Have Lawyers Finally Kicked Their CrackBerry Addiction?

Law firms are finally getting over the BlackBerry.

Biglaw used to be the Kingdom of BlackBerry. Every attorney had one. You had to check it every 90 seconds or the world would explode — and you’d get fired.

The last part is still probably true, but many lawyers use other smartphones now. Like iPhones and Droids and technology invented after the Paleolithic era.

The American Lawyer recently published a survey of how far the mighty have fallen. It looks like lawyers have kicked their CrackBerry habit, and moved onto hipper, designer drugs phones….

The ABA Journal says the BlackBerry is “losing ground at large law firms,” but it’s probably better to say that ground is long gone.

Here’s some good, extreme anecdotal evidence from the Am Law story:

“The marketplace has spoken,” says Dana Isaacoff, chief information officer at Williams Mullen, which had approximately 500 BlackBerry users a few years ago and now has about 40. “Consumers have learned that smartphones are more attuned to their needs, and it would be irresponsible for us to stand in the way of that. To the contrary, we want to usher in an era of user-friendly, flexible devices.

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It’s a Christmas miracle! Not only did we re-elect Barack Obama, but we now have law firms embracing technological progress. Woo!

The survey (with full results — including interactive charts — available here), shows that law firms realize employees are happier when they can choose their own mobile devices.

That’s good (and incredibly obvious, but whatever). Many attorneys are still probably tied to their phones with a psychological shock collar, but at least they deserve to use a phone they chose themselves.

Am Law Tech Survey 2012: Both Sides Now [American Lawyer]
2012 Am Law Tech Survey [American Lawyer]
Bye-Bye BlackBerrys: 88% of BigLaw CIOs Expect Use to Decline in Next Year [ABA Journal]

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