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You’ve seen list after list of “best of” apps, so let’s have a little fun with it this time. We’ve identified 80 iPad apps you can use in your professional and personal life, and we introduce them to you by following a couple of fictional law partners through their adventures for a week to see how they put their tablets to use. So, let’s get started with John Frugalis and Agnes Smith. Both were early adopters of iPad technology. John prefers free or less expensive versions of apps when possible, while Agnes is all about efficiency and doesn’t mind shelling out a few bucks for a little technological peace of mind.
Most of the apps John and Agnes use are iPad native, which means they were written for the iPad, although some are optimized for the iPhone 5, but are compatible with iPad. If you prefer to simply read about the apps, there is a guide available for download.i
Sunday
- John and Agnes prepare for a busy week. Agnes prepares to travel back to Memphis, TN for a trial, while John goes to their firm to continue preparation for a local trial. They both consult Asana (Free), a robust time management program that keeps their practice and personal lives on track. Like many of their apps, Asana syncs to their iPhones, so their lists are always up to date.
- John and Agnes have been receiving ongoing updates from Yammer (Free) by Microsoft, relating conversations and status updates on open projects and firm business. Yammer can be used as a sort of Facebook for business and works well in concert with apps like Asana to record conversations in one place so that they are easier to track. Agnes adds a couple of posts about their office IT project and uploads a document she found online that she believes will be helpful.
- Agnes consults her Packing Pro ($2.99) “Pre-Trip To Do” list, and begins packing with her customized “Trial Trip” packing list, checking items off as she packs them.
- Agnes notices she is low on toothpaste while packing, so she scans its barcode to add it to Grocery IQ (Free). What Agnes loves about Grocery IQ is it syncs to her iPhone, so the list is with her all the time, and her family can contribute items they need as well. Since the list is available to all family members, Agnes can also delegate the list to other family members as needed.
- Agnes gets a real time flight alert from WorldMate Gold ($99.99 yr) and double checks her itinerary for the whole week. As a road warrior, Agnes finds this full-featured travel app invaluable. John does not travel quite as often as Agnes, and would never pay that much for a travel app, so he uses TripIt (Free). He especially likes that when he updates his travel arrangements, it will automatically email his assistant and his spouse.
- Before driving to the airport, Agnes takes a quick look at FlightBoard ($3.99). FlightBoard looks like an actual flight board at the airport, so it is easy for her to find her flight, terminal and gate information.
- Once Agnes gets to the airport, she checks GateGuru (Free), for real-time security line wait times and to find out what restaurants, stores and amenities are close to her gate.
- When John begins work, he starts the timer on OfficeTime ($7.99), to track his time. He has already set up the trial and types of billable hours in the program, so when he is finished with the billing cycle, or trial, he emails the information to his assistant and only has to review the final bill instead of creating it. John estimates this app alone has given him back several days a year.
- John begins his afternoon by going through his trial notebook, which he put together in Circus Ponies Notebook ($29.99). Once John got over the name of the app, he came to appreciate its value in organizing all of his paperwork for trial. He also likes the voice annotation feature and the ability to annotate documents.
- John then prepares to work with his main witness, referring to her information in iTestimony ($9.99). John will update her profile after the meeting and assign a paralegal to take notes on her testimony at trial.
- John then reviews his witness’ deposition transcript in Documents by Readdle (Free), one of his go-to apps. John uses Documents by Readdle to read and mark depositions and trial transcripts. Important pages can be tabbed and documents can be annotated. In addition, it is a media player, so the app serves as a file manager, a viewer app, and a media player all in one.
- Occasionally John gets a transcript in TXT format, and when that happens, he prefers to use the TranscriptPad ($49.99) app, although it killed him to pay that much for it. However, he does enjoy the scrolling feature, which allows him to scroll through the text at an adjustable speed, like a teleprompter.
- John reviews his email and downloads a WordPerfect document. Since John doesn’t have WordPerfect on his iPad, he uses the WordPerfect Viewer ($5.99). He then uses Office²HD ($7.99), which opens the Excel spreadsheet received from his accountant and allows him to review it, edit it if necessary and sync it to his Dropbox (Free: 2GB) cloud storage account before sending his approval. Office²HD meets John’s needs, including his need for a lower price, but Agnes prefers the more expensive Documents To Go Premium ($16.99) for her document review and editing needs. She prefers the ability to sync her laptop computer’s documents with the free Documents to Go Premium desktop application.
