We were having coffee at a wood-paneled Caribou Coffee house in Chicago as we searched our contact databases and calendared a business meeting. I even sent an email to myself as an additional reminder.

Lawyers and clients are doing this everyday as Palm and other handheld devices appear in lawyers' hands nationwide, making them the No. 1 marketing tool for Lawyers. There are 7 million Palm users worldwide, and many of them are lawyers. The ABA's 1999 Legal Technology survey showed that more than 28 percent of respondents use PDAs, which is short for "personal digital assistant." These wallet-sized handheld devices weigh a few ounces and fit into a shirt pocket. They sell for $100 for an introductory model to $500 for a top-of-the-line model with a color screen.

Beaming a Business Card
A Palm handheld device will organize your phone numbers, keep your calendar and become your portable "idea trap." Depending on the model, it can hold 10,000 addresses, five years of appointments, 3,000 "to do" items and 3,000 memos. However, the real reason you should get one is so that you can be the first to say to a client, "May I beam you my business card?" Many Palm users have not used this feature, but clients love it the first time they are beamed. Beaming a client your business card makes a lawyer look tech-savvy and clients like that.

The feature that convinces most lawyers to use a PDA is its "find" feature. You can use it when you can't quite remember a date, name or location. You can search simultaneously across your calendar, address book and note pad applications. A lawyer simply taps in a clue or partial word and the device reports every occurrence of the search term ever recorded. This is incredibly useful when you are on the road, at a meeting or just riding the train home. With a PDA, all of your information is with you wherever you go.

Here's an example of what you can do if you get a wireless Palm VII: I was collecting my thoughts for this article while riding the train home one day.  I tapped my notes into the Palm using the "Graffiti" writing system and jotted them into the "Memo Pad" feature as quickly as they came up. Then I used the pull-down menu, tapped "Select all", copied my notes and pasted them into the body of an email on the iMessenger screen (available only on Palm VIIs). I addressed the email to myself at home and sent it wirelessly from the moving train. I was able to print out my notes when I got to my home office.

The portability of all that information, along with the ability to find and use it easily, makes the PDA an incredibly useful marketing and practice management tool. You can dump your black appointment book covered with yellow Post-It notes. 

Shopping Tips
The main thing to remember when you are buying a PDA is to get as much memory as possible.  Eight MEG is the absolute minimum. It's not that a lawyer will fill up the memory with appointments, phone numbers and memos -- instead, the numerous applications that can be added will gobble up the memory. For example, there are programs that allow lawyers to keep time, download the latest news, and create outlines. Other popular applications track the stock market, furnish weather forecasts, set out maps and fetch movie schedules.

Another feature to look for when shopping is a built-in rechargeable battery. Some handhelds require a pair of AAA batteries, which must be replaced in less than 60 seconds, once they have run down, or else you risk losing data. So, first determine that the handheld you like has a rechargeable battery, and then compare the battery life with other models. 

You are wise to buy a handheld that uses the Palm operating system (Palm or Handspring brand). Of all the PDAs sold, 75% are the Palm brand. There are competing brands that run on the Windows CE operating system, but they are not compatible with Palm devices and have a small market share.

Program Add-ons
Lawyers can add programs to their handheld with the "hot sync" process. Every PDA comes with a cradle, which holds the PDA and connects to a port on the computer. To "hot sync" the two machines, simply put the PDA in its cradle and press a button on the cradle. The selected contents of each machine is copied onto the other. (Lawyers can take great comfort in knowing that a backup of the PDA contents are on the computer, in case the little device is lost.) Many programs are available by downloading them from the Web, and most of them are free. 

• AvantGo is the most popular of all free downloadable programs at www.avantgo.com. The AvantGo program will grab information from the Web and transfer it to your handheld when you hot-sync.  For example, just before you leave the office every day you can use AvantGo to get the latest Fox News, The Wall Street Journal report, Street.Com stock market reports and Weather Channel forecast. On the train ride home you can read the stories you want. You will no longer need to buy the late edition newspaper.

• Another program to get is Documents to Go at www.dataviz.com. This program copies long documents and spreadsheets from your computer, which your handheld can read and search. It also checks for updates to the document. For example, you can put your entire firm's telephone directory on your handheld in addition to an existing collection of addresses. This program costs about $60.

• Vindigo, available free from www.vindigo.com, will put a list of restaurants on your handheld covering Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.  You can tap in your current location, select your favorite cuisine and Vindigo will give you walking directions to the closest restaurant, plus a review.

• Time Reporter 2000 at www.iambic.com. From the makers of Timeslips, this full-featured timekeeping program can be made to synchronize directly with Timeslips. It tracks time and expenses, in many categories, and is compatible with Excel, Quicken, Quickbooks and Access. It costs about $150. Cheaper alternatives include Time Tracker at www.inertron.com, for $20, and Time Logger at www.responsivesoftware.com, for $90. 

For more information, visit the following Palm Web Sites for Lawyers:

• www.pdajd.com. The "handheld headquarters for lawyers," this site covers everything from how to get started to the latest add-ons and upgrades.

• www.lfmi.com. Includes a legal marketing technology section with info on PDAs.

• www.palmlaw.com. Focusing on Palm handhelds, this site offers legal news, reference documents, articles and product reviews.

• www.pdabuzz.com. This site has information and tools for those addicted to their PDAs, including news of the latest devices.

• www.palmgear.com. Scads of downloads and program updates, tips, news and e-mail Q&A.

• www.handango.com. The site for freeware, shareware, and buyware. It offers maps, games, databases and mini-books.

• www.ugeek.com/pdageek. For hard-core PDA aficionados, this site covers news, features and reviews, plus a PDA newsletter.

• Pdapanache.com. Check out this site for cool, multi-tasking, writing utensils (or "pens" as we used to call them). They even have an all-in-one unit that holds ink cartridges, a lead dispenser, a plastic tip stylus for PDA graffiti and highlighters.

Once you have woven the Palm into your marketing routine, you will not want to go anywhere without it. It may even become the focus of an addition. Tip-off signs include buying a special holster to carry it on your belt, using it to look up today's date, and beaming passers-by. Some people in Silicon Valley allegedly had them grafted onto their hands. "This year, the cutting edge executive is surgically implanting her Palm Pilot directly onto her hand. Just a few skin grafts and four screws, and the useless left hand now becomes a highly efficient PDA holder," reports bbspot.com, in an almost-serious article at bbspot.com.

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