THE CASE FOR COMPUTERS

[Music] [Music] the case for computers this is a film about computer hardware and software it's a story about diskettes and peripherals and programs all those computer things but more to the point it's about how all those computer things are being put to use in a profession we rarely think of as technological call it a breakthrough if you will the beginnings of new and better ways to do things and sometimes breakthroughs show up in the strangest places meet a man who's leading the way in these new developments John Klein he's a lawyer what's a three-piece suit lawyer like me doing in a place like this come on in I'll show you John Klein breaking through even on a weekend up in the Wisconsin woods this is it this machine lets me practice law just as effectively here is in my office in Chicago matter of fact it lets me practice law better than I've ever been able to before as far as I'm concerned it's the only way to go Klein's office is three hours away in downtown Chicago it's up there on the 41st floor he's a partner in the firm of will and Brinks olds Hofer Gilson and Lyon they're involved in patent trademark and copyright matters more than 30 lawyers with branch offices in Green Bay Wisconsin Indianapolis and near Washington of all practices patent is one of the most paper intensive stacks of files histories of inventions alleged infringement and files on similar products they have all those files but in a different form using the IBM information system for attorneys is a and personal computers they can get at the information within seconds defendants and I put those on from here we've got all of the text to the depositions in our database as well as all of the documents they were introduced during the litigation so we have very quick access to that testimony probably the most significant application of the computer has been what I call its photographic memory capabilities once I tell the computer what's in those transcripts and documents I can find those documents instantaneously it's impossible for me to overestimate the impact in fact I I often tell people the rest of those guys are out there with bows and arrows and I've got gunpowder it's an integrated system used for business applications and for the practice of law will and Brinks is one of the leaders in applying computers to practice all across the board in the last seven years we've implemented three levels of office automation when we put the word processing equipment in and I found that I had about 20 to 25 percent more of my time available to do lawyer work and not to proofread documents the mainframe has given us a capability of being able to track our due dates for our various properties and court calls and finally the personal computer probably of all of them has had the most impact on me personally being able to use that equipment to manage the information that we have to deal with in litigation and also being able to use it to create draft documents has literally changed the way I spend my day in the office Rita Stark knows about those changes she runs the firm's branch near the US Patent Office now with two-way electronic communications with Chicago her work has changed as you know law firms are not like most American corporations consequently the software that has been developed for use in the Orden business is either very difficult or impossible to apply to the needs of a law firm that is why something like the is a package that's been developed for IBM is of enormous importance to us as lawyers because it's designed specifically to suit our needs the system also meets the needs of smaller firms Levin Ginsburg and Nova Celski also in Chicago they have eight lawyers and a state of the art system 36 computer bob levin comments we felt that we had to acquire a very sophisticated computer system that will enable us not only to be able to meet today's needs from a business standpoint that is getting our billing in and getting it out the door being able to keep track of our back at an accurate basis but also be able to start communicating with our clients our clients need our information the faster then we can give it to them and what we're going to be trying to do in the next several years we're going to be trying to give our clients the information and service from us that they need we can only do that we think with the assistance of a computer and are you working on the shareholders agreement the firm is involved in general practice small efficient neared to quality of service and product they had another system and then looked around for something better they found it we decided to go with IBM because we thought we had the best chance with IBM of being able to deliver excellent product and excellent service to our clients and maintain a very high level of professional conduct breakthroughs show up in the strangest places Oliver brass gonna most lawyers really like to practice law and do it quite well but unfortunately that's no longer enough or to be effective successful lawyer today to use the same computerized technology that other businesses use frost cone is coming home from a business meeting he's with fresconi MacLeod and joiner and home is Boulder Colorado he started out in a basement fresh out of college now the firm bills at the rate of a thousand statements a month there are only 15 lawyers so that means they all stay on the move a computer becomes essential in his fast-paced practice time is critical okay I'm meeting at home to review documents generated by the system while he was flying back he conducts business wherever he needs to with the backup of staff the is a package and the system 36 computer press Kona thinks of himself as a businessman and a lawyer and depends on technology for both and you've looked at the changes hmm close by the IBM personal computer also used by mrs. brass gonna for her business both lawyers don't want to bother with computers technology in the business but in order to be successful we've got to offer the highest quality product efficiently delivered in a cost-effective manner there's no way around it if we don't automate if we don't have a computer system we can't compete Texas oil country big and booming attorney John Sewell is another one who's leading the way but it wasn't always easy to bring some others along with him we first started looking at computers to assist us in automating our billing and accounting systems I was concerned that I might run into resistance from some of the lawyers in our firm lawyers generally are trained to look at the past to deal with precedent and not to look to the future and new developments so I wanted to try to find something that let our lawyers not change the way they did business when we discovered the information system for attorneys we were able to automate our billing and accounting processes without changing any of the way we do things now and in fact by using the integrated filing system we had other capabilities that we hadn't even dreamed up John soules offices within the shadow of the State Capitol building in Austin he's a partner in the firm of Scott Douglas and Luton and he too stays on the move a large share of the firm's practice relates to oil and gas a high-stakes business where delays in getting information in making decisions can be costly Sewell uses the IBM information system for attorneys to manage his time as well as his information they represent hundreds of oil and gas clients around the state and we frequently run into a situation where a conflict may occur through the computers and systems integrated filing system we're able to identify those potential conflicts very rapidly and to avoid them becoming problems Sewell had earlier experiences with computers at another organization he knew what questions to ask when his firm decided to automate he knew what to expect but with all that he got some pleasant surprises one of the things that we've been really pleased about when we acquired our system was our ability to recover expenses we found for example we had one problem where we were not billing expenses unless we incurred time in that month the system found that for us automatically and we were very pleased when we were able to bill those expenses and in fact recover enough money to pay for the software package Carol the installation the conversion the implementation all went smoothly because IBM pays special attention to these things consider the experience of richard herman of Byard grill and Handelman in Wilmington Delaware we found that the programs and the representations made with regard to what the machine will do has met all of our expectations the support available for questions is in terms of a hotline and we have never had to wait for an answer to a problem it just all seems to come together very nicely with questions about support and service behind him Herman is now discovering ways to use the system to become a better lawyer the library is the most valuable tool to our profession it's also the most costly tool and it seems that as you add lawyers you have to add books and with the more books in the library the more unwieldy the library gets and the more expensive it gets it used to be that as you added lawyers the cost of the library geometrically increased but that's not true anymore not with the advent of the computer now by means of supplementary computer research we're hooked into databases all across the country and very often this will increase the speed of research by as much as 10 times similarly with the IBM is a package we are able to maintain complete control over document support for litigation by maintaining abstracts of documents they may be located almost instantaneously this is not form over substance this is substance itself we are able to provide a better product to our client at a less expensive cost the system is also used for major accounting functions and for time and billing the result is what Hermann calls a dramatic change for the better in cash flow management and there's reason for that in our business our time is our inventory and that's our product we have to sell it we have to move it we have to bill it there was a time when we used to ask ourselves can we afford to have a computer now the question is can we afford not to have one we've come full circle and have barely scratched the surface but the message is clear by the time this decade is out almost all attorneys will have in one form or another join the computer age it's just a question of how long that takes quite simply those that don't have the capability to use a computer are not going to be able to compete with those that do the IBM information system for attorneys along with IBM technology is changing the way lawyers work and where they work not all lawyers like being in the woods as john klein does but they do all seek to do a better job at lower cost and with fewer problems and that's the case for computers that's the breakthrough [Music]