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[billable hours]," says Zakaib, "or it's just that you're more accurately capturing time and being able to put in more detail. That's probably the biggest benefit for me." In a similar vein, lawyers can use a BlackBerry to record expense information and upload it to the firm's financial sys- tems over the wireless network. Expense management is not something many firms worried about in the past, Burrell notes, but with the economic downturn, it's becoming more important. Programs from companies such as Exgis Inc. make it easy to enter details quickly by selecting from pull-down menus and keying in dollar amounts. Automating and mobilizing the process ultimately means recovering expenses from clients faster, Burrell says. Interwoven Inc., which makes docu- ment management system WorkSite, offers WorkSite Mobile for the BlackBerry. It lets lawyers send e-mails from the device and attach documents stored in the document management system. (The attachment is added as the message passes through the firm's BlackBerry server.) They can also down- load documents to a BlackBerry for review. Zakaib uses WorkSite Mobile — though not often, he says. "There have been occasions when I'm on the road and a client needed something right away in an emergency. [Worksite Mobile] gives me the ability go in and find a document [in Interwoven] and send it [as an attachment]." The interface on the BlackBerry includes most of the information users see when ordinarily accessing Interwoven, including shortcuts, searches, recent doc- uments viewed, etc. But for Zakaib, the size of the BlackBerry screen makes it unsatisfactory for reviewing documents. "It's not something I want to use a lot," he says. "My eyesight isn't as good as it was." Most U.S. legal research services offer mobile versions of their web sites and search engines formatted for the small screen, including for BlackBerry. Few, if any, Canadian research services do. But that doesn't mean Canadian law- yers can't access useful research on their BlackBerrys. Zakaib occasionally uses his to access sites such as elaws.com. It just means you have to use the track ball or ntitled-3 1 PCLaw™ thumb wheel to scroll through full-size web pages to find information and links. One of the coolest BlackBerry applica- tions for lawyers turns the device into a digital recorder for dictation. Big Hand and WinScribe Inc. both have BlackBerry software. It allows lawyers to record dic- tation files on a memory card in their BlackBerry by speaking into the phone. They can upload the files over the wire- less network to an office server to speed transcription. With tape-based systems now virtually obsolete and digital record- ers priced from $200 to $600, using a BlackBerry for dictation makes good eco- nomic sense. "For every digital recorder a law firm buys, they could outfit four lawyers with digital dictation software on their BlackBerrys," says Burrell. "And it has more functionality." Zakaib has found a couple of addi- tional ways to boost the ROI on his Practice Management PCLaw™ LexisNexis® Limited Time Offer! Free Web-Based Training Session† Accounting software that SPEAKS LEGALESE. billing and accounting software is made for legal professionals and has features you just won't fi nd in ordinary accounting software. Time tracking, legal and trust accounting, billing, client identifi cation and verifi cation and more are integrated in one package, so you can manage your books and practice more effi ciently. Best of all, it's easy to use and ready to go to work instantly. For more information, call 1-800-255-5174 or visit www.lexisnexis.ca/pclaw. Download and Try PCLaw for FREE* † Valid with purchase of PCLaw. Certain conditions apply. * Download PCLaw free for 30 days. Certain conditions apply. LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst logo are registered trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under licence. PCLaw is a trademark of LexisNexis Practice Management Systems Inc. © 2009 LexisNexis Canada Inc. All rights reserved. www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com A UGUST 2009 21 7/9/09 12:23:54 PM