Technology Corner: True Confessions

• Publication year: 2018
• Author: David Lederman

Technology Corner: True Confessions

David Lederman

David Lederman is the Immediate Past Chair of the State Bar of California Family Law Section (FLEXCOM). He also served as the Contra Costa County Family Law Section President (and is its current Legislative Director). A Certified Specialist in Family Law since 2001, he is the current Association of Certified Family Law Specialists' Technology Director. Mr. Lederman is a frequent speaker and writer on family law and technology issues and speaks Mandarin.

I could start every installment of this column with Bob Dylan's lyrics:

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

The practice of law has evolved since I started practice two decades ago. I remember that some attorneys didn't have email and the frequent nonsensical use of the facsimile machine. Every couple of years I evaluate the state of my office's internal systems. Some days, I feel that I have firm grasp of the current technologies. Other days, I am just awed by the pace of change and the evolution of traditional ways of doing business. It is easy to become complacent with existing technologies, but we have to keep "swimmin'" or we'll "sink like a stone." Nevertheless, some things just bug me.

One of these peeves is the changing of the distribution method of software. Like many offices, my office had a mismatch of software, largely based on when a computer was purchased. Basically, whenever we purchased a new computer, we would see whether we had an extra license for software that could be migrated to the new machine or we would buy new software with the machine. I viewed these purchases as one-time investments and did not buy new versions of software or upgrades as they became available. Why would I? It was just not economically efficient (and I did not see the added value for the new bells and whistles). The result of this was that my office has versions of MS word from 2006 to 2016, most of which were the 2010 version. I was also using the highest upgraded version of Adobe Acrobat Pro, version 8.

A couple of years ago, the software industry (wanting, of course, to maximize its profits) started offering monthly or annual subscriptions to software. I refused to buy a subscription to Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat. It...