Macs Become a Mainstream Alternative in the Law Office

By Gerry Morris


I’ve been a PC aficionado for years. I’ve bought them, built them and used them at my office and at home. I’ve always regarded Apple’s Macintosh line as an interesting novelty, well suited for graphic designers and music editors but not very practical for the law office, mainly because of problems associated with sharing files between Macs and PCs. Another factor hindering the Mac’s usefulness in the law office is the relatively small number of legal applications written to run on the Mac. It is hard to find a case management system or trial presentation software for the Mac. The two leading case management systems I’ve reviewed in this column, Amicus Attorney and Time Matters are available only in PC format. Likewise, InData’s popular Trial Director application and its other products are not available for the Mac.

Things have changed. Two major changes in the Mac platform in the past few years have resulted in the Mac becoming a true competitor for PCs in the law office. The first dramatic change was Mac’s shift to a UNIX based operating system. The specific details are beyond my ability to comprehend but I’m told that the shift to UNIX made it much easier for Macs to undergo the next dramatic change -- the shift from Motorola’s Power PC processor to the Intel line. The iMacs, as the Intel based machines are called, now have the same “brain” as PCs. I have read Internet newsgroup accounts of Windows software actually being loaded on iMac machines and running fine, though Mac users would quickly wonder aloud why anyone would want to do this since the Mac operating system is generally regarded as superior to Windows.

Over the past couple of years I’ve read various articles and occasionally talked to colleagues about the iMac’s ability to seamlessly network with PCs, share files and in general fit in with an existing PC setup. Until recently, I didn’t have access to an iMac populated system to see for myself. In recent months two good friends have started using iMacs attached to their predominately PC networks in their respective offices. One is a relative computer novice while the other is very computer knowledgeable. Both tell me that they will never buy another PC.

They report that setting up and configuring the iMac was easy, almost automatic, and that its integration was into the PC network was flawless. Microsoft makes its flagship Microsoft Office Suite for Macs and all the applications will read from and save to files created by the corresponding PC version of the application. The problem of transferring files between Mac and PC versions of Office is now nonexistent.

The other problem with using a Mac in the law office has also been addressed in a really interesting way. There have been applications commonly known as virtual machines available for the Mac for some time. These programs allow the Windows Operating system and Windows programs to run in a window of the Mac operating system. Before Mac’s shift to Intel processors these programs had to contain a layer of software that translated on the fly the Windows software instructions that are sent to the processor to language that would work with the Motorola Power PC chip. While these programs worked fairly well, (Microsoft even produced one) the extra computer power need to make the translation slowed down the operation of the programs.

Since iMacs use an Intel processor, much less processor overhead is now needed to operate the virtual machine and run Windows in a window on the iMac desktop. Both of my friends use a virtual machine program called Parallels to run windows applications. The applicaiton may be purchased for $79.95 at www.parallels.com . I have had an opportunity to see Amicus Attorney running in a window on an iMac desktop with the aid of Parallels. The performance was remarkable. Windows is booted up in the window just as if it were a separate PC. Amicus Attorney (or any other Windows application) is started in the window. The Windows Application has full access to the network just as if it were a standalone machine. I installed the Palm Desktop and Hotsync application in Windows for my friend and it too worked flawlessly.

My more computer literate friend runs a Windows based billing and accounting program on his iMac as well as Amicus Attorney. He has located Mac drivers for his Fujitsu scanner at www.scantango.com and now uses the iMac as his document entry station for his paperless office.

From my limited personal observations and from the enthusiastic endorsements of my friends it appears to me that the iMac removed the barriers that once made integrating a Mac into the law office network a tedious proposition. My friends and other Mac users rave about the stability of the Mac operating system. They tell me that crashes are non-existent. They also contend that the Mac user interface is far more intuitive and thus, easier to master, than Windows. Apples increased sales is perhaps the best evidence that more users are seeing the iMac as a viable alternative to PCs in the office workplace.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a solo practitioner and has practiced law for over 28 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.