The Akron Bar Association: One Hundred Twenty-Five Years
From the Inkwell to Digitized Documents and Beyond
by Keith Throckmorton
Imagine this - a newly perfected device designed to speed the production of documents begins to appear in offices throughout the land. Initially, use of the new technology is met with consternation by some who feel it decreases real interaction and removes the personal touch of the old ways. Many ignore the technology for years, thinking it will just go away.
This scenario is real and probably sounds familiar to you. The context almost certainly will
be unfamiliar. The device is what later became known as the Remington typewriter, the progenitor
of the "modern" typewriter, developed by American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes in 1868.
At the time of the founding of the Akron Bar Association in 1875, use of this marvelous device
was still rare because many could not see a business use for it and most Americans shunned the
concept of "mechanical" writing. Senders of correspondence using the device were looked upon
as not caring enough about the recipient to take time to give the "personal touch" of a handwritten
letter. Recipients wondered if their ability to read handwritten documents was being questioned.
Often, typewritten letters were received with the same lack of enthusiasm with which we receive
junk mail today. It wasn't until the 1880's and 90's that the typewriter caught on in a significant
way. Lawyers at the beginning of the twentieth century were still dealing with the impact of the
new technology.
In 1925, single use carbon paper was introduced. Prior to that, copies of typed documents were photographically reproduced or retyped to retain a copy for the file. Until 1930, with the invention of transparent tape by 3M engineer Richard G. Drew, torn documents had to be retyped. "Xerography", an electrostatic copying process invented by American law student Chester Carlson in 1937, became commercially available only as late as 1950. American lawyers didn't have access to the ball point pen until its invention in 1939 by Hungarian Laszlo Biro.
The precursor of the "modern" handheld recording device many lawyers use to dictate letters didn't appear until 1948 when magnetic tape recorders were developed by Ampex. "Liquid Paper", or "Mistake Out" as it was known then, became a fact of life in American offices in 1956. The venerable IBM Selectric typewriter debuted in 1961 followed by the Philips compact cassette tape recording device in 1962.
Then, around the mid 1970's, the pace of change quickened with the development and widespread use of devices like cost effective small office copiers and dedicated word processors. In 1973, Federal Express opened its doors and suddenly it was important to get the next day the document you previously would have waited a few days to receive. The pace of change and the need for speed accelerated. People began to demand 24-hour access to grocery stores and pharmacies. Could 24-hour lawyers and courts be far behind?In the 1980's, the personal computer appeared on the scene in a meaningful way, although it was ignored by most law offices for another ten or twelve years. The new PC's were not as hard to digest philosophically as the typewriter had been previously because efficiency had long since prevailed over resistance to "mechanical writing" technologies, but the change they brought to a profession steeped in history and ancient traditions was still significant. The dual abilities to quickly print multiple copies of the same document without the need for carbon paper and to effortlessly correct errors in stored documents that could be cut, pasted and used as templates for other documents expanded not only the size of the documents produced, but also the need for space in which to store them. We lawyers celebrated these capabilities, because we had so much to say.
Now, in the early twenty-first century, with the last of the 1900's still vivid and fresh in our memories, we are struggling to deal with the impact of the latest technological changes. Some of us have embraced the Internet, e-mail and voice-mail as a way to keep us together with our friends, families and business acquaintances, and some of us abhor how the new technologies have depersonalized and decreased the richness of our lives. We debate the same issues debated by lawyers a century ago, while watching the changes continue around us. Soon we will find ourselves living in a world where the changes we debated are a fact and our reluctance meaningless, because, as did our predecessors, we too must change.
In Ohio there are at least two counties where dockets and images of filed documents are now available online. This year, Summit County will join them to be the third. Will you continue to send a docket clerk to collect documents you could easily download and view online? Your clients are working in their respective professions and putting in longer hours then ever before. We are online, connected and demanding access to services 24-hours a day, seven days a week. I can get pizza, groceries and just about anything I can imagine delivered to my door while I play with the kids or read a good book. Can the demand for equally accessible legal services be far behind?
As you can see from the above, lawyers in the last quarter of the twentieth century and beyond aren't the first to have to deal with the evolution of office technology or of society. Today many lawyers say the same things about voice mail, e-mail and the Internet that early twentieth century lawyers said about the advent of "mechanical writing". But as the years have passed the profession has incorporated and applied the technology and now most of us would be hard-pressed to do business without it. The changes we face today have come somewhat more rapidly but incorporate them we will and as the years pass they too will become second nature.
Why would we wish anything less on our successors?