iPhone J.D.

Three years of iPhone J.D.

I spent the month of November trying a case in Florida. Spending all day in court and all night preparing for the next day meant that there was no time to update iPhone J.D.  But fortunately, now I have lots of thoughts about ways to use the iPad and iPhone in trial, and I'll be sharing these thoughts over the next few weeks.

While I was in trial, iPhone J.D. celebrated its third birthday.  In previous years (2010, 2009), I used that opportunity to reflect upon the prior year, and I thought that would be a good way to get this website started again.

There is little doubt about the biggest change to iPhone J.D. in the past year:  the iPad.  I first started using an iPad in November of 2010, and over the past year I have found that the iPad is just as useful a tool for attorneys as the iPhone.  As a result, I expanded the focus of this website to include both the iPhone and the iPad.  I took a look at great iPad apps such as GoodReader, LogMeIn and Note Taker HD, and great iPad accessories such as styluses (1, 2, and 3), the MOBiLE CLOTH, the FreeOneHand, the GorillaMobile Yogi, and the Tom Bihn Ristretto.

Most popular posts.  Here are the posts from the third year of iPhone J.D. that have gotten the most attention:

1. E-mail improvements in iOS 5.  The iPhone and iPad can do so many amazing things, but I suspect that the most important function for both attorneys and non-attorneys is e-mail.  Thus, e-mail improvements are always appreciated, and in October of this year I was excited to talk about the e-mail improvements in iOS 5.

2. Using AirPlay to wirelessly stream music and video from an iPhone.  I wrote that post in December of 2010.  This year, the ability to wirelessly stream from an iPhone or iPad expanded considerably in iOS 5.

3. Review:  Google Translate.  The ability to say something to your iPhone and then have it speak it back in another language is amazing.  It is more than just a great technology demonstration; it makes communication possible between people who otherwise could not communicate.  Neat stuff.  I wrote this post in February of this year, but now that the iPhone 4S has Siri, we have many more reasons to talk to an iPhone.

4. The iPhone as a boarding pass.  I first used my iPhone as a boarding pass in February of this year.  I have since used it countless more times thanks to very useful apps from airlines such as Delta.  I love not having to worry about finding a computer to print out a boarding pass when I am away from home.  Instead, I can just launch the app while taking a taxi to the airport, see if there is a better seat on the plane, check in for my flight, and get an electronic boarding pass.  When I step out of the taxi, I'm ready to walk straight to the security line.

I also find it interesting that many older posts on iPhone J.D. continued to see a lot of traffic over the past year.  These "old favorites" included:

1. iPhone "No SIM card installed" message.  When I first had this problem with my iPhone 4, it didn't seem like many other people were talking about it.  This post from July of 2010 has now been viewed over 60,000 times.  Clearly, I was not the only person to have the problem.  As I noted in a follow up, the only real solution was to have the Apple Store replace my iPhone 4.

2. My favorite iPhone shortcuts.  iPhone J.D. was only a week old when I wrote this post in November of 2008, and it continues to see a lot of traffic.  The tips are as useful today as they were three years ago.

3. A look at the iPhone passcode lock feature.  This post from September of 2009 continues to be popular, and I hope that means that lots of people — especially attorneys — are using the passcode lock feature on the iPhone.  You never know when someone else might pick up your iPhone.

4. iPhone Tip: create an Apple folder.  I wrote this tip in June of 2010, and I continue to use an "Apple folder" on both my iPhone and my iPad.

5. Why the "i" in iPhone?  If you were ever curious about the origin of the name of the iPhone, this is the post for you.

Visitors to iPhone J.D.  My favorite part of publishing iPhone J.D. is hearing from readers, and once again I'd like to use this as an opportunity to talk about what I know about iPhone J.D. readers — besides, of course, the obvious: you are all smart and good-looking folks.

Half of iPhone J.D. readers during the past year accessed this site using Windows, a quarter used a Mac, 15% used an iPhone and 8% used an iPad.  Four people accessed iPhone J.D. in the past year using the PalmOS.  I was once a big fan of Palm devices myself, but hopefully those four folks have now upgraded to an iPhone.

Visitors to iPhone J.D. come from around the world.  This past year, once again, there were more visitors from New York than any other city.  Unlike prior years, my home town of New Orleans didn't crack the top 10.  (It was #11.)

1. New York
2. Chicago
3. Los Angeles
4. Washington, DC
5. San Francisco
6. London
7. Atlanta
8. Houston
9. Dallas
10. Singapore

The third year of iPhone J.D. was great fun, and I'm excited to start the fourth year.  Thanks to all of you for your comments, e-mails and other feedback over the past year.  I love hearing about the interesting things that people are doing with their iPhones and iPads.

Virtually all of the most profitable law firms use iPhones

Every year, the American Lawyer ranks the top 200 law firms based on revenue, a list called the Am Law 200.  Firms on the list include megafirms with thousands of lawyers such as Skadden, Baker & McKenzie, Latham & Watkins and Jones Day, relatively smaller firms with very high profits per partner such as Wachtell and Cravath, and successful regional law firms such as Lewis and Roca and my firm, Adams and Reese.

The American Lawyer conducts a technology survey of those firms every year.  In the 2008 survey, only 5% of the firms reported having attorneys using an iPhone.  In 2009, that number jumped to 55%, leading me to report (back when iPhone J.D. was not even one year old yet) that "Over half of the most profitable law firms use iPhones."  In 2010, that number rose to 77%.  This year's results came out this week, and the new number is ... drum-roll please! ... 96%!  In other words, virtually every one of the most profitable law firms in the United States now lets their attorneys use iPhones.  Alan Cohen of The American Lawyer explains:

For yet another year, 100 percent of the firms surveyed support BlackBerry devices. But that number is starting to warrant a Roger Maris–like asterisk, as the number of lawyers actually using BlackBerrys continues to slide. An eye-popping 96 percent of survey respondents report users on iOS, the platform that powers both Apple's iPhone and its iPad. That's up from 77 percent in 2010. And 67 percent of firms count Android users among their ranks, up from 43 percent last year.

I think it is now safe to say that if you are an attorney and you want to use an iPhone, your firm should let you do so.

Profitable law firms love iPads too

This year's survey also includes some information on iPads.  Only 7% of the surveyed law firms provide tablets to their attorneys, but 99% support the iPad, versus 25% for Android tablets and 10% for the BlackBerry tablet.