Macs Become a Familiar Sight in Law Offices
By Jim Calloway, Director, OBA Management Assistance Program

Apple Computer Inc. has certainly had a great past several months. The stock price has increased almost fourfold during the past year. The company received a great deal of publicity with the recent announcement of its MiniMac, a $499 personal computer sans monitor and keyboard. The iPod was one of the hottest Christmas presents last year.

On a personal note, I’ve had more lawyers ask me why I did not write or speak about Apple Macintosh computers in the law office in the last five months than I had during the preceding five years. My standard reply is that I don’t write much about them because I don’t know much about the subject. But that never used to stop me with writing briefs in the past, so why should it now?

The announcement of the $499 MiniMac certainly made a big splash. It demonstrates a new direction in the company’s product lines. In the early days, Apple’s computers were both cool and relatively inexpensive. After all, this company originated producing inexpensive personal computers in a garage. But when the Mac line was introduced, while it was many things, inexpensive was not one of them. Check out www.apple-history.com if you want to delve into more details. Previously, the Mac enthusiasts would argue that even at an arguably higher sticker price, the Mac had overall lower costs of ownership due to the lack of a need for virus protection and, more recently, anti-spyware protection.

Indeed, the immunity from so many maladies that are a downside of using PCs
running Microsoft Windows has been one of the major selling points of the Mac line. Whether it was the Y2K worries of a few years back, attacks by computer viruses or spyware installing themselves on your system, Mac users have not had to concern themselves about a number of things that can go wrong with the computer.

Stephen Beam of Weatherford has been a Mac user since they were first introduced. His first law office computer was a Mac.

“We recently bought one PC to run our billing and bankruptcy programs,” Beam said. “But otherwise, we’ve always had all Apple computers. Our network has always been very stable with almost no problems.”

The computer at Beam’s desk is an Apple PowerBook G4.

William Bailey Cook of Ada is another committed Mac user.

“I hear others talk about computers crashing or freezing. We just don’t have that. I’m very pleased with the Macs. They are truly user friendly,” Cook said.

Cook mentioned that he is testing a new Mac legal case management software
program and anticipates switching from Amicus Attorney, which no longer produces a Mac version.

Apple has also recently restored a legal solutions section to their small business section of their Web site. It contains links to legal-specific Mac software solutions and other information, as well as profiles from lawyers who are pleased that they have “switched.” It is online at www.tinyurl.com/69nd2.

I’m certain that almost all Mac lawyers are aware of Randy Singer’s MacAttorney Newsletter. It is a resource to stay informed about the latest Macintosh news, events and related products. Subscribers receive the newsletter and special user group privileges, including special promotions for attorneys. To subscribe, send an e-mail to randy@macattorney.com with the word“subscribe” in the subject line.

Compatibility is not as big a problem area for the Mac lawyer as one might assume. With the current generation of Mac operating systems, a Mac can be plugging right into an existing network of Windows PCs and it will play along just fine. From what I have read, Apple’s OS X-based servers actually have a more secure design and ship with potentially vulnerable ports closed, making them a possibility for network server replacement. Of course, many law firms and other businesses will be reluctant to even consider such a change since it is likely that their IT staff and their outside IT consultants are of the Windows persuasion.

One of the reasons I wanted to cover this topic is my belief that while it is getting easier and easier to run computers, it is getting harder and harder to protect oneself from the wrongdoers out there. It is conceivable that a mass migration to Macs might occur for no other reason than to give users a desktop computer that "just works" without the average user being concerned about six types of security.

Apple has published a Mac and PC compatibility page on their Web site with a link to their complete downloadable compatibility guide in PDF format. It is online here: www.tinyurl.com/45r98. Recent versions of Microsoft Office files, including Microsoft Word are listed there as completely compatible. I have run across a lot of references to MacLinkPlus by DataViz in the various online and print discussions of file compatibility.

Then there are a class of programs called emulators that allow the Macs to run the Windows operating system and, therefore, Windows programs on a Mac. Several sources have written on the Web and in print that Virtual PC 7 running on the Mac GS5 computers yields an acceptable result. Running this particular emulator on slower Macs apparently produces uneven results. Lawyers are very sensitive to time- and money-wasting slow computer operations these days. Virtual PC for the Mac is a Microsoft product, as they acquired the company some time ago.

It seems a bit odd to acquire special software so a Mac can run Windows. But there are many products, specifically law office-specific ones that do not make a Mac version. Several types of Mac software for the law office are listed at the legal solutions Web site noted earlier.

Microsoft also makes available the “Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac,” which allows one to connect from a Macintosh computer to a Windows-based computer and work with programs and files on that computer remotely. This is a free download. Just type the above phrase in quotes into a search engine to locate it.

CONCLUSION

If your firm hires a talented lawyer who has been a Mac user for years, it might make sense to let him or her have a Mac on your network. After all, why force a lawyer into working more slowly or having hours and hours of training if it is not needed? It is likely that if a lawyer makes a request to use a Mac, they are already acquainted with the issues involving compatibility with the Windows world.

Apple’s stock price is going up for good reasons. Frustration is increasing as each new virus, Windows vulnerability and software patch is exposed. I find it inconceivable that Windows currently ships with Windows Messenger turned on. Why not include the feature with instructions on how to enable it when/if the user needs or desires it? Instead, we have yet another conduit for spam and things that appear to be system messages that concern, confuse and waste the time of the average worker.