Law Practice Management and Technology
The Bottom Line Volume 35, No. 2, April 2014
Content
- Adopting Word 2013 at Your Law Firm
- Coach's Corner: Exercise Your Business Acumen
- E-Mail Efficiency, Time Management and Mobile Communication Courtesy in 2014
- MCLE Self-Study Article Disaster Preparedness Guidelines for Law Practices
- Message From the Chair: Cybersecurity in the Golden State
- Message From the Editors
- New Member Benefit: TechnoLawyer Archive®
- Press Release: Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Issues Guide for Small Businesses to Protect Against Cyber Attacks, Data Breaches
- The Dangers of “Bring Your Own Cloud” (Byoc) During e-Discovery
- Everything Old Is New Again
Everything Old Is New Again
By Peter N. Brewer, Esq.
Law Offices of Peter N. Brewer
Take dictation for example. I once asked my father, who was a long-practicing lawyer, what type of dictation equipment he used. His response to me was, “I dictate to a live audience.†It took me a moment to register what he was even saying. He dictated to a secretary who had the now-rare skill of having mastered Gregg shorthand. I was stupefied.
Today we have an entire generation of lawyers who grew up with their fingers on a keyboard. Many of them had neither the reason nor the opportunity to develop good dictating skills. And the rationalizations for not attempting dictation proliferate. “I compose better on the screen.†“I’m a fast typist, so I don’t need to dictate.†And so forth.
Becoming comfortable with dictating offers virtues beyond merely getting your thoughts into written form. It is a mental discipline that involves ordering your thoughts in your head. That discipline has virtues well beyond merely recording the written word. Think before you speak, what a concept!