Richard Susskind and I love the iPad

According the Richard Susskind, legal thought leader from across the pond and author of "The End of Lawyers?" the iPad reeks of hassle for the legal world. I didn't make that up!

This post from the Times Online (quoted here and here if you hit a pay wall) suggests that the iPad will not be the must have tool for the legal market.

The big problem for lawyers, however, is that neither Microsoft Word nor PowerPoint runs on the iPad.

Admittedly, various work-arounds are available, notably conversion through Apple’s equivalents (Pages and Keynote) but most legal practitioners will find this reeks of hassle.

I disagree that the work-arounds for PowerPoint are a hassle. I use Google Docs to store things like presentations (created in ppt and converted by Google) in the cloud. They display just fine on the iPad with the free Memeo app which syncs to a users Google Docs account. I have a wifi only iPad and if I display a presentation through Memeo while online, it stays in the iPad memory until I next sync with iTunes so I don't have to be connected to the net to see a document in the cloud. My presentation slides are advanced with a swipe of the touch screen.

Another way to connect to a presentation via iPad is through Slideshare. The mobile version of a Slideshare presentation even includes a next slide arrow for convenience. This method requires a live internet connection.

It is true that Pages isn't MS Word, but as a consumption device I think it will be well received in the legal market.

For the iPad loving early adopter lawyers out there, here are some useful sites:

Legal iPad Blog
iPad4Legal Blog
iPad posts at Slaw.ca

If you want to see what the US Code looks like on an iPad, drop by my desk, or invite me to lunch!