Three hours, more or less
I got an Email from a lawyer on the other side of a case late this morning “can you talk today?” I responded “call me now if you have time.” We traded Emails and voicemails for a bit and hooked up.
He was responding to our last demand and started referring to the spreadsheet that I’d sent him last week. Stupid me, I’d not pulled it up on the computer and couldn’t, as we talked, figure out where I’d stashed it.
“I’ll send it, in the meantime lets talk about X.” We did and it got to me a few seconds later. We then talked about a couple of line items at issue.
I told him I’d talk to my guys and get back to him. I called one of my guys and told him what the issues were as I was driving to lunch. We talked and exchanged revisions to the spreadsheet a couple of times over lunch and over the next hour, me on my Google phone in the restaurant, in my car and office and him on a radio, a cellphone while in a truck, on a jobsite and then in a job trailer on an actual wired phone. I called my guys’ CFO on his cell phone to get the wire transfer info, got it by Email and incorporated it and the changed Excel file, into a response Email to the lawyer by mid-afternoon.
I haven’t heard back finally with a yes; but, this same process five years ago would have taken days if not weeks.
I’ve resisted technology as it has advanced, though I bought my first computer in 1983. I tend to be a development or two behind the curve. God forbid – if this Twitter and Facebook garbage proves to be valuable…. And, I want a netbook. I want an LED TV with Internet connections. I won’t get either until at least the next generation passes them by. Still.
3 comments:
Cool. Hey Dave - how are things? It's been too long.
I just heard a story from a colleague who was working late into the evening on a federal pre-trial order that had to be efiled before midnight. Finally, opposing counsel called and said she was going home; she had to get her kids to bed.
But the order wasn't done! My colleague was agitated -- angry, even -- and fearful that the misdirected wrath of the learned District Judge might be on his head.
And, then, somehow, as opposing counsel was riding the train home, she made her additional corrections and accepted or rejected his proposed changes to the order on her phone... and the order was completed and filed in time.
But how the heck does one carefully read a full size document on a teeny-tiny screen?
Scrolling, yes, I understand -- but I'm not talking about reading an email or blog entry, I'm talking about careful, critical reading of an important document.
Seriously, how can this be done?
She probably had a laptop with a wireless card.
My client did the document editing based on my phone calls and Emails via my G Phone and my desktop (I don't mess with Excel). The Email to opposing counsel was written on the desktop - you're right, sending anything other than a quick Email on the phone isn't doable.
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