The Destruction of Young Lawyers: Beyond One L

6. Technology and the Overwrought Lawyer

chapter six: Technology and the Overwrought Lawyer J ohn Stuart Mill once observed, “It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being.”1 A similar question might be raised about the myriad technological devices that are now de rigueur for even the most pedestrian law office. Today’s fully automated law firm is a marvel of modern machinery, outfitted with computers, wireless networking, voice mail, e-mail, fax machines, Federal Express, pagers, cell phones, copiers, scanners, shredders, virtual conferencing , Web portals, deal rooms, document management systems, and sophisticated software programs that chart every action, every expense, every phone call, every copy, and every billable moment in every day. But has this orgy of technology brought us happiness? Has it made the practice of law better, or easier? Wasn’t that the point of all this stuff in the first place? Like many lawyers, I suspect that the recent advances in technology have made the practice of law more difficult, and while this is not the principal source of unhappiness for young lawyers, it definitely contributes to the elevated demands placed on them. To take a single example, I would suggest that the fax machine causes more problems than it solves for most lawyers. True, there are times that you need a document right away, and the facsimile machine is a godsend. But I have seen lawyers driven to near madness by this commonplace device. In a high-pressure law office where I used to work, there was a very successful fifth-year associate who suffered the extreme misfortune of being assigned the office closest to the “fax room.” Every time a bell went off announcing an incoming fax, the associate would stiffen in his chair and a look of misery would flash across his face, much like a dog that knows through hard experience that a punishment is sure to follow a high-pitched sound. After noticing this physical transformation occur several times a day for weeks on end, I ventured into his office and asked him why he reacted so strongly to the fax machine. I will never forget his response: I became a lawyer to have independence and control over my work, but I’ve become a slave to the fax machine. It ruins my life. I send something out to a client, go to the bathroom to pee, and by the time I get back, the document has returned with changes. I send out a redlined version and it comes back again—the document is never finished. I might as well be chained to the fax machine. I have degrees from Princeton and Harvard so I could work in a civilized profession, not to be enslaved to a machine like a factory worker. I’d love to smash it to bits. Was this man crazy? Hardly. He was perfectly sane. In fact, he had inadvertently put his finger on what I would like to call the Paradox of Technology, which is that many recent inventions promising to save time for attorneys actually have the unintended effect of consuming additional time. More accurately , technological inventions create new tasks and raise expectations, thereby canceling out the time they save. So even if the fax machine were to be totally replaced by e-mail attachments or imaging technology that converted documents to “pdf” format, this would save time in the short term but would raise a fresh set of technological frustrations and elevated expectations that would eat up the time savings and force lawyers to work even harder. With regard to the practice of law, this much is painfully clear: the law office of the new century is full of timesaving devices, yet we are working harder than ever. It sounds bizarre, but perhaps if we had fewer timesaving devices, we might spend less time at the office. Most rational people accept the basic fact that technology is inevitable, that it cannot be obliterated, and that we cannot turn back time. But if lawyers cannot go back to a golden age (assuming it ever existed), then perhaps we can make some minor changes to make our lives more balanced and more humane. In this chapter I want to explore how technology has changed the practice of law, and I will recommend that lawyers reconsider how they presently use technology in their practice. As a frame of reference...