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12 Legal Comm. & Rhetoric: JAWLD 1 (2015)

handle is hein.journals/jalwd12 and id is 1 raw text is: 















       Is the Medium the Message?

       Unleashing the Power of E-Communication
       in the Twenty-First Century

       Ellie Margolis*





       I. Introduction

            The dramatic changes that technology has brought to the world of
       legal research and writing are well documented.' From the digitization of
       information2 to the sophistication of word processing and electronic
       delivery of information,' almost everything lawyers do is infused with a
       new level of technology. The changes to both writing and reading brought
       on by computer technology have been rapid and comprehensive.' Lawyers
       operate in an increasingly, and almost exclusively, digital world. Yet,
       despite widespread recognition that technology has changed the way that
       lawyers work, little scholarly attention has been given to whether these



* Professor of Law, Temple University, Beasley School of Law. The author thanks Temple University, Beasley School of Law
for research support, and Kristen Tiscione, Kirsten Davis, and Kristen Murray for the discussions and feedback that inspired
this article. Many thanks also to Megan Albright and Emily Kowey for their able research assistance.
1 Kristin J. Hazelwood, Technology and Client Communications: Preparing Law Students and New Lawyers to Make Choices
that Comply with the Ethical Duties of Confidentiality, Competence, and Communication, 83 MISS. L.J. 245, 246 (2014)
(noting that it is beyond dispute that technology has radically changed the legal profession).
2 E.g., Ellie Margolis, Surfin' Safari: Why Competent Lawyers Should Research on the Web, 10 YALE J.L. & TECH. 82 (2007);
Ellie Margolis & Kristen Murray, Say Goodbye to the Books: Information Literacy as the New Legal Research Paradigm, 38 U.
DAYTON L. REV. 117 (2012); Susan C. Wawrose, What Do Legal Employers Want to See in New Graduates?: Using Focus
Groups to Find Out, 39 OHIO N.U. L. REV. 505 (2013).
3 E.g., Kristen K. Tiscione, The Rhetoric of E-mail in Law Practice, 526-28 (2013); Joe Dysart, Catch Up with Tech or Lose
Your Career, Judges Warn Lawyers, ABA J. (Apr. 1, 2014), http://www.abajournal.com/mobile/mag article/
catch up with tech or lose your career judges warn lawyers; Deborah J. Merritt, Why Has Law Practice Changed, LAW
SCH. CAFE (Dec. 8, 2013), http://www.lawschoolcafe.org/thread/why-has-law-practice-changed/; Daniel Sockwell, WritingA
Brieffor the iPadJudge, COLUM. BUS. L. REV. (Jan. 14, 2014), http://cblr.columbia.edu/archives/12940.
4 See generally DENNIS BARON, A BETTER PENCIL: READERS, WRITERS, AND THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION ix (2009). See also
Kirsten K. Davis, The Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated- Reading and Writing Objective Legal Memoranda in A
Mobile Computing Age, 92 OR. L. REV. 471,479-80 (2013) (noting that lawyers are reading and writing in ways not contem-
plated twenty years ago); K.K. DuVivier, E-Filing: Entering the Electronic Age-Part , 32 COLO. LAW., Sept. 2003, at 69 (noting
that the transformation from paper to electronic format will change the way lawyers and judges read and write legal
documents).

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