Focus
Digital Lawyering: Law degrees at a time of digital transformation
Dates
The event will be held (in-person only) at The Barn in Ambleside on Thursday 29.06.23 and Friday 30.06.23.
Organisers
Dr Ann Thanaraj (Founder and Host)
Organisers list
Features
This is an international initiative, founded to bring a global interdisciplinary audience to shape the direction of legal education fit for a digital age; founded as a catalyst for change in the curriculum of legal education, transforming the sorts of research, knowledge, skills, competencies and experiences students have when studying towards a law degree, as they become equipped for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
As in the previous event, it seeks to bring together legal practitioners, research candidates and academics and professions from law, business, science, philosophy, humanities, arts and computing to share thinking around curriculum for future-readiness, whilst having an honest conversation on the culture change and digital capabilities required to harness the affordances of the modern law degree.
Drawing on the impact of the first event, the 2023 Conference will actively seek to identify digital champions within Law Schools globally who are keen to or have embraced change in their curriculum and student experience, and offer them the opportunity to share their thoughts through an edited collection of provocation letters to law schools around reimagining the law degree.
This event builds on a previous event (2019) and one of the keynotes (Hunter) which highlighted the challenges to risk, regulation and practice of law and technology. It also seeks to engage with the challenge of Tech 3.0 to Law 1.0 (Brownsword, Law 3.0 Routledge, 2019) and Lucy’s paper in response on “The Law School 2061” (2021 MLR 1-15). Given that the scope of technology impacts law in its normative and practical context, applicants are keen to engage a multi-disciplinary perspective from academics with expertise in for example in cyber security, cultural geography and social anthropology, forensic science, history, and language and linguistics. The second objective of this event is to engage student research assistance to help publish contributions in an open access publication on the state of play in research and teaching of Digital Lawyering, and Law and Technology in Law Schools.
In particular, the event will seek to address the following:
• What it means to be future-ready in time of digital transformation within legal education?
• Linked to future readiness, what are the knowledge, skills and dispositions for delivering legal services in the face of technological change?
• What are the hallmarks of digital transformation and what this means for legal education curriculum, delivery and student preparedness?
• How are interlinking components of technology, cultural shifts in the episteme of disciplines, pedagogical shift in learning, professional shifts in workforce and infrastructures, and leadership joined to create legal education fit for the changing world?
• Seek arguments towards anchoring and augmenting the skills and knowledge for the digital age with cross-boundary and interdisciplinary learning to grounded.
Themes
There will be 5 themes during this event. Each theme will last approximately 75 minutes. The themes are:
-Interdisciplinary learning in law
-Digital literacies in law
-Technology and Sustainability
-Future readiness of law students in Industry 4.0
-Purpose of the law school and legal education
Tentative Program
Day 1: The highlight of the first day is a showcase from industry leads on the sorts of legal tech in use and expectations of law graduates; a showcase of tech in general used across a variety of industries that benefit from legal knowledge (non-law sectors); a whistle-stop tour of the big five technologies influencing and shaping our economic and professional landscapes: AI, Internet of Things, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing. This will help us gain understanding of the sorts of technology we need to be aware of to help students navigate the technologically-mediating landscape they will find themselves in, and the sorts of things we could include in our curriculum using the study of law as an lens to view these developments. The keynote speaker on the first day will discuss impact technology has had on the profession over that time and the way that lawyers will work with tech in the future to achieve more than they ever could before, featuring themes of automation, professions, education and future of graduateness.
• Afternoon barbeque
• Welcome and industry legal tech in use showcase
• Understanding the big technologies in professions
• Action planning
• Afternoon tea
• keynote
Day 2: The highlight in the second day is the best practice showcase from law schools with a particular focus on panel discussions drawing on a wide variety of ideas and practices for debate and sharing. The panels will feature speakers from different industries, professions and students showcasing leading thinking and research around breaking down barriers and re-thinking the Higher Education system, sharing practice and addressing key questions. We are expecting to have around 30 speakers and panellists (from a broad range of disciplines and professions) with 2 keynotes over both days.
• The event also centers around wellness and outdoor pursuits as an opportunity for networking in a unique setting.
• Coffee
• Themes 1 and 2
• Coffee break
• Themes 3 and 4
• Lunch
• Theme 5
• Keynote
Format
The 75 minutes for each theme will be designed as follows:
-20 minutes of spotlight presentations from a variety of innovators in law degrees
-40 minutes of multidisciplinary panel debates
-15 minutes of questions and answers and action planning
The event seeks to help delegates answer how we can be more creative in approaches to learning and teaching, and assessment, and more specifically digital learning and digital technologies to create the most impactful, high-quality learning experiences for our students. To ensure a balanced discussion, we will encourage joint and multi-disciplinary panels, including joint follow up contributions between students and practitioners in the edited collection.
Speakers
More details around our keynote speakers, spotlight presenters and panellists will follow in 2023. We are inviting a combination of speakers from legal practice, law schools and a wide selection of industries and professions will offer a unique lens upon which we can come to understand the different ways in which the law degree can be an extensively valuable study to serve a wide ranging careers, solutions to problems and develop learners in authentic and creative ways.