Page 11 - Law Schools

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Law Schools | Monday, august 17, 2015 | S11
Digital Success
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likely be even more reliant on technology in performing his or her job than today’s. We should therefore consider fully integrating it into the law school classroom.
If we do make technology an integral part of our classroom, this of course presents addi- tional challenges and opportunities. our same old tired questions (the same ones we asked of last year’s class) will be of little value when a student may be able to find the answers instantly online. on the other hand, a class- room full of technology enabled students presents us with powerful problem solving opportunities. While a law school class need not be turned into a full-fledge “hackathon,” the concept of connected group problem solv- ing presents an enormous array of learning opportunities.
of course, one of the reasons we remain fixated on the rear-view mirror is the very nature of the common law as backward, rather than forward, looking. Stare decisis requires us to decide tomorrow’s cases consistent with yesterday’s rules. In fact, our basic notions of the “rule of law” require such an approach. however, solving legal problems does not nec- essarily require a backward looking approach. In fact, a forward looking, outside-the-box (at least the past “box”) approach may be the most effective in solving a client problem.
Law schools must continue to teach stu- dents to read, understand, and apply the rule of law (i.e., to “think like a lawyer”). however, we owe tomorrow’s graduate much more. he or she must also fully understand that this newly mastered legal expertise is of little value to anyone (including the new law graduate), unless it can be delivered cost-effectively in the form of legal services. That cost-effective legal service delivery will increasingly require a sound understanding of the effective use of appropriate technology. moreover, our focus on the future of lawyering should begin at the earliest possible juncture on a student’s lengthy path to practice.
Law faculty and administrators often debate the best selections for a prospec- tive 1L’s summer reading list. While these selections typically vary between classic
Curriculum
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alumni for volunteering their time to assist with instruction in these courses.
Incorporating these types of compre- hensive changes necessitates cooperation and creative problem-solving by law school faculty and administration who work in partnership with one another. In addition, it is critical to involve alumni and other members of the bar to ensure that the cur- riculum is positioning students for practice. Practicing attorneys can be extremely help- ful in offering suggested course offerings, teaching methods, and through serving as adjunct faculty. Such changes take time and also require constructive assessment of stu- dents’ performance and integration of the
lawyering novels, jurisprudential essays, and “how-to-succeed” guides, they are all invari- ably backward looking. Few recommend Suss- kind’s “Tomorrow’s Lawyers,” which might be among the most useful in painting a forward looking portrait of the road awaiting the suc- cessful law graduate.
Teaching Our Students to Thrive in a Technology-Driven Future. For those not yet steeped in the details of the increasing impact of technology on law practice, a very brief survey may be useful. modern e-discov- ery undoubtedly represents the most “dis- ruptive” technology-driven change in legal service delivery to date. as the information subject to discovery in legal proceedings has become increasingly digitized, so has the most effective means of dealing with it. armies of law firm associates review- ing boxes full of paper documents are to a large degree being replaced with computer algorithms capable of doing the same job far more cost effectively. While e-discovery certainly still requires some lawyering and legal expertise, much of the work is moving to machines and legal process outsourcers (the “LPo” is a new breed of business that serves clients or law firms, but does not tech- nically “practice law” as such). While much of the current technology buzz is focused on e-discovery, this is really only the tip of the technology iceberg.
Supercomputing power, such as that employed by IBm’s Watson to beat the best humans at Jeopardy, is being employed to perform predictive analytics on “big data” that goes far beyond traditional statutory or case analysis, and is being developed to answer legal questions far more nuanced and complex than the traditional online research query. automated expert legal systems can provide the lawyer generalist, or even the client, with the benefit of deep legal exper- tise delivered entirely by interaction with the automated system. Contracts can be drafted, reviewed, and managed by automated sys- tems. In fact, “computable” contracts can even execute themselves automatically.
Beyond its use in e-discovery, technology is beginning to change the underlying dispute resolution landscape. online dispute resolu- tion is currently being employed to resolve millions of high volume-low value disputes—
skills being taught. There is more work to be done and law schools must continue to innovate and adapt, as more change is inevitable for our profession in the com- ing years.
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1. aBa Standard 303(a)(3), as well as the other Standards and Rules of Procedure for approval of Law Schools, can be found at http://www.americanbar.org/ groups/legal_education/resources/standards.html.
2. The Task Force on admissions Regulation Reform of The State Bar of California has authorized the creation of an implementation plan, having adopted a recommen- dation for a 15-credit skills requirement for admission to the California Bar. The report and other material are available at http://www.calbar.ca.gov/aboutus/Board- ofTrustees/TaskForceonadmissionsRegulationReform. aspx.
3. See N.Y. State Bar ass’n, Report of the Task Force on the Future of the Legal Profession (april 2, 2011), avail- able at http://www.nysba.org/Workarea/Downloadas- set.aspx?id=26691.
