08 Jun The (Good?) Old Days – Part III: Internet and Computer Technology
Very possibly the most significant development of the last century, possibly forever, is the advent of the Internet, email and computer technology. They have dramatically changed how just about all business is done for sure. Before all this, back when I started practicing law at a big firm, getting a distribution of documents out was quite a thing. First you hand wrote changes to some form you had from before to create a new document. Then it went to the word processing center somewhere else in the firm. Then it comes back to you, often with errors that have to go back again then back to you. Then you often had to mark the changes made from the last draft by underlining new material and sticking a carat where things were removed. Then, to get 100 pages of material to 10 people, you went to the copier (since at 2 am there were rarely staff to do this), make 10 copies, hope the thing doesn’t jam, type (on a typewriter) a cover letter and put them all in envelopes for a courier to come get them. Around 12 hours later most recipients received the package. Now repeat this multiple times in each deal you work on. This took quite the team of people to get done.
Now, a lawyer sits at his computer, pulls up the form from the last deal, makes the changes himself on the computer, runs a redline showing changes right from Word, and with one mouse click sends the 100 pages instantly to the 10 people with an email transmittal letter. We take all this for granted, but it has been completely transformational. It means, for example, that manpower on deals is now less important than brainpower.
Here’s another one. When I started, getting copies of SEC filings, to see what other companies are writing or to use as models for documents, took days. You paid quite a bit for a research firm to try to determine which companies might be responsive to your request, then they had to stand at the copier at the SEC information office to do a page by page copy. Now, of course, everything is instantly available on the SEC website and fully searchable to find exactly what you are looking for. This is simply amazing to an old war horse like me. Related: due diligence. Boxes and boxes of stuff used to arrive at our offices for a thorough review of a company’s records. Now: it’s all in an electronic data room that an attorney can access on a computer from anywhere.
Last one: Closings. So we used to set up giant rooms where 7 copies of every document being signed in a transaction had to be laid out for the parties to sign. Any slight change and you might have to redo the whole thing. I remember one deal where we literally set up and broke down the conference room five different times because of changes. Now: the parties exchange emailed .pdf signatures which everyone accepts as good as originals. Again, wow. Not only is it much easier, though, it also means we have all but eliminated paper client files in our office. It has finally happened.
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