2nd Circuit, Federal Judges, Technology

Today’s Tech: A Federal Judge And His iPad (Part 1)

Why does Judge Wesley of the Second Circuit love using his iPad at oral argument? Let him count the ways.

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Lawyers have embraced mobile computing at a much faster rate than other types of emerging technologies. In fact, according to the American Bar Association’s 2013 legal technology survey, nearly 91% of lawyers now use smartphones in their law practices, up from 89% in 2012. Tablet use has also increased quickly, with 48% of lawyers reporting that they now use tablets in their law practices, up from 33% in 2012.

Those are impressive numbers considering that the iPhone was first released in 2007 and the iPad became available to the public in just 2010. So in less than a decade, these mobile tools have become commonplace in law offices, and tablet continues to rise.

And it’s not just practicing lawyers who use tablets. Believe it or not, judges do, too. In fact, not only do some of them use tablets — some of them rely on their tablets to get their jobs done. Judge Richard Wesley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is one of those judges. In this two-part series, I’m going to share with you how he uses his iPad to increase his efficiency on the bench and what he thinks about the effects of technology on the legal profession.

For Judge Wesley, the iPad is an indispensable tool that he uses on a daily basis. “The iPad was a game changer for me,” he explains. “With it, I can work from anywhere as long as I have wifi access. Once I realized that I could log into the federal court’s virtual private network and work securely from any location, the rest was history.”

Judge Wesley wasn’t always this tech-savvy. In fact, he relied solely on pen and paper to get the job done until fairly recently. But, as he explains, when he encountered difficulties accessing information during an oral argument about 6 years ago, it was a turning point for him: “I’d prepared for oral arguments on a very big case by placing yellow post-its on the side of the brief. There was one particular issue I wanted to address with the attorneys, but during arguments I discovered that the notes had overlapped and my writing was poor, making it difficult to locate the note I was looking for. I came away very frustrated that I’d been unable to make use of my notes the way I’d wanted to and felt that my efforts didn’t reflect the work I’d put into the case.”

Afterward, he expressed his frustration to his law clerks. One of them introduced him to PDF documents and assured him that he could safely explore the process of working with PDFs without running the risk that he would damage or delete the document. “With that reassurance I began to fully work with PDF documents. It took me about 2 or 3 months before I decided I was ready to take my laptop onto the bench,” he admits. “And the first time I used my laptop during an argument, I closed a window and didn’t know how to get back to it quickly. But by the third time the confusion had gone away. I began to use my laptop exclusively and never used paper briefs again.”

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A few years later, Judge Wesley was introduced to the iPad and hasn’t looked back. “I used a laptop exclusively until approximately 2-3 years ago when my clerks gave me an iPad and I learned how to work with PDF docs on it. Now I use it all the time! And now, so do many of my fellow judges, ever since Judge Lynch and I did a demonstration a few years ago at a judicial retreat. We explained how to mark up PDFs and showed how convenient memos with hyperlinked cases can be. Before the retreat, every order that came into our office was on paper, but ever since they’ve been delivered by email in PDF format. Because the judges were so comfortable with PDFs, we immediately reduced the flow of paper for a lot of the court’s motion practice.”

Judge Wesley uses his iPad in a number ways, all of which provide him with increased flexibility, convenience, and efficiency. “I use it to prepare for an upcoming sitting. My secretary downloads all briefs and records. I review the files, add bookmarks, highlight sections, and add comments on them and highlight aspects of them. I also add comment boxes in which I list questions I want to ask about a particular section. Then I synchronize the changes with my hard drive in my chambers so the document no longer resides on my iPad,” he explains. “Also, my clerks produce bench memos for me, which I mark up, and they also include hyperlinks to the cases referred to so that clicking on the link takes me right into Westlaw.”

According to Judge Wesley, one of the greatest benefits of using an iPad is that it allows him to better prepare for oral arguments: “I pride myself on my preparation. When I’m on the bench with my iPad and an attorney refers to a document, I often see some of my colleagues grab their volumes and flip through the pages, looking for the correct page. But not me. Oftentimes, I’ve already bookmarked and highlighted the section referred to and can start to read it out loud even before the attorney does,” he laughs. “I find it often shocks them when I do that!”

Of course, just as there are benefits to using an iPad on the bench, there are drawbacks as well. Check back in two weeks for the second part of this series, where you’ll learn why Judge Wesley occasionally yearns for the days of pen and paper — and why some of his colleagues still prefer it.

And, as always, if you or an attorney you know is using technology in a creative or unusual way in your law firm, drop me an email at niki.black@mycase.com. I’m always looking for new attorneys to feature in this column.

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Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney and Director of Business and Community Relations at MyCase, web-based law practice management software. She’s been blogging since 2005, has written a weekly column for the Daily Record since 2007, is the author of Cloud Computing for Lawyers, co-authors Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier, and co-authors Criminal Law in New York. She’s easily distracted by the potential of bright and shiny tech gadgets, along with good food and wine. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikiblack and she can be reached at niki.black@mycase.com.

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