Internet

Sean Tamura-Sato, of San Francisco, Calif., talks about why he can't live without the Internet.

“I seriously can’t imagine doing my job without the Internet! For example, a few weeks ago, our network went down, and I was at a loss for what to do. I couldn't receive emails and couldn't do any research. So I ended up going to Walgreens and buying snacks instead.

When I was in law school, we had to conduct research the old-school way. I think they just wanted us to see what things were like before. After the first semester, they gave us the passwords to databases like Lexis Nexis and Westlaw. Nowadays, there are also places online for looking up things such as statutes.

The Internet is also useful now for e-filing litigation with the courts. The federal district courts use the electronic case filing (ECF) system, which eliminates the need for going to the court to file cases with the clerk or for mailing the filings to opposing counsel. I think most courts will be using the ECF in a couple of years.

The Internet is particularly helpful during big cases when a lot of law firms are working together. Usually a ton of documents need to be looked at or edited by many different people. Sometimes emailing isn’t efficient enough. Online databases allow law firms to access and to make changes to the documents at the same time.”