Survey Documents Rise of Telecommuting Lawyers
An ABA survey is documenting the rise of mobile lawyering.
Seventy-one percent of ABA members surveyed say they sometimes telecommute, and they are working in a variety of places. Lawyers are telecommuting at home (88 percent), in hotels (32 percent), in others’ offices (21 percent), in public places such as libraries or courthouses (14 percent), and in coffee shops and cafes (12 percent).
Less than 1 percent spend all of their time working away from their main office, however. The bulk of the respondents—46 percent—spend between 10 percent and 24 percent of their time telecommuting.
Ninety-five percent use computers away from the office, 89 percent use laptops, and 79 percent use BlackBerrys or smartphones.
The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center surveyed association members on six different technology subjects in January through May of this year. A total of 859 responded to the “mobile lawyers” subject. The surveys are available for purchase through the ABA website.
A different portion of the survey, which had 806 respondents, found online research is among the work being done away from the office. Thirty-five percent of the respondents said they regularly conduct legal research at home, up from 29 percent in the 2009 survey. Five percent say they do legal research while in transit or traveling.
The LTRC blog Site-tation has more information.
