As the lawyer responsible for the Kansas Family Law Blog, Grant Griffiths, 46, knows relationships can change for all kinds of reasons. He rates his decision to divorce his Windows-based PCs as well justified, after a virus crashed his network, shut down his paralegal assistant’s productivity for three days, and cost him $4,000 to restore lost files.

“I consistently spent $3,000-$4,000 per year keeping those PCs going,” states Griffiths, who has run his practice since 1997. “There was always something, but that virus crash was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Looking for an alternative, he spent six months communicating with other lawyers on the MacLaw.org email discussion forum before purchasing his iBook notebook, soon followed by a Mac mini to run his network. The mini plugs into a DSL hub, and the iBook uses an Airport card to tap into his network wirelessly. “Since I got the Macs, my annual I.T. support budget has dropped to zero. They just work,” he says.

His paralegal assistant works in her own office a four-hour drive away from his, so he stays connected while he’s on the move with a Palm TREO handheld. Missing Sync from Mark/Space meshes his TREO with the newest addition to his software library – Daylite Productivity Suite from Marketcircle.

“I do a lot of custody disputes,” says Griffiths, who uses his family law blog powered by LexBlog as his only form of advertising to attract 12-15 inquiries and 2-3 new clients a week, many from Fort Riley, the largest military base in the Midwest. “Technology allows constant client contact, and because I scan everything into my Mac I have all client information at my fingertips. This is why Daylite is so important to what I do.”

“Daylite is the first thing on my screen in the morning. In fact, I never turn it off,” says Griffiths. “I discovered Daylite out of frustration with Apple’s iCal. I started looking around, downloaded the free trial version and three days later purchased it.”

Daylite Productivity Suite provides professionals of all kinds with powerful capabilities to manage information and help them stay focused and productive. Scheduling meetings, delegating tasks, sharing calendars, planning assignments and staying on top of multiple projects, contacts and dates are the domain of Daylite.

Griffiths’ only other experience with productivity software was Time Matters by LexisNexis – a package he used on his PC: “Honestly, I hated it. It was cumbersome and hard to use.”

“Must-have” features in Daylite, according to Griffiths, are the productivity software’s Contacts and Calendar functions, with the Calendar eliminating frustration he was feeling trying to use Apple’s iCal for his work.

He also likes the Reverse Activity Set feature that allows him to define a new case as a Project, then work backwards from a court date to organize all the milestone dates and related activities. “With Daylite, I link my client to the Project, opposing counsel to the Project, the judge assigned to the case to the Project, the district clerk … so anyone I have to contact is linked to the Project and they are right there at my fingertips.”

When he’s required support for Daylite, Griffiths has utilized Marketcircle’s movie tutorials, online forum and online knowledge base. If he can’t find what he needs there, he simply emails the company and gets a prompt response, usually within one business day.

Daylite Productivity Suite’s ability to assign new projects, appointments and contacts directly out of Apple Mail is another time-saver for Griffiths. “I link related emails to my court case Projects as well, so everything I need to run a case I have access to from Daylite.”

A self-confessed tech enthusiast who also runs Homeofficelawyerblog.com to help other lawyers harness the power of technology, Griffiths’ software setup also includes PageSender fax server and PDF Pin Pro from Smile On My Mac, NoteBook idea outliner from Circus Ponies, Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac and Daylite Productivity Suite.

On his Home Office Lawyer blog, Griffiths blogged this entry soon after purchasing Daylite:

“I have been using a wonderful program now for just over a week. Its name is Daylite. It’s built around the Mac OS and it is just great. Easy to use. Great looking interface. And you can do things with this that really can streamline how you handle your calendar and contacts. For example, today I thought I would try one of the features built right in. Instead of the normal way of doing an envelop to someone, I simply went into my Contacts in Daylite, clicked on the contacts name. Clicked on Print and selected my office envelope and BAM, it merged with that contact’s information and I printed it.

That is just one feature. I encourage all of you who use Macs in your office to take a look at this program. I liked it so much that I actually purchased a license 3 days after I downloaded it. Check it out.”