Planet of the Apps: How Lawyers Are Using Apps

Recent statistics indicate that there will be more than 100 billion app downloads in 2014. Although there are more than a million apps available for download on the iOS and Android platforms, most users tend to rely on a core set of around two dozen apps. Lawyers have been using fewer legal apps in their practice but they still actively use other apps for work and in their personal lives. Apps for travel, productivity, presentations, and document management are sharing space on lawyers’ home screens with social, mobile, and entertainment apps. With all this availability, how and where are lawyers using the apps on their smartphones and tablets?

In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the current state of apps, what apps they actually use and why, and offer some advice for lawyers choosing and using apps. Mighell explains the difficulty recommending legal apps due to bad quality with the exception of litigation apps such as WestlawNext, Lexis Advanced, and Fastcase. He uses apps mainly for consuming information, with app categories such as news, travel, productivity, photography, and others for his personal life. Kennedy discusses having most-used apps on the home screen of his smartphone, how he uses apps for consistent updates, and that he mostly has ones for his personal life including ESPN, Omnifocus, U Verse, Feedly, and Podcasts. Together, Kennedy and Mighell examine the lack of dashboard or portal app use and which tablet might work best with a lawyer’s practice or personal life. Even though lawyers are not using legal apps, they are still using many others to facilitate their lives.

In the second segment of the podcast, Kennedy and Mighell think back nostalgically about the days of Web 1.0. They discuss the simpler digital era, revival apps and websites such as Ello, the Facebook Room’s app, and tilde.club, and the booming advertising on today’s internet. As always, stay tuned for Parting Shots, that one tip, website, or observation that you can use the second the podcast ends.

Special thanks to our sponsor, ServeNow.

Mentioned in This Episode