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Eversheds eschews BlackBerry in favour of iPad

30 June 2010 | By Luke McLeod-Roberts

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Eversheds has become the latest firm to embrace the Apple brand after it signed a deal to provide its lawyers with the company’s iPad.

The firm has launched a two-month pilot with around 50 members of its senior staff called Eversheds Anywhere, in which they will test out the trendy, but bulky, device. If the pilot is deemed successful all lawyers could get their own iPad.

Eversheds chief information officer Paul Caris said: “The iPad is an incredibly intuitive device which will be popular with our lawyers. We’re an innovative law firm and our lawyers are constantly on the move around the world. We want to provide clients with a quality and progressive service and our people with the most flexible working environment and believe that the new iPads and this groundbreaking collaboration will allow us to do that.”

Eversheds lawyers currently work with BlackBerry smartphones but a spokesperson pointed out that there’s “a lot you can’t do on Blackberry that you can do on an iPad. It’s got greater capacity, you can be in Asia and download precedents. It depends on what kind of lawyer you are, if you’re travelling a lot then it’s for you.”

However, the iPad is larger and heavier than the BlackBerry. The Apple product is typically 243mm long and weighs around 700g, compared with the Blackberry Bold 9700 model, which is 110mm and weighs approximately 120g.

The pilot is being funded equally by Eversheds and the two external IT companies the firm uses. The Eversheds spokesperson said that the initial investment was probably “in the thousands”.

This comes after US firm Morrison & Foerster became one of the first corporate law firms to launch its own iPhone application - MoFo2Go. The “app”, which is available as a free download, provides firm news and partner biographies (16 March 2010).

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Readers' comments (24)

  • Anon | 30-Jun-2010 4:03 pm

    You can't make or recieve a call on an iPad either. Surely this would be more of an addition to both a blackberry and a laptop

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  • Anonymous | 30-Jun-2010 4:05 pm

    Is that an iPad in your pocket, or are you just excited not to work for Eversheds?

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  • Anonymous | 30-Jun-2010 4:22 pm

    White House authorities made President Obama hand over his i-phone and replaced it with a BlackBerry because of the i-phone's creaky security.

    Is the i-pad any more secure?

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  • Anonymous | 30-Jun-2010 4:24 pm

    surely they will still need to carry a phone too? More delays at airport security and twice as many cables to lug around.

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  • Those poor souls... | 30-Jun-2010 4:26 pm

    who lost their jobs in the numerous rounds of redundancies the Shed has had - all so the partners and exec committee could have iPads!! Akin to the bad decisions made by Halliwells one might say (though obviously not yet on the same scale - just give them time!).

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  • Steve Jobs | 30-Jun-2010 4:27 pm

    Once again, Eversheds are showing a clean pair of heals to their technologically-backward rivals.
    The iPad revolution is real and is here to stay. Any law firm that doesn't give its partners iPads will almost certainly be out of the business before Christmas

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  • Anonymous | 30-Jun-2010 10:38 pm

    Are all of Eversheds lawyers THAT ugly that they need something pretty to take to the table??!! :)

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  • Who cares? | 30-Jun-2010 11:08 pm

    I and I am sure many others couldn't care less what technological gimmicky toot Eversheds dish out to their staff.
    Incidentally, the iPad has got to be the most pointless device ever.

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  • Anonymous | 30-Jun-2010 11:09 pm

    The iPad rocks, I have one and it's bloody brilliant. But - It doesn't have a phone and comments are right - it won't fit in your pocket!
    Typing and doc management is fine, naysayers clearly haven't used one, but you still need a Bberry.
    What I can foresee is a massive rise in non-productive time for the Eversheds staff, no doubt passed through to clients. The iPad is gorgeous, and there's so Many time wasting apps to suck time out of your day.

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  • Anonymous | 1-Jul-2010 9:48 am

    Can't wait for the avalanche of stories about the Shed's clients' top secrets being reveled by iPad use on trains...and leaving them behind!

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