The Opportunities and Challenges of the Computer in the Legal Profession

Abstract

In spite of the increased use of computers in all facets of business life, many key officers of companies that use computers know very little about their uses. Indeed, many of us are somewhat overawed by the word “computer”. And yet no statement can be truer than that made by the American Dr. W. Marvin Watson, President of the Dallas Baptist College that computer literacy is not an option for the educated man or woman of the 1980s (and I add, of today's Nigeria) it is a necessity. Perhaps, it is from the perspective of the necessity of computer literacy for every educated person that we must contemplate the topic for discussion: “the opportunities and challenges of the computer in the Legal Profession”. But first, let us quickly itemize those areas in which the computer can serve the law and us.