Smartphones have brought a new dimension to work

Devices allow attorneys to access firm’s database, files

By Mike Costanza
BridgeTower Media Newswires
 
ROCHESTER, NY — Since Apple offered the first smartphone, the iPhone, in 2007, the devices have revolutionized mobile communications for individuals and businesses. A number of Rochester-area firms are using them to enhance their operations.

For those who still flip open their clamshell-style phones, smartphones typically incorporate some of the most popular features of desktop and laptop computers. Users can browse the internet, download or upload programs and digital files, connect to other electronic devices, text, and make calls with ease.

A business executive could research a subject, put together a report on it and email the finished document—along with photos that were taken with the smartphone—all while sitting on a beach or in an airliner. Though smartphone sales have recently dropped, about 1.6 billion of the devices made their way to new owners around the world in 2016 alone.

Brighton Securities Chairman George Conboy began to learn how useful a smartphone could be back in 2007 while on a trip to Russia.

“Having traveled to Russia as far back as the early ’90s, I could remember when you had to wait to connect to the U.S.,” he says. “I get off the plane in St. Petersburg with my shiny new iPhone, and within seconds I’m talking to New York.”

That kind of accessibility pays off at Conboy’s firm, where the boss and all his financial advisers have purchased their own smartphones.

“A lot of times, clients who are reviewing important financial decisions for themselves are doing that even on the weekends,” Conboy says. “If our clients are going to get the kind of service that helps us stand out from our competitors, we want to be generally available to them.”

No longer does an adviser need to be at the office to meet a client’s needs.

“All the client data and market data—everything that I have on my desktop—I can access anywhere I can get an internet connection,” Conboy says.

Smartphones have also made their mark at local law firms.

“One-hundred percent of our lawyers make use of their smartphones, I would say, every day as part of their work life,” says Craig Wittlin, managing partner at Harter Secrest & Emery LLP.
The devices allow the firm’s clients to have the kind of voice or digital access to their attorneys that was once impossible.

“It’s improved the client experience,” Wittlin says. “Clients want communication from their lawyers, and want their lawyers to be readily accessible.”

Smartphones also allow Harter Secrest’s attorneys, who have clients around the country, to access the firm’s computer system, and the files and other materials they need on their cases, on the road from anyplace that has internet access. The lawyers purchase their own phones and the firm reimburses them for their costs.

“People are using their smartphones for anything they might otherwise do while sitting at a computer,” Wittlin explains. “We have people who very effectively do legal research on their smartphone.”

They can even use the devices to document their legal cases. At one time, attorneys dictated their legal arguments or other statements into tape recorders, and then gave the tape or cassette to an assistant to be transcribed. Now they can either type their statements into their smartphones via keyboards that are hooked to the devices or dictate them directly into their phones. Once the smartphone’s transcription program has translated a statement into print, the attorney can revise it and send the finished copy off to all concerned.

Over at Clark Patterson Lee, those in communications and marketing can use their smartphones to monitor and respond to situations—sometimes in real time.

“The mobility in our mobile phones has allowed us to keep tabs on our clients, our competition, local political affairs and everything in between,” says Vince Press, the architectural firm’s communications director.
That can be particularly useful for getting the word out about CPL’s projects. Last May, when Rochester Regional Health broke ground on the Sands-Constellation Center for Critical Care, Press was in the front row with his Samsung Galaxy S8-Plus—CPL is the project’s architect of record. While the event was being livestreamed, a drone flew overhead, taking photos of the proceedings.

“Our drone operator was able to take some shots that nobody else had and email them to me in real time,” Press says. “I was able to post them on our Twitter feed and other social channels. It was a great promotional tool.”

CPL also created a virtual model of the Sands-Constellation project that can be viewed on Smartphones.

“We did a fly-through, if you will, to show people what it’s going to be like when it’s built,” Press says.

For greater immersion in such projects, a viewer can put on a set of virtual reality goggles that connect to a smartphone.

“They can stand in a space that doesn’t exist yet, and see what our design plans are,” Press says. “We have used it in several interviews in several states to help us win work.”

Videos formatted for smartphones are also used to market CPL to another group—the young professionals whom the firm hopes to lure to its offices as new employees.

About a year ago, CPL formed the Creative Labs Group in order to help it develop and make use of such technologies.

“The members of the internal group range from our graphic designer to our 3D design specialist to CAD (computer assisted design) specialists to architects and engineers,” Press says. “It’s a really dynamic group that helps us be a leader in the industry.”