[Petra Pasternak]
The iPad is the magical intersection of high-priced toy, bragging-rights status symbol and geek epiphany. So pretty much every lawyer in town has one, right? I decided to investigate and, this being a blog, to draw my conclusions in a random and unscientific manner.
Last week, Union Bank’s Justin Miller herded managing partners from firms big and small into a conference room to discuss some serious topics, such as alternative fee arrangements. So I asked him to toss in a question about the latest thing Steve Jobs has brought down from the mountain. And he asked about the iPhone, too.
The results surprised us: Not one of them high rollers has an iPad yet.
Four of 13 managing partners at the meeting (that’s almost 31 percent) said they plan to buy an iPad in the next 12 months. All of them expect the device to be fully compatible with their law firm’s security needs, Miller noted.
I later caught up with Chris Kearny, one of the participants. The managing partner at Keker & Van Nest calls himself a “Kindle owner suffering from iPad-envy” and a “bit of a tech geek,” too. He’s one of the four who plans to get an iPad soon.
Twelve of 13 managing partners said their firms were iPhone compatible — of those 12, the vast majority just upgraded their compatibility in the last 12 months.
Miller said the one managing partner whose firm was not iPhone compatible attributed the lapse in hip-factor to a relationship with Verizon.
Oh well. Maybe the new Microsoft-designed Kins will float their shiny-toy boats ...
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