Billing, word processing and some data management has become easier, faster and cheaper. Some relatively new tools provide valuable assistance in these central activities.
All lawyers use tools as an aid to thinking.
It may be notes for witness examination scribbled on a legal pad, a white board listing case issues or a well organized trial notebook. In each case, the physical tool is intended to organize and retrieve information as well as to aid in analysis and understanding. These tools work, but they have limitations. In each case the effort required to change or restructure the information is substantial. Take a list of cross-examination questions as an example.