Swimming Upstream: Using Macs in the Law Office

Software has been the single largest obstacle to running an all-Mac office. I have two bank accounts and use those to pay client fees (trust account) and everything else associated with running a business (general account). QuickBooks Pro 2006 for Mac handles multiple accounts without breaking a sweat, keeps track of my many vendors (telephone, Internet, legal search, etc.), and allows me to track jobs by client.

The problem is, despite using the exact same file-format as the Windows version, the program is designed so differently that accountants (an overwhelmingly Windows-using bunch) tell me that it's easy to set up billing - but then cannot figure out how to do it.

Billing should not be this difficult. For example, lets say that a certain job will cost the client $2,500. Some clients prefer to pay it off faster than others, and I need the flexibility to devise a payment plan that will work for the individual, rather than fit their needs to my software. I'm certain that there's a way to allow one client to pay his $2,500 in 20 monthly installments of $125 while allowing another client to pay hers in 5 payments of $500 in QuickBooks. This should be simple.

Another area of software frustration is the otherwise-excellent Microsoft Office 2004.

Where is the pleading wizard or pleading template? The Windows version has had a wizard for the creation of legal pleadings since 1997, while the Mac lost its template in 2001. That 2001 template, by the way, wasn't even created by Microsoft, but rather was written by an attorney in California and listed on Microsoft's website.

Fortunately, while not as elegant as the Windows pleading wizard, that old 2001 template is still listed by Microsoft, downloadable (as an Office 2001 add-on), and opens up in Word 2004.

Legal Software

The other software requirements have been more easy to satisfy. The big fancy case-management applications like INSZoom and Immigration Tracker are either Windows-only (tracker) or platform agnostic, meaning web-based (INSZoom), but with some features that are disabled when not running Windows.

For me, however, those packages, while slick and powerful, are also very expensive and include many tools that I don't yet need. Immigration Pro (you guessed it, I practice immigration law) is an easy forms and case database built on FileMaker that comes in both Windows and OS X versions and doesn't skimp on the features for those who prefer Macintosh.

Using .mac

For the simpler requirements of scheduling and contact-management, Apple's included iApps do the trick. iCal, combined with .mac, makes keeping all of our calendars in sync easy and readily accessible. This is something that not too many years ago would have required a fancy client-server application and an IT department, but today it's accomplished with a $100 annual service and bundled applications.

Finally, I use .mac backup to keep backups of my all-important Immigration Pro and QuickBooks data files on my iDisk. In the event of a catastrophe, my data will be safely offsite on Apple's servers, as well as on my iMac at work and my 12" PowerBook, wherever it happens to be.

Office Computers

Hardware was a much easier matter. The iMac G5 is working wonderfully as both the front-office computer and our file server. I partitioned the drive into two equal halves, with OS X and our user accounts on the first partition and all of the firm's documents and the all-important Immigration Pro and QuickBooks database files on the shared partition.

n the case of Immigration Pro, which costs $400 for the standard version and $1,600 for the client-server version, this was a simple way to save a lot of money. True, only one person at a time can work with the program, but with the entire program on the shared partition of the iMac, anyone can access the program and its data from their own computer, with an error message blocking a second person from opening the file at the same time as the first.

In a two-lawyer office where only one of us (not me) is likely to be working on forms at a given time, this is an economical and easy solution. Starting up the program is a bit slow over the AirPort Extreme network, taking roughly 20 seconds, but once open it runs as quickly as it does on a local drive.

Before I opened my law office on March 15, I hired another lawyer. Where my experience is in dealing with clients and courtroom work, she is experienced in visa applications and form preparation. Since she does most of her work at the office and rarely, if ever, goes to court, another desktop Mac was in order. This Mac would have a much lighter workload than the first, as it not be sharing anything on its local hard drive and would have only a single user.

For this application, I bought one of the last PowerPC G4 Mac minis and hooked it up to a nice 19" Samsung monitor. I'll admit it, I splurged and spent a few dollars extra for the silver-colored model that matches the mini rather well, but I cheaped-out and connected it with the VGA cable instead of springing for a DVI cord. (Yes, digital is the future, but for the text that this monitor is displaying on a daily basis, I doubt there is a significant difference.)

The Mac mini I bought was the old top-of-the-line model and included Apple's "stealth" upgrade. By stealth, I mean that while the box lists a 1.42 GHz G4 and a 32 MB video card, my mini actually has a 1.5 GHz processor and a 64 MB video card, along with a 5400 RPM hard drive, AirPort Extreme, and 512 MB of RAM, which I did not upgrade.

The mini is fast, has beautiful output on the 19" display, and often does double duty filling my associate's office with music while she works. More RAM would undoubtedly be nice, but I'll not be bothered with the putty-knife upgrade routine, and currently performance is just fine.

