In 1998 the American Lawyer Media Technology Survey of large law firms reported that 19 percent of the firms were providing Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to their lawyers. In 1999 that figure increased to 35 percent. The devices that were available in 1999 are significantly inferior to the devices that are available in 2000 in terms of technology, applications, and usability. Industry experts predict that the 2000 survey will show a rate in excess of 50 percent.

Recent research shows that lawyers and legal professionals are embracing the wireless Internet with unprecedented speed and excitement. Approximately three out of five large law firms are now supplying attorneys with PDAs and access to the wireless Internet. Of those medium and large firms that do not provide the wireless technology, more than half indicate that they know of attorneys at the firm who have purchased wireless technology on their own. Perhaps even more telling is the fact that two out of five firms that currently use wireless technology plan to expand their wireless technology capabilities within the next year.

The PDAs (Palm OS platforms and Windows CE-based pocket PCs are two of the most well known) and their more recent cousins the RIM devices (owner of the BlackBerry line), are now widely available and growing in common usage. These unique devices allow lawyers to have access to time and billing software, e-mail, the wireless Internet and word processing programs. And now attorneys can even access Westlaw on any of these popular wireless devices. West Group recently released Westlaw Wireless, which provides wireless access to selected Westlaw databases, KeyCite and the West Legal Directory.

Westlaw Wireless users are able to enter a case law citation and obtain a synopsis of a case and/or headnotes in a matter of seconds. The KeyCite function allows researchers to obtain the full or negative history and/or the citations to the case. West's Legal Directory provides users with the name and Westlaw database profile of an attorney. West Group has maed 125 years of editorial enhancements, which enable customers to get the most relevant case material without wading through superfluous material.

Mobile lawyering is fast becoming the reality for many lawyers across the nation. While some bemoan the reality, many embrace the newfound freedoms associated with this growing trend. While travelling to the cabin, attorneys now have the ability to review and access case law citations in a law clerk's memo with just a tap. On the way to a child's school performance, a lawyer has the ability to obtain KeyCite results for unfamiliar cases cited by opposing counsel during a negotiation session. These scenarios are examples of the mobile freedom attorneys can now consider a reality due to the innovations of legal technology companies.

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