- When John sends his approval for the Excel spreadsheet with further instructions to his accountant, he uses iTrackMail (Free/Pro $4.99) to make sure his accountant receives it. Five minutes later, he receives a push alert to let him know it has been opened, so he can check that task off his list.
- After arriving in Memphis, Agnes takes a taxi from the airport. While in the taxi, she gets a phone call from a law school buddy, who is putting together a reunion later in the year. Her friend has set up a private Facebook Group to organize the reunion. Agnes is not a big fan of Facebook (Free), but likes the idea of a private group that will never post to her feed and will allow the group to upload information for the reunion for fast feedback, so she agrees to accept the invitation.
- When she arrives at the hotel, she enters the taxi expense information in Xpense Tracker (Free), including taking a picture of the receipt and clipping it to the entry. When her entries from the trip are complete, she will only have to email the information file for the whole trip to her assistant from her iPad, which will include the pictures of receipts.
- Agnes has arrived a few hours early, so she checks in at her hotel and consults AroundMe (Free) for a nearby restaurant for lunch. She books a taxi on TaxiMagic (Free), and sets off.
- While at the restaurant, Agnes has an idea for the timeline in her Opening Statement, so she takes out her iPad and sketches on Notability ($1.99). Agnes likes Notability for a number of reasons, including using it to record and take notes at CLEs. Not only does Notability provide a quick way to organize her notes, but she can click on her outline from the CLE and instantly go to the audio from the time when she typed or wrote that particular word. This is invaluable for revisiting key points.
- Agnes heads to the war room to begin work. When she arrives, she starts her timer on OfficeTime, and then learns her graphics consultant will be arriving on a later flight than expected. Agnes conferences with her graphics consultant and another team member about demonstratives for Opening Statement using GotoMeeting (Free app/Service $49 month). Agnes updates the Opening Statement timeline with the sketch she made on Notability, which she emails to the graphics consultant.
- Agnes then updates the timeline of events on Timestream ($9.99), which she discovered when her son used it to do a timeline project for a history class. Agnes, a visual person, uses the timeline as a prompt for Opening Statement, to make sure she has covered all her points. Timestream was also very helpful when she first met with her clients about the case, as she was able to enter important dates quickly as she was learning about case facts, allowing her to record key points and make sure they were not lost during trial preparation due to the sheer number of documents.
- As John is working with witnesses, he needs to ask a non-English speaking witness a question but realizes the translator has left. Google Translate (Free) helps him ask the question and understand the response.
- After a long day, Agnes returns to hotel room too late to see her favorite show, “The Good Wife,” so she watches it on SlingPlayer (Free/Slingbox Hardware $179.99). The Slingbox hardware is discreetly attached to the TV in her office at home, so no one at home even knows she is using it. With Slingbox, Agnes is able to access anything on her DVR from anywhere in the world that has Wi-Fi, including her recent trip to Moscow. She can also stream live TV, which led to a recent humorous incident with her daughter. Her daughter was staying up late one night in Agnes’ office – without permission – watching the Disney Channel. She became convinced Agnes knew what she was doing when the channel suddenly changed when Agnes turned on SlingPlayer while she was in another state. This stopped the late night viewing.
- After watching “The Good Wife,” Agnes peruses her favorite news app, Flipboard (Free). Agnes loves Flipboard’s latest feature, which gives her the ability to browse the news and “clip” articles into custom magazines. She has even used this feature to create her own “magazine” of articles for a client who is interested in educational policy.
- When John returns home late that evening, he goes straight to bed. To relax, he pulls up White Noise (Free), which plays the sound of a vacuum cleaner, which has a strangely relaxing effect on him. Although a creature of habit, John sometimes takes a walk on the wild side and mixes it up with other sounds, such as crickets chirping or beach waves crashing.
Monday
- Agnes starts the day by listening to inspiring TED talk on her TED (Free) app by Andrew Stanton, about “The Clues to a Great Story.” This inspires a thought for Opening Statement, which Agnes adds to her outline in Pages ($9.99). Agnes enjoys using Pages because it syncs effortlessly across all her Apple devices, so she always has important documents available. Pages also takes advantage of her iPad’s Retina Display, allowing her to lower the font size and still be able to see more of the document, clearly.
