An article by George Khoury, Esq. on the FindLaw legal technology blog reports on digital advances that could ultimately lead to the existence of entire augmented- or virtual-reality law offices – where our colleagues appear as 3-D images and our documents seem to be suspended around us in thin air.

Khoury invites us to imagine “showing up to court as a fully suited up lawyer hologram, while really just eating cereal in our pajamas on the couch.”

Such visions are not likely to become viable realities for another decade or so, Khoury acknowledges, but bringing them to life is already the focus of such companies as Meta, a start-up founded by Meron Gribitz, who studied neuroscience and computer science at Columbia, and Envelop VR of Bellview WA, whose headset-accessible platform already runs applications – from YouTube to Excel worksheets – in virtual reality.

Khoury predicts that the use of augmented or virtual reality will be “a real boon” for law offices, although significant refinements to both hardware and software will be required before the technology will appeal to most of us. Still, while the VR law office may still be a vision for the future, that vision is certainly within reach, and it is of more than diversionary interest to keep an eye on developments in this field.

I invite you to share your thoughts on this or any other matter related to the law, either in the comments section below or directly via email.