Bryan Sims, who writes the Connected Lawyer blog, was interviewed by the Illinois Lawyer magazine. In the yet-to-be published article, he is quoted as saying there are four "must-have tools" for solo practitioners: a smart phone, a laptop, a scanner, and a good backup system. I really like his list! A prepublication Illinois Lawyer blog post gives some more details. The point is that this just isn't a shopping list, but an outline of how lawyers should be doing their work now. I certainly plan on quoting Bryan in our upcoming New Lawyer's Experience program.

Of course, being a lawyer myself, I could quibble and say for the forseeable future, you also still have to have a printer, no matter how well you use PDF. And, a landline phone system (for a while longer anyway.) And a second monitor. But the quibbling takes away from the essential truth of his quote.