What is a Digital Lawyer?

The phrase, "The Digital Lawyer" was first coined by Professor M. Ethan Katsh in a series of articles and his book, "Law in a Digital World." Katsh has written:

"The essential difference between the digital lawyer of the future, which may turn out to be the only kind of lawyer to thrive in the future, and today's attorney, lies only partly in access to technology and in skill in using technology. Rather, the core change in the digital lawyer is an understanding of the value of information in an environment where new tools for processing and communicating information make adding value to information and using information to develop new relationships the central concern of the economic system. The digital lawyer knows that although the new media present opportunities to save time, the most novel characteristic of these technologies may be in how they operate on space and distance. The successful digital lawyer is one who knows that he or she is in the information business as much as in the legal business, and that while automation often means that "time is money" in law practice, the more important insight is that "information is money."

Clients come to lawyers because they lack specific knowledge that lawyers possess. The heart of law practice is providing specialized knowledge in a variety of ways. Recent advances in information technology are transforming the methods that lawyer's use for processing knowledge and delivering legal services to clients. The microcomputer and access to the network are becoming a critical tool in every aspect of law practice.

The microcomputer is now a fixture on every lawyer, paralegal, and secretarial desk and almost every law practice function has been touched by information technology from "back-office" functions, such as accounting and record-keeping to such traditional lawyer tasks as document creation and litigation support. New enabling software technologies will be used to increase the productivity and effectiveness of lawyers. These enabling technologies are; (1) diagnostic check-lists or knowledge-based systems; (2) electronic procedural guides; (3) intelligent front-ends to data bases; 4) document assembly systems; (7) imaging technology; (6) multimedia technologies; and (7) communication technologies such as the Internet. The convergence of these technologies is transforming the way law is practiced.

The Digital Lawyer is lawyer who practices law making optimal use of networked computer technology. A digital lawyer is not a lawyer who practices "computer law", which is a subspecialty within intellectual property law. Nor is it a lawyer who specializes in the what is known as cyberlaw, or the law of electronic networks. The key to understanding the concept of the digital lawyer is the application of information technology to every aspect of the lawyer's practice.

Lawyering in Cyberspace

• Ethan Katsh, Digital Lawyers: Orienting the Legal Profession to Cyberspace
• Robin Widdison, Lawyering on the Internet
• Lexis Counsel Connect LawLinks
• THE SEAMLESS WEBsite - Law and Legal Resources
• Peter Martin, Five Reasons for Lawyers and Law Firms on the Internet
• Expert Systems and the Law