Technology has always influenced the practice of law. In the past century alone, lawyers have progressed from paper-only writing and record-keeping to high-speed and high-capacity communication and data storage systems that would be unimaginable to lawyers one hundred years ago. The legal profession has had to adapt through every new phase of these technology revolutions.
The pervasive influence of the many changes in computers and telecommunications on the practice of law is manifest in the broad range of technology that is second nature to many lawyers today. Computerized research, text and data processing, e-mail and instant messaging, cellular phones, personal digital assistants and hand-held text messaging (to name just a few), are all commonly used. Yet despite a broad and increasing embrace of technology by the profession, for the most part, lawyers today learn about technology in ways that have not changed in years.
