Page 12 - Delaware Lawyer - Winter 2022

FEATURE
Technology Difference
Patricia L. Enerio
The
Law firm life and practice have changed in fundamental ways
While I cannot speak for all 40 years since Delaware Lawyer was first published, in the more than 20 years since I joined the Delaware Bar, there have been significant changes in law firm life and practice. These changes include significant developments in technology, which have had a dramatic and lasting impact on the practice of law. These developments have simultaneously resulted in more and less freedom, helping us to balance work and life while also creating new and different imbalances.
The technological changes over the last 20 years were building blocks that allowed remote work during the global COVID-19 pandemic to be possible. The significance and necessity of technology in the practice of law over the last two years cannot be disputed. Indeed, over that time we learned how essential technology is to our practice, and we were fortunate that Delaware’s courts did not skip a beat throughout the pandemic. Technology kept our courts open and our practices running.
So come with me down memory lane as we remember the changes and
developments in technology and law firm life that have shaped the practice of law over the last twenty years.
Research
Who remembers Shepardizing a case? These days, it is accomplished by a click of the Keycite button on Westlaw. Online research was around when I was in law school in the mid-1990s, but we still learned to research “in the stacks.” Today, the availability and accessibility of online research is huge, which made remote work during the pandemic pos- sible and convenient.
10 DELAWARE LAWYER WINTER 2022
PHOTO BY BUD KEEGAN