Excerpted from the 2009 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, Volume 5 (Online Research) and Volume 6 (Mobile Lawyers)
By the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center
While technology increasingly encroaches on the daily lives of lawyers, they still make room for creature comforts. Lawyers are communicating on the go, but they are not yet giving up traditions such as a physical office and fee-based research resources.
Make Mine to Go
More than four-fifths of respondents report using a PDA/Smartphone/BlackBerry while away from the office (82%, compared with 67% in the 2008 survey and 53% in the 2007 survey).
Nowhere to Run
Almost all respondents report the ability to check work e-mail while away from the office (97%, compared with 98% in the 2008 survey). The method reported most often by respondents as used to check e-mail while away from the office is via Smartphone/BlackBerry (77%, compared with 59% in the 2008 survey).
There's No Place Like Home
Respondents are asked whether they ever telecommute, for example by working from home or other off-site locations. More than three-fourths of respondents report that they telecommute (77%), including 84% of solo respondents, 80% of respondents from firms of 100 or more, 76% from firms of 10-49 attorneys, and 71% from firms of 2-9 attorneys.
Office Space
Overall, only 6% of respondents report using a virtual law office. Solo respondents are the most likely to report using a virtual law office (12%), followed by respondents from firms of 2-9 attorneys (7%), and 5% each of respondents from 10-49 attorneys and 100 or more attorneys.
You Get What You Pay For
Overall, respondents are significantly more satisfied with the characteristics of fee-based online legal research resources than they are with those of free online legal research resources. Forty-five percent of respondents report that they are "not very satisfied" with the ability to search multiple databases simultaneously in free online resources. More than two-thirds (69%) of respondents report being "very satisfied" with depth of coverage, 63% with the availability of advanced search options of fee-based online resources, and 59% with the ability to search multiple databases simultaneously.
