Technology Diminished Office Life, But for the Best

• Pages: 3-4
• Date: 01 January 2026
• Published date: 01 January 2026
• Author: William H. Newman
• Subject Matter: Civil Law

Published in Litigation News Volume 51, Num ber 2, Winter 202 6. © 2026 by the Amer ican Bar Ass ociation. Rep roduced with pe rmission. A ll rights reser ved. This info rmation or any po rtion thereof

may not be copied o r disseminated i n any form or by any means o r stored in an elec tronic databas e or retrieval system w ithout the expres s written consen t of the American Ba r Association .

By William H . Newman, Litigation News Associate Ed itor

Technology Diminished Oce Life,

But for the Best

phone to relay news. All of these costs made legal representa-

tion dicult for people of modest means. The need for this

much investment and sta also made it dicult for lawyers to

experiment with more f‌lexible work arrangements.

To be sure, some things were less expensive. 1975 was long

before emails and e-discovery. Litigators had never heard of,

much less needed to produce or review, millions of emails.

While people complained of inf‌lation in the 1970s, the cost

of doing business has only increased. There were also lower

wages for associates and support personnel, as well as many of

the other costs and administrative burdens in stang an oce.

On balance, though, it is likely easier today than in the past

for small oces to do the same kind of high-quality work as

their larger competitors. This gives lawyers the freedom to

develop work arrangements that suit them. And since their

overhead costs are lower, clients benef‌it from more options,

more competition, and lower prices.

Technology Allows More N on-Work Hours

Litigation is a notoriously high-pressure job. That puts a strain

on anyone who deals with the stress of demanding clients,

unreasonable adversaries, and an unpredictable legal system.

But before the era of remote work, it also put a strain on law-

yers who needed to physically be in the oce most of the time.

Law was more of an in-person job in the 1970s. Before

the dominance of online research, lawyers needed to be near

a law library to research cases. Even if they had a typewriter

at home, they needed to be in the oce to share drafts with

colleagues. Lawyers had to review documents where the only

copies were sometimes in stacks of boxes in a windowless

back-oce room. Document review was also slower and less

ecient since there was no software that let lawyers search

©Aum racha/iSto ck/Getty Imag es Plus via Getty Im ages

law oce in 1975 was a busy place. Clients came to

see their attorneys in person. Partners and associates

met in conference rooms to discuss case strategy.

Attorneys studied decisions printed in books at the

f‌irm library. Secretaries typed documents that

eventually got f‌iled in physical cabinets. Periodically, lawyers

traveled from the oce to the courthouse.

Fifty years later, a lot of that still happens, but not as

much. Clients often retain and work with counsel over email,

phone, and internet video. Law f‌irm colleagues don’t need to

meet in person when they can talk and trade drafts remotely.

Most legal research takes place online. Artif‌icial intelligence

has greatly reduced the need for junior associates to perform

document review or write initial drafts. Even depositions and

court conferences frequently take place via remote means.

Technology has changed law f‌irm culture. On balance, I

believe these changes are good because they give clients more

options and permit a healthier lifestyle for lawyers.

Technology Makes Leg al Services Mor e Accessible

One major benef‌it to the change in law f‌irm culture is cost

savings. Small law f‌irms had substantial overhead. Lawyers

needed to physically be in an oce to take calls, which neces-

sitated renting private space. Lexis and Westlaw were brand

new; their releases were in 1973 and 1975, respectively.

Lawyers still relied on a library of books and regular updates

to those books. Producing documents required investing in a

typewriter the lawyer may not have already owned, as well as

f‌iling cabinets and storage space. Filing documents required

going to the courthouse. My mother was a paralegal at a

law f‌irm in the 1970s, and one of her jobs was to wait at the

courthouse for judges to release opinions and rush to a pay

WINTER 202 6 • VOL. 51 NO. 2

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TECHNOLOGY