The Apple Watch And Women Lawyers: The Perfect Match

Women attorneys in particular will appreciate the Apple Watch notifications.

It’s been a little over two years now since the Apple Watch was released. Since then, I’ve noticed it gradually appear on more and more people’s wrists. So it wasn’t all that surprising when I read last week that since launching in 2015, more than 30 million Apple Watches have been shipped. That’s a lot of Watches — no wonder I’m seeing so many Watches “in the wild.”

Gadget geek that I am, I’ve been a fan of the Apple Watch since it was released in 2015. After owning it for a few days, I was already appreciating the many benefits it offered. Interestingly, one of my favorite aspects of owning the Watch was that it helped to untether me from my phone, which in some ways seems counterintuitive. After all, how can adding another gadget to one’s electronic arsenal somehow reduce reliance on tech? And yet, that’s what I discovered after owning the Watch for just one week.

I also noticed that many of the Watch’s features would prove to be particularly useful to women attorneys, as I explained in this post:

Women attorneys in particular will appreciate the Apple Watch notifications. Most professional women don’t carry their iPhones in their pant pockets or in the inside pocket of their suit jackets since the pockets are too small and instead store phones in their purses and briefcases, resulting in missed phone notifications since women are unable to feel the phones vibrate and oftentimes can’t hear them when they ring. The Apple Watch solves this problem since it provides women lawyers with the ability to receive important notifications right on their wrist, even if their iPhone is hidden away.

So, last week when I came across a thread in an online forum for women lawyers regarding their Apple Watch use, I was particularly excited to read that the Apple Watch was indeed proving useful for women attorneys for many of the very same reasons I’d predicted it would.

For example, Amy Guerra, a criminal defense attorney from Fresno, California, explained that her Watch helped her stay on top of her busy practice while away from her office: “I spend most days in court and it’s a discreet way of receiving texts and reminders without carrying around my purse or phone.”

Similarly, Jodi Ezrin Murphy, a Florida estate planning and elder law attorney at Murphy and Bergland, PLLC, emphasized how useful the subtle notifications were: “Now I don’t miss texts or calls and can dictate replies to texts easily. I’ve answered calls on it with no problems but most importantly….my admin can text me if meetings are running long and it vibrates discreetly so I know to wrap things up!”

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Krista McCarthy, an Arizona personal injury attorney with Friedl Richardson, also appreciates the benefits provided by the Watch’s notifications: “I love my Apple Watch. I get texts and calls when I’m in meetings on the floor below my phone. I don’t like to go into client meetings or depositions with my phone, so the fact that I can leave it in my office and still get calls and texts in the conference room is huge. And, after missing calls from my son’s school when he was injured last year, I now won’t leave home without it.”

Another theme that popped up often in the comment thread was that the Watch actually reduced the use of electronic devices across the board. One lawyer indicated that because she was able to receive only important notifications on her Watch, she used her phone less and was more in the moment on a day-to-day-basis.

Another attorney, Malka Zeefe, shared that the Watch prevents her from getting distracted by her iPhone: “With the Watch, I get an alert and check quickly. Usually it’s something I can disregard, and I avoid getting lost in the black hole of the phone.”

So if you’re an attorney — male or female — and you don’t yet have a Watch, you’re missing out. It’s a great device that will simplify your day-to-day life while still ensuring that you receive the information that is most important to you.

But if you’re thinking of taking the leap, I’d recommend waiting a few months. Rumor has it that Apple will be releasing a new Watch later this year that will include LTE support. Once that happens, it will literally untether you from the time suck that is your iPhone for good.

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So take my advice and give the Watch a try — just wait a few months. Trust me — you won’t regret it.


Niki BlackNicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney and the Legal Technology Evangelist 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 @nikiblack and she can be reached at niki.black@mycase.com.

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