If Abraham Lincoln were alive and lawyering in 2016 - assuming his practice itself otherwise stayed the same - what management techniques and technology tools would he and partner William Herndon use? Although there's no way to say for certain, our 21st century management and technology experts had fun sharing their prognostications.

If Lincoln and his practice were transported 160 years forward in time, a significant amount of his adjustment would revolve around the changes in mobile technology in the 21st century, says Bryan Sims of the Sims Law Firm Ltd. in Naperville and the ISBA's Committee on Legal Technology.

"Obviously you're looking at some sort of laptop. Probably you want one that's fairly [easy to transport]; not a huge, heavy one," Sims says. "You'd want a smart phone and a tablet, as well. I'd certainly use that all of the time." Sims sees the smartphone as, first of all, important for phone calls, although that's become a less common way of communicating than texts or e-mails. The laptop would help Lincoln produce documents, which is harder to do on a smartphone or tablet.

"Where you're outside of the office, you can draft pleadings, or motions, or whatever it is that you need to do," he says. "A lot of times, if you're traveling, you've got some down time involved, before or after court, or in between court appearances, where you can get work done while you're waiting." Find out more in the February Illinois Bar Journal.