Bridging the Gap on Legal Tech Proficiency at Law Schools
Speaker(s)
Session Description
More and more law students are pursuing interests in legal technology, but many are witnessing a gap at their respective schools. This gap is usually not primarily about budgets, or procuring the latest and greatest software, but instead revolves around issues such as institutional buy-in, communication to the student body and the wider community, and cooperation between departments. All these competencies are required to foster the growth of legal technology courses and work experience at an institution. This session is a panel discussion in which the panelists will discuss their unique experiences engaging with legal technology at their law schools, the gaps they encountered, and how they reconciled those gaps with their professional development goals. Panelists are all recent graduates and NextGen Fellows at the ABA Center for Innovation.
Attendees do not need to have any technical knowledge, only a desire to learn more about recent law graduates’ experiences with legal technology in the classroom. Through the experiences of the panelists, this session will introduce concrete steps that law schools can take to build out new or improve existing legal technology programs. Therefore, attendees who are interested in developing legal technology programs at their law schools are highly encouraged.
Moderator:
Michael Robak, Director of the Schoenecker Law Library, Associate Dean and Clinical Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas
Panelists:
Amanda Brown, ’16 Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
Athena Fan, ’17 American University Washington College of Law
Tobias Franklin, ’17 University of Maine School of Law
Irene Mo, ’17 Michigan State University College of Law