Primary Research Group survey on attorney tablet use

I am always interested in surveys that provide information on attorney iPhone and iPad use, and the latest report that I have seen on this subject is the 2014 Survey of American Lawyers at Major Law Firms: Use of Tablet Computers by Primary Research Group, Inc.  Primary Research Group is a professional research firm that publishes research reports, surveys, and benchmarking studies for businesses, colleges, libraries, law firms, hospitals, museums, and other institutions.  This is a survey of randomly chosen partners, associates, of counsel and contract attorneys at U.S. law firms with 25 or more attorneys who have used (but do not necessarily own) a tablet computer.  The sample size for this survey was 104 law firms and 256 attorneys.  There are some interesting results in this new report, and Primary Research Group gave me permission to report on some the findings.  If you purchase the report, you get a huge amount of additional information, essentially everything that you might want to make use of all of the survey responses.

As noted above, the participants in this survey work at a law firm with 25 or more attorneys and have used a tablet before, but don’t necessarily own one.  The survey asked respondents what brand of tablet that they own.  The results were 66.0% iPad, 6.6% Samsung, 4.8% Microsoft Surface, 1.6% Google, 0.8% Lenovo, 0.4% Asus. Samsung and Google both make tablets that use the Android operating system.  I believe that Lenovo and Asus make both Android and Windows tablets.

Assuming that no respondents owned more than one brand of tablet, that means that a total of 80.2% of the surveyed attorneys actually own a tablet.  If 66 of the of 80.2 is iPad, that is 82.3%, so that means that of the population of survey respondents who own a tablet, approximately 82% of them own an iPad.  Here is a pie graph showing those results:

The results of the Primary Research Group survey are similar to what we saw in the 2014 ABA Legal Technology Resource Center tech survey, where 84% of tablet-using attorneys used an iPad, 10% used Android, and almost 6% used Windows tablets.

Although the overall survey showed 66.0% owning an iPad, the report breaks down that number by age and by gender.  As for age, the report shows a slight tendency, up to age 59, for older attorneys to own an iPad.  Specifically:

• Age under 30:  58.82% own an iPad
• Age 30-39:  59.65% own an iPad
• Age 40-49:  69.35% own an iPad
• Age 50-59:  75.38% own an iPad
• Age 60 or Over:  60.00% own an iPad

As for gender, there was a slight tendency for female attorneys to own an iPad (71.62%) versus male attorneys (63.74%).

Where are these attorneys getting their tablets?  90% of survey respondents bought their own tablet; 10% of them used a tablet provided by their law firm.

The survey also provides a lot of information about the apps that attorneys are using.  I think that the most significant new iPad app for attorneys that was released this year was the Microsoft Office suite, especially the Word for iPad app.  Almost 19% of all respondents said that they use Office for iPad, and considering that 66% of all respondents own an iPad, that means that around 28% of attorneys in the survey that own iPads are already using those Microsoft apps that were released on March 27, 2014.

When I travel, one of the most useful iPad accessories that I bring with me is my Apple Wireless Keyboard, which makes it so much easier to type emails and edit documents when I am working at night in my hotel room.  One of the questions in the survey was:  “Do you use some form of detachable or auxiliary keyboard with your tablet?”  34% said yes, 55% said no, and 11% did not answer the question. 

Speaking of travel, the survey also asked:  “Has your tablet computer helped you increase your billable hours?”   28% said yes, 57% said no, and 15% did not answer.  For the attorneys who used a tablet to increase their billable hours, the report notes: “Overwhelmingly they said that tablets helped them to add billable hours while traveling.  The term ‘traveling’ here is meant broadly and can include commuting to and from work or to and from local destinations.”  That makes sense to me.  I use my iPad in my office all of the time, and when I do so, it increases the quality of my work but probably not the number of billable hours.  But when I am out of the office, the iPad does make it easier to do billable work that I otherwise might not do at all.

If you are interested in more results from this extensive survey, you can get more information, view the Table of Contents, download an excerpt, and purchase a copy at this page on the Primary Research Group website.  Thank you to the Primary Research Group for giving me permission to share some of the survey results with iPhone J.D. readers.