for our practice. Our comfort levels are different. We have members who are technology gurus and are "ahead of the curve," and others who run their practices without a computer. No matter where you are on the spectrum, technology should be on your mind.

Many of us wish we knew more about technology trends and had more time to study them. In fact, more than 50 percent of the respondents in the 1998 State Bar Technology Survey said that lack of time to research and implement is their biggest barrier to bringing computer technology into their practice.

What is the State Bar doing to address these needs? The Bar has designed and is making available to us lawyers hands-on training courses in computer and software skills. The primary training need identified by respondents in the survey is learning how to conduct legal research on the Internet. The State Bar has worked closely with the Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin to make this initiative happen. The series of courses, to be held in the State Bar's new Technology Center, are aimed at educating attorneys and the entire law office team.

The Bar's first courses debut in February 2000 and range from basic Internet legal research to advanced research techniques, including public records and corporate information, Wisconsin-specific resources, and federal resources on the Internet. Based on member interests, training likely will be expanded in the fall of 2000 to include hands-on software training, including WordPerfect and Microsoft Word for the law office, and time and billing programs, just to name a few. Do you have other suggestions?

The State Bar is committed to helping attorneys, and their staff, make better, more efficient use of their time as we move forward into the new millennium. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the State Bar's technology training courses, please contact the State Bar at (608) 257-3838 or (800) 728-7788 nationwide, or visit the Bar's Web site.