Turning the Page - Wichita Business Journal:

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They look nice. "They're beautiful," says Townsley, the executivr committee memberat Fleeson, Coulson & Kitch LLC and president of the . "Ik just couldn't part with them." There was a time when reference booksa were the lifeblood of any thriving law Hours were spent checking past cases for precedent and andan attorney's true salt was tested not only in the but also in how he researchedr his case. The legwork hasn't changed, but the way attorneys research theirrcases has.
Technological advances have allowesd attorneys to search and find virtually any case ever tried with just a few key Inthat regard, it has made life but there's something sad in the notion that the set of vintagee 1908 court recorders in Townsley's office -- their scuffed burnt orange leather covers showing their age against thousandzs of yellowing pages -- represent nothinf more than an antiquated era at Fleesomn and a bygone time for the law For 120 years, the Wichits law firm prided itself on its law library, which at one time was as extensivde as any around.
With thousands of volumes, Fleeson possessesd a comprehensive collection of ranging from state and federal statuteds tocourt records. Its biggest expensse each year -- more than $100,000 -- came in adding to its law library. It was an expensse worth every penny because it addedf to the value ofthe practice. "Inb the old days any law library had a base valued and could be sold to another lawyeer orlaw firm," Townsley says. "That's no longer Townsley learned just that when Fleesojn moved into the Epic Centerlast month. Becauswe a great deal of researchj work isdone online, the firm pared down its law library to a fraction of the volumes it had before.
So what did it do with the books? Townsley tried to donate them to a numbet of law schools inthe state, but couldc find no takers. He offeref them up to the , which has accumulated an extensive librargy overthe years. Again, no luck. "It's sad that we couldn'rt give them away," says Townsley, who says he was even rejectef by arecycling company. "Because I couldn't bear to see them I saved about 500 volumes of theoldedr leather-bound reporters." They now occupy a not-so-honored placw in his attic, while otheras were unceremoniously thrown Don Berner, a partner at Foulston Siefkin, can relatew to Townsley's story.
When Foulston moved from downtowj tothe Waterfront, it left behind many of its "We couldn't find any he says. "There is not a lot of demande for them. It's sad when you can'ty give something away." Yet even Berner admits the new officesw are much less cluttered without lawbooks everywhere. "W had three floors in the building," he "And we had book shelves lining the hallsw of allthree floors. That's no longee the case." The longtime members of the professiojn view the change with a tinge of Winton Hinkle, senior counsel for Hinkle Elkourki Law Firm LLC, says he still prefers the law books to researchintg a case online.
But as the nation'sw colleges and universities groom the next generation of they strike a balance between making studentxs do research projects with booksand