Snap Shot: Mark Saville

TITLE: The Right Honorable The Lord Saville of Newdigate. (An English Law Lord, he sits in the House of Lords as one of the jurists of the highest court of appeal in the U.K.)

VITALS: Rye Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford. Read law at University, and obtained first class degrees, BA and BCL. Called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1962; Queen's Counsel in 1975; Bencher of his Inn in 1983. Appointed Judge of the High Court in 1985; Lord Justice of Appeal, 1994; Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, 1997. Honorary Doctorate in Law, Guildhall University, 1997. Honorary Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, 1998.

CURRENT DUTIES: Chair, Bloody Sunday Inquiry into the events of Jan. 30, 1972, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The hearing is expected to last at least two years.

COMMITTEES: Lord Saville is chair of the Judicial Technology Group, a group of judges and administrators affiliated with the courts. He also is active with the Information Technology and the Courts committee, which meets twice a year. Members include a large number of government bodies and departments concerned with the justice system (including the prison service, the probation services), the court administators, judges and lawyers. It provides a forum to discuss IT across the justice system, with particular emphasis on working together to avoid duplication of effort, and to encourage the use of compatible systems to promote better, faster communication.

LAPTOP: Siemens Fujistu.

WORD PROCESSING: Microsoft's Word."I used to use WordPerfect, but in the end, because more people use Word, I use Word."

PDA: Palm V.

FAVORITE COMPUTER GAME: Flightsims of all kinds.

PLANE: DR-500 French single propeller high performance four-seater. Saville received his flying license 12 years ago. A son is a professional pilot for KLM. "His interest in flying is what attracted me to flying."

CELL PHONE: Nokia, about two years old.

FAVORITE GADGET: GPS Systems' Garmin handheld GPS (global positioning system). "It is useful for sailing, flying, cycling, walking mountains, etc."

PAGER: None. "I regard them as inventions of the Devil!"

WATCH: Casio, with a compass, altimeter, barometer, thermometer, stop watch.

FAVORITE NON-LEGAL TECH MAGAZINES: Flying, cycling and gardening.

WHERE WE WOULD FIND YOU ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Flying, cycling or gardening.

LAST BOOK READ: Archangel, by Robert Harris.

CAR: White Citroen, 1999.

MOST IMPORTANT TECH TREND: For legal, re: court procedure, Livenote (real time transcripts) is a spectacular program. It saves time for all court participants, because you can annotate the transcript as it is created (rather than having to do it at the end of the day); divide testimony into issues; and use the automatic indexing system to find testimony of particular witnesses and key words and phrases. Broader: IT and the assistance that it can give in legal research. As Professor Richard Susskind has said, it is important to remember that information technology is not just about automation of existing methods, but also about innovation. About devising entirely new ways of doing things.

FAVORITE BOOKMARKS: www.amazon.co.uk: For books. www.austlii.edu.au: "A first-class Australian site, containing almost all their legal materials (cases, statutes, etc.), in a very easily searchable form." www.avsim.com: "One of many fine flight and flightsim sites."

LAST VACATION: Utah. Kayaking on the Escalante River, for three weeks in April/May.

FAVORITE QUOTE: Counsel saying, "Is this a convenient moment to adjourn?"