
Remembering the Magic of Supreme Court Briefs Before Technology Took Over - grellas
http://blogs.forbes.com/benkerschberg/2011/04/22/remembering-the-magic-of-supreme-court-briefs-before-technology-took-over/
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grellas
_[H]ot-metal printing is a thing of the past. The costs (passed along to
clients, of course) were simply too high, and so digital printing has replaced
it_

I started working in Big Law in 1980, right when large law firms were at the
tail end of using centralized mini-computers with dumb terminals spread
throughout the firm. Every few days, we would receive memos (hand-carried by
an in-house messenger - there was no form of email or instant messaging then)
asking us to fill out a form telling the IT staff which of our computer
documents no longer needed to be stored on the central system. The firm had to
continually delete old documents to free up storage space. I imagine that it
could have added storage capacity but the cost at the time was very high. On
the software side, there was no mass market software available and the
software we used was a proprietary system of very limited functionality that
came with the Wang system.

This piece (which is extremely well-written, by the way) reminded me of how we
used to do redlining of legal documents in that era. No software was available
to do this automatically or in any kind of expedited fashion. Therefore, to
show, e.g., what changes had been made to a contract from the last cycle,
attorneys would line up printed versions of the contracts side-by-side, with
the old draft on the left and the new on the right. With a ruler in hand, they
would go down the left side line-by-line while manually comparing it to the
contract on the right. If they came upon a deletion, they would use a pen to
cross out the relevant language as a way of showing that deletion in the new
draft. For an insertion, they would hand-write the insertion in the margin or
at the bottom of the new draft and hand-draw a line/arrow from the point of
insertion to the added text (of the text were too long, the new text would be
separately typed out, marked as "Insert A" (or whatever was next in sequence),
and the contract itself would be marked with an insertion point instructing
the reader to "See Insert A." This process would take many hours to do with a
lengthy contract and would need to be double- and triple-checked for an
important document to avoid the errors that would inevitably mark such a
painstakingly detailed process. When the document came back from the other
side, this same manual, time-consuming process would be repeated. And so the
iterations would continue until the final, execution versions were prepared
and signed. Clients were charged for every minute of attorney/paralegal time
involved. The results were first-class but hugely expensive to clients. This
sort of legal work was done almost exclusively for large, institutional
clients. No small business could afford it, as it easily added large legal
costs to a negotiation process.

Times have changed indeed. If you just imagine what it would be like to work
with no email, no text messaging, no cell phones, no quality software, no
internet, no personal computing (other than with "toy" computers) and the
like, you will be thankful for the marvelous tools we have today. Among other
things, legal services will never be the same.

~~~
cma
I would have thought they would have printed them out on two overhead
transparencies--one using the old purple copier toner, the other black--then
you just overlay them and the differences visually 'pop'.

~~~
carbocation
That would only work until the first insertion or deletion, at which point
you'd have a frameshift that would probably render useless the "visual pop"
since you'd be shifting phrases to different lines, etc.

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anigbrowl
There's a nice used bookstore near my home which has an unusually good legal
section that is always worth a look. I've noticed some beautifully printed
briefs from state supreme or federal circuit courts going for a song - $1 or
free with a few books - but never bought any because none of the cases rang a
bell. After reading this, I've decided to pick some up - I had not realized
the historical significance of the printing methods themselves. I imagine that
the US Supreme Court briefs are already collector's items.

The law's slowness to adapt to changing technology is a frequent topic of
debate at HN. In this case, the changes are literally taking place beneath the
judge's noses. I wonder if members of the judiciary consider the changing feel
and smell of the papers landing on their desk in relation to the new and
complex legal questions argued within their pages.

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mattdeboard
That is a pretty magical piece of writing right there. I have nothing to do
with the law profession but I can appreciate a printed document, especially
when it bears a certain heft. The paper has a certain feel, the cover feels a
certain way. The last time I remember feeling like there was something special
about the book itself -- not the words therein -- was the first printing of
Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves". It was, and maybe still is, unique to
my experience with books.

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GaryOlson
If one were alive today, I am sure a buggy whip manufacturing apprentice could
provide the same type of nostalgic reminiscence: the smell of the leather, the
suppleness of the whip, the acrid taste of the dyes. And comparisons how that
new car smell is not as satisfying.

~~~
Helianthus16
And I'm sure it would be an interesting read. However, I feel I should also
point out that what makes this article interesting isn't that this technology
is out of date, it is that it is a glimpse into a time when we didn't have
computing technology and the solutions people found for Very Important
Communication.