4. See Developing Legal Careers and Delivering Justice in the 21st Century: a Report by the New York City Bar
the vast majority of which are resolved by computer algorithms. moreover, online dis- pute resolution providers are increasingly exploring the use of similar processes and technology to resolve higher value disputes— all without need to resort to courts. In fact, the courts themselves will almost certainly find the need to embrace technology to func- tion effectively and efficiently.
at Touro Law Center, we have begun to develop a digital lawyering curriculum to bet- ter prepare students for this technology-driven future. This digital lawyering curriculum is built around an entirely new course in “21st Century Law Practice by Design: Leveraging Legal exper- tise With Technology for more Cost-effective Delivery of Legal Services.” as its name sug- gests, the course is intended both to introduce students to the concept of technology-leveraged legal service delivery and to think about ways in which this knowledge can be used to deliver legal services to traditionally underserved mar- kets—individuals of modest means and micro/ small businesses (and addressing our chronic a2J problem in this country). around this hub, we currently offer three additional courses with more specific focuses: (1) e-Discovery; (2) expert Legal Systems; and (3) Privacy and Data Security in a Connected World. Finally, we have added a strong dose of law practice technology to our traditional course in Law Practice management. as one might reasonably expect, the intersection between technology and the rules of professional responsibility is also thoroughly examined in addressing all of the above subjects.
We also provide additional practical oppor- tunities for our students and recent gradu- ates to learn how to leverage technology in delivering legal services. our course in expert Legal Systems interacts directly with a num- ber of our clinics (using automation to deliver clinical services more efficiently). our new lawyer incubator program, the Community Justice Center of Long Island, is partnering with Legal.io in a pilot project to use technol- ogy to connect new lawyers with traditionally underserved legal markets.
giving students the tools they need to flourish in a technology-driven future is essential. however, it is not alone sufficient. Students also need to learn to embrace the opportunities provided for this future, instead
association Task Force on New Lawyers in a Changing Profession, (Fall 2013) available at http://www2.nycbar. org/pdf/developing-legal-careers-and-delivering-justice- in-the-21st-century.pdf.
5. The Committee on Legal education and admission to the Bar (LeaB)’s Information Report to the NYSBa exec. Comm. on a Skills Training Requirement for admis- sion to the New York State Bar (December 2013) can be found at http://www.nysba.org/workarea/Downloadas- set.aspx?id=46440.
6. William m. Sullivan et al., educating Lawyers: Prepa- ration for the Profession of Law 129 (2007), commonly known as “The Carnegie Report.”
7. Deborah a. maranville, Lisa Bliss, Carolyn Wil- kes Kaas, and antoinette Sedillo Lopez, eds., Building on Best Practices: Transforming Legal education in a Changing World (LexisNexis 2015).
8. N.Y. State Court Rules for admission of atty’s and Counselors at Law, Rule 520.3(a)(3).
9. aBa Standard 311 as well as the other Standards and Rules of Procedure for approval of Law Schools, can be found at http://www.americanbar.org/groups/le- gal_education/resources/standards.html.
10. See N.Y. State Bar ass’n, Report of the Task Force on the Future of the Legal Profession (april 2, 2011), available at http://www.nysba.org/Workarea/Download- asset.aspx?id=26691.
of fearing its threats.
Embracing the Uncertainty That Comes With Innovation. For most of us, change comes with a healthy dose of fear. Technology- driven change often gives rise to even greater fears, because it has the capacity to reduce the need for jobs filled by humans. however, it also creates new opportunities at the same time it displaces the old.
No one can say with precise certainty how the use of technology will affect the totality of opportunities for human beings to solve the legal problems of tomorrow. however, the effective use of technology will very likely grow the overall market for legal services, as well as provide broader opportunities for law graduates beyond the traditional practice of law. In addition, the law graduate trained to leverage technology in the delivery of legal services should have an enormous advantage over those without such training. all of this should provide tomorrow’s properly trained lawyer with a high degree of confidence as he or she enters the marketplace for legal services.
Does this Mean Lawyers Must Also Be Software Engineers? Should a law student learn to write code? maybe, but not neces- sarily. For example, a business lawyer might find a working knowledge of accounting or finance useful, or a patent lawyer might find a working knowledge of medicine or engineer- ing useful. however, what is more likely to be essential is a level of understanding of accounting, finance, medicine, or engineer- ing sufficient to communicate and interact effectively with the relevant professional. In a similar vein, tomorrow’s “digital lawyer” will require an understanding of the power of current information technology sufficient to communicate and interact with an appropri- ate IT professional. along with “thinking like a lawyer,” tomorrow’s lawyer will require the “digital literacy” to leverage that thinking through the appropriate use of technology.
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1. http://www.neotalogic.com/news/law-schools- technology.
2. Richard Susskind, Tomorrow’s Lawyers: an Intro- duction to Your Future (2013).
3. The potential liberalization of the rules regulating law practice in the united States is also a very interest- ing discussion, but one that is beyond the scope of this article.
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