iPads are the ultimate business tool to keep in your briefcase, but not all lawyers know how to leverage them to their full potential during client meetings. And while they are still an imperfect replacement for paper, they’ve come a long way in terms of capabilities.
Sleek, minimal yet powerful, you can pull it out almost surreptitiously over dinner with a client or project it big and bold to the conference room big screen. Whatever the setting or purpose, an iPad offers the versatility that neither a laptop nor an iPhone can.
Where iPads make their greatest impact, however, is in intimacy. You can pass an iPad to a client so they can read the documents in their hands, rather than projecting it. Moreover, when you bring an iPad out, people don’t immediately think, “Oh, great, the lawyer is going to get distracted.”
As you plan for your next client meeting or legal conference, consider some of these additional ways to leverage your iPad more effectively.
- To Deliver Presentations – iPads are excellent for presentations, but you’ll get caught in a trap if you’re relying on good WiFi to pull up documents during a meeting. Even today, download the documents you need for the meeting before leaving, and certainly before starting the meeting. The cloud should be a fallback in case the conversation goes outside of the boundaries of the expected.
- To Host Virtual Meetings – iPads are the perfect video conferencing companion as they offer high-definition cameras, portability and collaboration capabilities through meeting software and applications.
- Scan Documents – Use your iPad camera as a scanner, save the document to your cloud storage, take notes on it, print it or send it back as an email attachment.
- Stay Organized with Your Synced Calendar – Schedule follow-up meetings without worrying about potential conflicts and set up alerts so you don’t miss an important meeting by syncing your iPad calendar with your Mac computer.
- Take Notes – Use a note app like Apple’s Note, Notion or Evernote to organize your thoughts, jot down questions or prepare a post-meeting summary to share with clients.
To be even more efficient and productive with your iPad it can also be helpful to buy a keyboard (and learn a few keyboard shortcuts) as well as invest in an AirPrint printer.
Download apps that will make you most productive, but don’t get so bogged down with worrying about the latest and greatest in tech that you lose sight of what you actually need for your job (remember, think “problem first, then solution”).
For help with any and all of your law firm’s Apple product questions, get in touch with us at Honeycrisp today.