My 12" PowerBook, the only "old" Mac in the bunch, while extremely nice as my personal Mac, has been hit-and-miss in the office. It's powerful and fast for everything that I do with it, but I have found the 12" screen to be a bit on the small size when doing research and writing. It's not bad, and Exposé makes up for it to some extent, but I want a bigger screen. The 12" PowerBook was meant as a traveling machine. It's at its best as one, and that is what it is once again, with a near-new 15" PowerBook G4 now serving as my office Mac.

I found a great deal on the January 2005 model (same vintage as my 12"), which while lacking the higher resolution screen and longer battery life of the October 2005 model, is still a delightful machine for office use.

I saved some money and bought the 1.5 GHz Combo drive model, as there are already two SuperDrives in the office (iMac and mini) and another on my 12" PowerBook - and yet another on the PowerMac G4 at home.

The 15" PowerBook is simply gorgeous, and while I use it as a desktop most of the time, taking the 12" with me to court and on short hops, for longer trips the larger PowerBook is an agile traveling companion. On those longer trips, I'll make do with shorter battery life and enjoy DVD movies in widescreen glory on a display that, while not as bright as the new MacBook Pro, is worlds beyond anything I've ever carried before and comes close to even the magnificent 20" iMac. This is a very exciting laptop for me.

The final office computer is a super-cheapo Compaq PC. I was going to build a cheap PC myself or buy a used one, but when I saw a brand-new PC at Fry's with a 120 GB hard drive for only $300, I bought it on the spot. Since it would need a monitor as well, I brought my 3-year-old 15" Dell (made by Samsung) LCD from home and hooked it up to the PC. This computer is also in my associate's office, as its sole functions are uploading documents to court (IE 5.5 or better required) and for the odd time (none yet) when I absolutely need to run something that is Windows-only.

For the price and what it's used for, it does the job just fine, with the added bonus of giving me the Word for Windows Pleading Wizard (I also have it through virtual PC on my PowerBook). Its hard drive is partitioned into 20 GB for work (more than enough) and 91 GB as a backup file server, which the iMac automatically backs up to on a nightly basis.

One other benefit of having a stand-alone PC (it connects to the network just fine for files and printing, but it's not set up for email) is that if I bring in temporary help, I can put them to work on the PC and know that any documents they create in Word 2003 for Windows will open perfectly on our Macs, no file format translation required.

My last work Mac isn't at work, but rather is the home computer that, being a Mac, easily synchronizes and becomes another part of the office. This is a 7-year-old Power Macintosh G4 (AGP Graphics or "Sawtooth") that was originally 400 MHz, but has since been upgraded to 1.0 GHz.

Like the others, it runs the very latest version of OS X 10.4 "Tiger", has an updated video card that supports Quartz Extreme but not Core Image (Nvidia GeForce 5200MX 32 MB, for those who care), and 768 MB of RAM. While the oldest computer by far, it has the most capable optical drive, a Pioneer DVD-RW dual layer that will write to just about anything fast.

I plan on adding more RAM soon, likely bringing it to 1.5 or 2.0 GB. Finally, since the 15" LCD that had been attached to this beast came to work, I plugged in a brand-new 19" Samsung LCD just like the one on the mini, but black.

How It All Works

I'll admit, there are things that I'd like to do that would be much easier on Windows machines than on Macs. Most of this is because the legal software industry largely ignores the Mac. Yes, there are applications for case management on the Mac (I hear good things about LawStream), but the packages that are immigration-specific are either Web-based with certain key features disabled or Windows-only. Hopefully that will change, but somehow, I doubt it.

While there are difficulties, there are other aspects that are far easier on the Macs, like keeping our calendars and contacts synchronized. Of course, the biggest plus is that I don't have any need whatsoever for an IT guy or gal. Everything is easy and fast enough that I just do it myself, saving time and money, and with no spyware or viruses to worry about, there is no such thing as downtime.

In the end, I believe that I made the right choice. While I have to employ a few workarounds for software holes, everything just works, always. Perhaps even more important is that the Macs are a joy to use. I'm always hearing my associate say "wow" when she discovers some cool new feature on her Mac, like Exposé or the Dashboard Translation widget. These are features that don't really influence purchase decisions; they just make getting work done on the computer a little bit more convenient, and, dare I say, more fun.

In the future, I see making the move to Intel-powered Macs, but only when our normal upgrade cycle kicks in. The PowerPC equipment we have now does absolutely everything we want it to do and does it quickly.

Of course, had I bought an Intel-based mini, I'd be able to run Boot Camp on it and dispense with the Windows PC altogether, but then I wouldn't have had an excuse to buy a nice new 19" LCD for the old Power Mac at home.