- After a restful night’s sleep, John reviews his pre-trial motions. He decides to add one last citation, using his Lexis Advance HD (Free) app. Although this app requires a Lexis Advance subscription, his firm provides it, so John uses it often.
- When John finds the citation he is looking for, he annotates his motion and double checks it with Fastcase (Free) app, which shows the most cited case with a single click, and includes cases, statutes, regulations, court rules, and constitutions. Fastcase also provides access to a newspaper archive, legal forms and a one-stop PACER search of federal filings – all for free. Free is a price John is willing to pay, so he uses this app quite a bit, especially for searching most state statutes He checks the program to see if there is a better citation than the result from Lexis Advance HD, then annotates his motion and sends it to his assistant to be printed.
- Agnes also has a copy of Fastcase, but she relies more on her favorite reference app, RuleBook (Free/In app purchases up to $62). The in-app purchases for The BlueBook, court rules and other legal authorities cost a little money, but in return her rulebook is always current, any passages she has highlighted stay highlighted year after year, and she does not have to keep up with a paper copy of federal or state court rules or keep track of paper updates. The app data is also completely downloadable, so she does not have to have Wi-Fi to access it.
- Before Agnes leaves for the courthouse, she reviews her trial notebook in TabLit: Trial Notebook ($69.99). Although this app was more expensive than the Circus Ponies app John typically uses, it was designed for attorneys and meets her need for organization better. Agnes keeps her examination outlines, her examination checklists, evidentiary checklists, and case contacts in it. Best of all, in the near future, she will be able to collaborate and share her trial notebook with colleagues and her legal assistant, which should save everyone a lot of time.
- Agnes meets with her courtroom technician, to make sure their Dropbox files are synced for her TrialDirector (Free app/Syncs with $695.00 per license software) files. Agnes chose to use TrialDirector for this trial because she has several video deposition clips she would like to use, and in her experience, TrialDirector is more reliable with video deposition clips. Agnes likes having her files synced with her courtroom technician to use in trial preparation and also to have a backup in the unlikely event her courtroom technician is unable to attend trial.
- Agnes then meets with her trial consultant to make sure they are ready for jury selection, using iJuror ($19.99). This app allows the trial consultant to quickly record juror information, color-code the jurors for an easy visual reference, record individual and group responses to voir dire questions, assess the importance of responses, rank jurors, track which jurors have not spoken yet, and best of all, sync all data with trial team members who have the app through Bluetooth.
- iJuror is particularly useful when Agnes tries cases where a supplemental juror questionnaire is completed and provided to the trial team in advance of trial. When that happens, the trial consultant can utilize the iJuror in-app purchase, Juror Scoring ($4.99), to pre-rate jurors. This information is updated during voir dire, but it is useful to have a sense of where each potential juror might stand with regard to the facts of the case, going in to jury selection.
- Finally, Agnes appreciates the social media search function in iJuror. With an iPad that has cellular capabilities or access to courtroom Wi-Fi, iJuror allows a team member to search a juror on Spokeo, Pipl, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and Google. This feature is best used before trial, but a dedicated team member can research most panel members in the strike zone in a reasonable amount of time during trial as well. It can also be used to research the seated jurors and update their information for reference during trial, after jury selection.
- Agnes also assigns a paralegal to record juror responses on Jury Notepad ($4.99), with special attention to comments made related to challenges for cause. When the paralegal is finished entering data, she transfers it to Agnes and other team members for use in iJuror.
- For his jury selection, John prefers the traditional sticky note method of collecting data for jury selection, using iJuror Stickies ($4.99). The venire panel for John’s trial is not very large, and he has very limited time to track information, so this app works best for him for this trial. John mainly uses it instead of sticky notes because he then has easy access to the data later, if needed.
- When John arrives at his trial, he sets up his iPad to use TrialPad ($89.99), which is much less expensive than TrialDirector and allows him to display images and exhibits using a projector or a monitor. He can also make multiple callouts from documents or depositions, and highlight, annotate, redact and zoom in his documents, or view them side-by-side to compare pages. Since he does not anticipate using any video deposition clips at this short trial, it is the best solution for him for this trial. He also appreciates the whiteboard tool that allows him to draw freehand, as not all courtrooms have a whiteboard.
- After trial, Agnes reviews a witness transcript using Westlaw Case Notebook Portable E-Transcript (Free). Agnes finds this app useful for transcripts provided in the E-Transcript PTX format. It allows highlighting and notes, and updates with the desktop version of Westlaw Case Notebook.
