Featured Pro: Jeffrey Killino

Jeffrey Killino, Esq. runs The Killino Firm he started in Philadelphia, PA. The Killino Firm has national reach with clients and cases that straddle both coasts and many spaces in between. While speed is essential, to Jeffrey mobility is also a vitally important part of his practice. 

When we talked to Jeffrey, he told us that the main contributor, from a technology standpoint, to his ability to set and maintain the pace of a trial and to practice from absolutely anywhere, is his iPad and the LIT SUITE. For the past couple of years, he has been practicing not from a desk or desktop, and not even from a laptop, but exclusively from an iPad.

IN DEPOSITION 
Setting and keeping a particular pace can be of significant importance when deposing an expert witness. During the deposition, Jeffrey has every document in front of him in TrialPad and every previous deposition in front of him in TranscriptPad. He knows what he is going to ask, and has a response or follow-up question cued up as his question is being answered. He controls the pace, moves the deposition along quickly, and in the specific direction he intends. Even professional witnesses have been unprepared for such a skilled attorney.

IN HEARINGS
In large cases where Jeffrey has found himself suing several parties on his clients’ behalf, keeping track of the case record of what has been claimed and what has been said in hearings, pleadings, motions, and depositions can be a job in itself. Constantly having the entire case with you, on one device that you reference several times a day leads to an excellent familiarity with those case documents. Keeping everything in apps like TrialPad, TranscriptPad, and DocReviewPad makes referencing and quoting from them on the fly quick and easy. In a recent hearing Jeffrey’s opposing counsel claimed a witness had said something that Jeffrey was sure the witness did not say at all. This type of situation is not uncommon in a fast-paced hearing. Sometimes the other side isn’t mistaken, they are trying to be strategic, perhaps to buy time, perhaps to gain a millimeter of ground in the record, or perhaps they are hoping that a detail of testimony simply will be glossed over. That sort of thing doesn’t happen in hearings with Jeffrey, who is following along with every document, and able to pull up the exact page and line of testimony, or the exact paragraph of a cited case at a moment’s notice. Instead of looking it up later, he corrects it on the spot, with the judge. The opposing mistake is corrected, and the opposing strategy fails.

IN COURT
Jeffrey is very fluent in the multitasking capabilities of the iPad, switching between apps, and strategically placing important apps in the Dock for easy access. In this way, he is able to read his witness outline in Slide Over, while referencing any evidence needed. He conducts witness examinations directly from his iPad, pulling up documents or demonstratives as he goes along. This approach is seamless and means he is not referencing a separately typed or handwritten paper outline. Better still, he is not asking anyone else in the room for any type of assistance. In large trials with multiple defendants, Jeffrey’s opposing counsel often bring an entire presentation team along with their litigation team. This inevitably leads to various requests being communicated across the room in front of the judge and jury during a witness examination. The opposing side looks overstaffed and underprepared. Also inevitably then, comes the enormous contrast in the presentation when Jeffrey stands up with only his iPad, fully prepared. He has every document at his fingertips, a functional familiarity with his technology, his case, and how he has organized it. When he stands up he sets a pace and doesn’t waste a second of the court’s or the jury’s time. He looks like the most competent lawyer in the room.

EVERYWHERE ELSE
As a passenger in a car on the way to deposition, or in a plane heading to an out-of-state hearing, Jeffrey is still able to work. He uses a remote desktop client to log in to any area of his firm server if necessary, but his iPad can hold 1TB of data (the storage equivalent of 75 million pages, or 18 million documents!) Further, with the small form factor of even the largest iPad devices, setting up to review a deposition, develop his next argument, or draft his next motion takes mere seconds. In all his travel, Jeffrey knows from experience that a tiny airplane tray table may as well be a desk if you have your entire case on your iPad, and a tiny airplane seat may as well be a corner office when your entire practice is at your fingertips.

WHAT’S COMING, AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
There are two key features, among others, that were requested by Jeffrey and many other litigators who have big cases and run them almost exclusively from their iPad devices. First, and most importantly, the new LIT SUITE adopted Apple’s standard document picker to import documents, videos, and other evidence. This means that LIT SUITE users are able to access their files using any cloud storage provider that integrates with the Files app, including Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, iCloud Drive, and more. In addition, it allows users to directly import and export files from a USB drive directly onto the iPad. Second, and especially important to large cases, the LIT SUITE allows the transfer of Case Files that exceed 2GB. Users can keep large cases in one case folder, and back it up or copy it to another iPad with ease.