Law Society’s Gazette, February 1970

Random ramblingsWatch out, brothers. We’re being computerised. We shall soon be able to throw all our law books away. No more burning of the midnight oil or speculating how much damages the judge will award. All we shall have to do will be, metaphorically of course, to put a penny in the slot and out will come the answer…

I really must be getting old because I just cannot understand this computer business at all. Recently I was privileged to attend, in company with a large number of VIPs, a special lecture on ‘Computers and the Law’ arranged by Theodore Ruoff, the Chief Land Registrar. The lecturer was Mr Colin Tapper MA, BCL, of Magdalene College, Oxford, who for over an hour spoke about his research work into the possible use of computers by lawyers… To say that I understood what he was driving at would be a gross exaggeration of the truth, but it was all very fascinating in a mystifying sort of way, and I did enjoy Mr Ruoff’s generous hospitality in providing sherry for his guests afterwards.

Whether I understood the impact of Mr Tapper’s lecture or not is neither here nor there, but I think we all have to face up to the fact that computers are here and, like decimal currency, we shall have to live with them.