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The primary legal research companies, Westlaw and LexisNexis, were among the first companies to recognize the potential of the internet as a legal research tool when they launched online versions in the early 1990s. Given their entrepreneurial spirit, the commercial rivalry between the companies, and amount of time lawyers necessarily spend out of the office, I have wondered for some time when we would see a LexisNexis or Westlaw app for the iPhone. Though surprising that it did not happen until the end of 2009, it appears that LexisNexis won the race with the recent release of its “LexisNexis Get Cases & Shepardize” app for the iPhone.

This inevitable app release is the latest in a slow, but consistent, line of apps geared towards lawyers, leading me to wonder whether it was finally time to make the switch to the iPhone from the various Blackberry versions I have used since I started practicing law. Because I use my phone primarily for talking, emailing, and calendaring, I have always preferred the Blackberry for its ability to integrate with Microsoft Exchange seamlessly and its easy-to-use full QWERTY keyboard. Mine were sentiments apparently shared by a majority of lawyers.  According to a summer legal technology survey by the ABA, sixty-four percent of lawyers surveyed reported using Blackberries at work, compared to just fourteen percent using iPhones and thirteen percent using the Palm Treo.

Change may be on its way, though.

In addition to the LexisNexis app discussed above, a number of other iPhone apps have been released with lawyers in mind, including the Black’s Law Dictionary (priced unusually high at $49.99), LawStack (a free app containing the Constitution and all of the up-to-date Federal Rules), and Court Days (an ever useful app allowing calculation of the number of days between events, which includes court closure dates from over sixty jurisdictions). Companies seeking to assist those studying to become lawyers have also seized upon the new technology, with multiple apps for LSAT preparation, Bar exam review and even law school rankings.

The legal community has been slow to adapt to the popularity and growing influence of the smartphone app market.  As the makers of legal products release new and useful apps aimed at lawyers, though, and as lawyers become more comfortable with the iPhone platform, I expect to see more and more lawyers leaving the familiar confines of the Blackberry behind to join the iPhone revolution.  With these changes, “there’s an app for that” may be a refrain finally applicable to the legal field.

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