Thanks to Pfizer, I Will Soon Be Using an iPad in the Courtroom

Last week at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (“NCBA”) Annual Convention and Trade Show, Pfizer Animal Health’s Beef Division (@Pfizer_Beef), the sponsor of Cattlemen’s College, had an iPad giveaway contest for someone who tweeted throughout the week.  Thanks to Tweetdeck and HootSuite, I won the iPad giveaway.  I have been lusting over the iPad for quite sometime, particularly since I am a “Mac Lawyer” now (or a “Mac-Lovin’ JD“).  I have had the iPhone 4 since last summer and it has made a huge difference in my hectic law practice.  It’s an amazing phone (i.e., if you can deal with a dropped call or two…a block from Grand Central Station).

In particular, I am excited to download statutes and regulations on my iPad to use in court.  It’s a lot easier to pull up the New York Civil Practice Law & Rules (“CPLR”) or the Domestic Relations Law (“DRL”) from an iPad instead of lugging around heavy books to court.  Last fall at the American Agriculture Law Association (“AALA”) Annual Meeting, it was handy to pull up the regulations for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (“CAFO’s) on my iPhone during the discussion on the Clean Water Act (“CWA”).

Furthermore, the DropBox application allows me to have mobile access of my documents wherever I am — whether I’m in an airplane, in a taxi cab, or sitting in the courtroom.  Just last week I was at a feedyard in Greely, Colorado and had to make a phone call to my opposing counsel.  I was able to pull up a document that I needed during my phone conversation.

I’m also a visual person.  I like to draw charts sometimes for clients explaining the different stages of litigation or a particular transaction.  I have heard that that the iPad also makes a nice whiteboard.  I will be able to save those sketches in my client files or even email my sketches to them.

Even though I’m an attorney, I think those who work in other segments of the food and agriculture industry can find a valuable use for the iPad for their business.  It could make it easy to pull up archived feeding, financial or pedigree records or show a potential buyer videos/pictures of show heifer’s cow and/or siblings.  I have to admit that I have had a lot of fun at NYC restaurants that have iPads for menus.  Creativity is part of the fun with business so make it your own.

So thank you, Pfizer.  I’m looking forward to my new iPad to use in my law practice.

For those of you who are iPad users, how do you use it regularly for your business?