Trial Magazine

When I was in college I worked as a runner for a well-known Louisville, Ky., trial lawyer, Frank Haddad, and I still remember when he bought the first computer for the firm. At the time, the administrative staff were using the highly advanced Selectric II typewriter. The law firm library consisted of every book you could imagine: case reporters from Kentucky state and federal courts, digests, white collar crime manuals, evidence treatises, and so much more. The cost to keep up the library back then must have been astronomical.

Frank purchased the computer because the law clerks had come in from law school and had access to this relatively new thing called “online research” from something called “Westlaw.” Everyone was in awe that you could log onto a computer and type in Boolean search terms—and the computer would pop out a case or two that you could print on a dot matrix printer. We would have races where one person would get on Westlaw and the other would use the books to see who could find the right case first.

Fast forward to AAJ’s 2011 Annual Convention in New York City. I stood in front of a room of 100 lawyers giving a talk called “Gadgets and Apps—What Lawyers Are Using With Success in Their Cases.” I talked about a new gadget from Apple called the iPad. Only a few of us back then were using the iPad, but we knew that it would become an indispensable part of many lawyers’ practices.

Fast forward again to 2022. I now present at CLE programs where I talk to lawyers about their “tech stack.” I go from state to state as president of AAJ carrying an iPhone, two iPads, and a MacBook Pro. With those tools, I can turn any hotel room with an internet connection into an office where I can crank out as much work as if I were sitting at my desk back in Louisville. The ability to do this became even more important over the past two-plus years during the pandemic as tech let us attend court hearings, trials, and other matters remotely.

If you want to use technology to improve your practice and represent clients effectively in a connected world, I encourage you to join AAJ’s Technology and Science Section (justice.org/sections). I also recommend the E-Discovery Litigation Group, which serves as an excellent forum for discussion of issues related to tech and discovery (justice.org/litigationgroups).

And consider AAJ’s essential “Remote Depositions” Litigation Packet to assist you in planning, preparing for, and conducting remote depositions (justice.org/exchange). AAJ Education also has a wealth of tech-related CLE available through its online learning platform that you can download or stream at your convenience (justice.org/aajondemand). Because of electronic communications, social media, and all the other digital discovery out there, tech is now a part of all practice areas.

In this month’s tech-focused issue of Trial, you can read articles on federal e-discovery and spoliation (p. 18); tips for using video deposition clips at trial (p. 38); overcoming e-discovery delays and obstructions (p. 26); and developing a budget for collecting and reviewing ESI (p. 30).

Technology sometimes can be the bane of our existence when it doesn’t work properly. But when it does, trial lawyers can now practice from anywhere in the world. Technology helps us become better advocates in the courtroom and better writers and researchers—and it even helps us achieve a better work-life balance. I hope this issue helps you with all of the above.

Tad Thomas is the founder and the managing partner of Thomas Law Offices in Louisville, Ky., and can be reached at tad.thomas@justice.org.