- After visiting with the trial team, Agnes retires to her room and reviews her checklist for Tuesday on Asana and then goes to Yammer, where she uploads a Keynote ($9.99) presentation and assigns an associate to review and update it for a speech she has to give the following week. Agnes finds Keynote easy to use and full of templates that make her presentation look unique, as well as animations that look more professional to her. She also finds it easier to use for editing photos and video than other apps, and easier to embed charts from her favorite spreadsheet app, Numbers ($9.99).
- Late in the evening, Agnes retires to her room and relaxes by browsing a few magazines on Next Issue (Free app/$9.99 per month), which is essentially a “Netflix for Magazines.” For the monthly fee, Agnes has unlimited access to over 85 top magazines, although sometimes at the expense of sleep.
Tuesday
- John begins his morning by referencing Black’s Law Dictionary ($54.99). This reference provides definitions for 45,000 legal terms, alternate spellings or equivalent expressions for more than 5,300 terms, and audio pronunciations for more than 7,000 legal terms. John likes it for the “Word of the Day” feature. When in trial, John likes to look at the “Word of the Day” and work it into a bench conference at some point during the day. It is an intellectual exercise that he looks forward to at each trial. He laments the fact that he cannot use most of the words in his Words With Friends (Free) game, and has thought about developing his own version of the game for attorneys.
- Before John leaves for the courthouse, he takes a few minutes to review demonstratives for his trial next week. Because the files are large, his graphics consultant shares them with Cubby (Free: 5GB). John annotates the files using Documents by Readdle, then saves the changes to the Cubby and sends a text message to his graphics consultant to let him know they are ready.
- Agnes checks her Dropbox app to see if it is reaching its space limit due to the iJuror files from trial. It is nearing its limit, so she uses Airfile (Free/Pro: $4.99) to move some docs not related to the trial quickly to her account on Box (Free: 5GB), to free up space. Agnes has an Airfile Pro account, which allows her to move files among her Dropbox, Box, SugarSync, GoogleDrive and SkyDrive accounts.
- As Agnes enters the taxi, she gets a call from her worried paralegal about the weather. Agnes observes ominous looking clouds, so she updates the location area in Storm Shield ($4.99) to Memphis. Agnes appreciates Storm Shield because it will not bother her unless there is a severe weather warning in her immediate area. This app has also alerted her with a radio announcement at night, which woke her up one night in time to unplug her electronics before a severe thunderstorm. Agnes notices there are not any alerts for her area, sees only minor rainclouds on the app’s radar, so she reassures her paralegal and they go to court.
- During his lunch break, John makes some edits on his paper copy of the Jury Charge. He has a question about the way a particular question is worded, but does not have time to type it and send it to an associate for a quick review. He decides to use Genius Scan (Free) to make a PDF of the document and sends it to the associate in a matter of minutes.
- During lunch, John receives a request for a document that resides on his desktop computer. He uses LogMeIn (Free) to find the document on his computer at work and emails it.
- John’s trial ends with a victory. John stops by the office on his way to the victory dinner, reads over some notes he has been taking in Evernote (Free: Basic/Premium $45 yr), pens a brief blog of takeaways and uploads it on WordPress (Free). Evernote is John’s favorite app to save ideas, in the form of written notes, pictures, to-do lists, and recorded voice reminders. It syncs across all of his devices – computer, laptop, iPhone and of course, his iPad – so his ideas are never far away.
Wednesday
- After lunch, new evidence comes to light in Agnes’ trial, and the judge strongly suggests an immediate mediation. Agnes decides to use a new app called Picture It Settled Lite (Free) in the negotiations, to help her calculate future offers based on the concession rates of both parties. The case settles, and Agnes makes a note to investigate the full enterprise software in the future to help her make strategic decisions based on deep data and predictive analytics, as well as the behavior of negotiators in thousands of cases. Supposedly, it will give her an edge in negotiations by helping predict what her opponent will do.
- Agnes gathers her things and returns to the airport. While waiting for her flight, she decides to read her guilty pleasure, Wild About Trial (Free). Wild About Trial provides the latest news about high profile trials, and detailed information about previous ones. After reading about one such trial, Agnes posts her thoughts about it on Twitter (Free), adding the trial’s hashtag so others following the trial will see her comment.
