Macs and the Law

Traditionally, legal practice seems to have been conducted on personal computers running Windows. Most legal software (Abacus, Needles, ProDoc) runs on PC based machines and in the past there was no way to work around that impediment. However, with Apple’s new operating system, OS X (v. 10.5), a feature called Boot Camp is included where a Windows operating system and OS X can be installed simultaneously. Ben Stevens, over at The Mac Lawyer, touts the advantages of using a Mac in legal practice and offers many tips and recommendations.

As a law student, I’ve noticed the numbers of Macs in law classes rising rapidly even in my short time in school. As legal software becomes more and more web-based, and less based on a local server or local interface, the use of Macs in the legal field will become more and more practical. Ben Stevens discusses one of his favorite products, Rocket Matter, in his blog and it looks like it will be a huge jump in practice management technology.

I know that I plan to stick with Macs as I move into my professional career even if that means giving into the dreaded double laptop scenario. At the very least, I might gain some muscle from that exercise.