- On the plane, Agnes relaxes and listens to her favorite new book on Audible (Free: Book costs vary). While listening, she does a little shopping using the plane’s Wi-Fi and RoboForm Everywhere ($9.95), her password manager and web form filler, to effortlessly log in to her favorite sites quickly.
- Agnes, who has not taken a nap in 20 years, then browses a few legal blogs and posts on her LinkedIn (Free) Groups, and sends articles and a short video to Pocket (Free), for later reading and viewing. Pocket syncs with her computer and iPhone, so she will have it available when she has a few minutes to read.
- Agnes stops by the office briefly on the way home and discusses possibly using Prezi (Free) instead of Keynote with her assistant. She appreciates how Prezi’s web-based platform moves beyond slides and could allow her to create an entire presentation on a single canvas, or one giant picture, rather than a series of slides. She decides to experiment with it for a speech the next month.
- She then uses SlideShark (Free) to consult with an attorney on a PowerPoint for a joint CLE to be given next month.
Thursday
- John turns his attention to next week’s trial. He decides to use JuryPad ($24.99) for this selection, as it works well for a large panel and he will have to enter juror data quickly on his Mac to export to his iPad. In addition, the trial is located out of state in an unfamiliar city with multiple suburbs, and JuryPad allows him to virtually tour a juror’s neighborhood, if needed. Occasionally John tries a product liability, personal injury, medical malpractice or wrongful death case with animations graphics, video, and medical illustrations. For those types of trials, he uses TrialTouch (Free app/In app purchase required based on time needed), but for this one, JuryPad will do.
- Agnes uses GPS by Telenav (Free) to drive to a client meeting, 45 minutes from her office.
- Being unfamiliar with the area, she uses BestParking (Free) to find the best parking around her client’s office complex.
- During the meeting, Agnes’ left leg starts tingling, so she consults iTriage (Free) to see what might be going on. She decides she will not die before the meeting ends and soldiers on but considers booking an appointment, which she could do through the app as well.
- After the meeting, Agnes stops by a networking happy hour and meets a couple of potential clients. Once in her car, Agnes uses Scanner Pro ($6.99) to photograph the cards, then files them in Evernote for future reference.
- John is chagrined to learn he has a CLE deadline on the horizon, so he consults CLE Mobile (Free/CLE course costs vary) to download a CLE by West LegalEd Center, from over 4,500 CLE courses. John is delighted to find he gets a course free for signing up, so he watches it on his iPad and turns in his credit. Done.
- Back at home, wondering why she is suddenly tired, Agnes puts on her Zeo Sleep Manager (Free app/Hardware $129.75) headband and turns on her iPad to track her sleep and make sure she is getting her REM sleep.
Friday
- John starts writing a journal article using the articles and web clippings saved in Pocket, and academic research articles organized in his Papers (App $14.99/Software $79.99) database. Papers has revolutionized his writing because now all of his research articles are organized and available to him on his iPad.
- Agnes uses LinkedIn Card Munch (Free) to convert her business cards into address book contacts, then adds them as connections on LinkedIn.
- Agnes pulls up Shortlytics (Free) to review statistics from her social media posts from the week before. She then uses that information to draft LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter posts based on topics that received the most attention.
- Agnes reviews the articles she has saved for the week in both Pocket and Flipboard, then drafts and schedules a number of Twitter and Facebook posts for the following week on HootSuite (Free). She once again uses Shortlytics to shorten and customize the label of her posts, using her Bitly account.
- Both leave the office satisfied, after a long but productive week.
Saturday
- John begins the morning by taking his weekly health measurements with his cool Withings gadgets. First, he takes his blood pressure with the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor (Free app/Hardware $129.95), and steps on his Withings Wi-Fi scale (Free app/Hardware $149.95) for his weight. This data automatically uploads into his Withings Health Mate (Free), allowing him to track his health and note trends. He also shows this information to his doctor during his physical.
- John then grills some steaks for lunch using his iGrill (Free/Hardware $79.99) app and hardware, resulting in delicious steaks, grilled to perfection.
- Agnes, after enjoying a wonderful morning with her family, relaxes on the porch while reading a deliciously thought-provoking article on Longform ($2.99). Longform’s editors compile longer articles from respected publications to allow readers the pleasure of an in-depth read on various interesting topics.
- Agnes and John both smile, contemplating how difficult and dull life was in the Dark Ages, before iPad.