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Making the Case for Law Tech

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2022

Janet Kearney
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Abstract

As the concept of a ‘practice-ready’ attorney continues to grow in both law firms and law schools, law school libraries are meeting this need by offering programming related to legal technology. In this article, a law librarian from the United States, Janet Kearney, discusses their successes and failures in creating and maintaining legal technology programming, a first step in a larger conversation on practice-ready law graduates. The article is based on a June 2021 presentation given at the annual conference of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians.

Keywords

legal technologylegal techlaw techlaw schoolsUnited States
Type
Five Papers from the BIALL Online Annual Conference 2021
Information
Legal Information Management , Volume 21 , Issue 3-4 , December 2021 , pp. 187 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians

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References

Footnotes

1 ‘Technology’, Black's Law Dictionary (11th edn, Thomson Reuters 2019).

2 ‘What is lawtech?’ (Law Society, 5 June 2019) <https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/Campaigns/Lawtech/Guides/What-is-lawtech> accessed 16 September 2021.

3 Corrales, Marcelo and Fenwick, Mark and Haapio, Helena (eds), Legal Tech, Smart Contracts and Blockchain (Springer Singapore Pte. Limited 2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 ‘The O Shaped Lawyer Programme’ (O Shaped Lawyer) <https://www.oshapedlawyer.com/about> accessed 16 September 2021; Richard Liu, ‘How Should Law Firms Develop Their Junior Lawyers?’ Law Practice Today (15 September 2020) <https://www.lawpracticetoday.org/article/how-should-law-firms-develop-their-junior-lawyers/> accessed 16 September 2021. There is a wealth of writing and opinions on this topic in everything from books to law journals to professional magazines. For just three examples, see Grover E. Cleveland, Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: the Essential Guide to Thriving as a New Lawyer (2nd edn, West Academic Publishing 2016); Jason G Dykstra, ‘Beyond the Practice Ready Buzz: Sifting through the Disruption of the Legal Industry to Divine the Skills Needed by New Attorneys’ (2018) 11 Drexel L Rev 149; and Christine M Stouffer, ‘Closing the Gap: Teaching Practice-Ready Legal Skills’ (2015) 19 AALL Spectrum 10.

5 As an example, in just one publication of the American Association of Law Libraries, see Stephanie Godley, ‘Tech-Savvy Law Librarians for the New Era’ (2020) 25 AALL Spectrum 10; Camille Broussard and Kathleen Brown and Daniel Cordova and Sarah K C Mauldin, ‘Teaching Legal Technology’ (2017) 21 AALL Spectrum 22; and Randy J Diamond and Darin Fox and Kenneth J Hirsh and Heidi Frostestad Kuehl and Michael Robak, ‘Let's Teach Our Students Legal Technology: but What Should We Include’ (2018) 23 AALL Spectrum 23. Even at the time of writing, this author is collaborating with other colleagues on a similar topic.

6 This article will use law tech and LPT to describe this topic; legal tech or legal technology are also commonly used in the literature.

7 Particular credit goes to Jacob Sayward, Jocelyn Sagherian, Jennifer Dixon, and Alison Shea in the creation of these programs, and to Todd Melnick (Director), Alissa Black-Dorward (Deputy Director), and Kelly Leong (Head of Reference) for advocating to create programming and providing a supportive administration.

8 ‘Law Practice Technology Class’ (Maloney Library) <https://library.law.fordham.edu/lawtechmaloney-library/law-practice-technology-class/> accessed 16 September 2021.

9 ‘Procertas’ (Maloney Library) <https://library.law.fordham.edu/lawtechmaloney-library/procertas/> accessed 16 September 2021.

10 Find all details of the product at ‘Legal Technology Assessment’ (Procertas) <https://www.procertas.com/products/lta/> accessed 16 September 2021.

11 ‘Lunch ‘n’ Learns’ (Maloney Library) <https://library.law.fordham.edu/lawtechmaloney-library/lunch-n-learns/> accessed 16 September 2021.

12 Maloney Library has free academic access to the e-discovery platform Everlaw for use in in-class demonstrations. (Everlaw) <https://www.everlaw.com/> accessed 16 September 2021.

13 ‘Law Practice Technology Certificate’ (Maloney Library) <https://library.law.fordham.edu/lawtechmaloney-library/law-practice-technology-certificate/> accessed 16 September 2021.

14 An Excel module, a PDF module, and a custom advanced Word module designed by the Certificate program team.

15 ‘Core Values & Mission Statement’ (Maloney Library) <https://library.law.fordham.edu/about/core-values-mission/> accessed 16 September 2021.

16 ‘Fordham University – Report 14: Employment Summary for 2019 Graduates’ (ABA Section of Legal education and Admissions to the Bar, 2 April 2020) <https://www.fordham.edu/download/downloads/id/14558/Class_of_2019_at_10_months.pdf> accessed 16 September 2021.

17 While the interest in technology training varies widely across U.S. attorneys of all types, we do know that on the job training availability is not equal across these sectors. ‘ABA TechReport 2020: Technology Training’ (American Bar Association, 16 November 2020) <https://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_practice/publications/techreport/2020/techtraining/> accessed 16 September 2021 (‘Solos are less than half as likely to report having training available (27%) than the overall average (59%). . . It should come as no surprise that the likelihood of training increases with firm size. Respondents from the largest firms (500+ attorneys) reported the highest percentage of technology training availability (100%)—up from 97% in 2019.’).

18 Holcomb, Jean M, ‘Battling Burnout’ (2007) 99 Law Libr J 669Google Scholar; Nelson, Veneese C, ‘Burnout: A Reality for Law Librarians’ (1987) 79 Law Libr J 267Google Scholar.

19 They might better be termed ‘Lessons Learned’ and/or ‘Questions Remain.’

20 One of the original presenters of this program at the BIALL annual conference in June 2021.

21 Adam Curphey, ‘Teaching Legal Tech? Forget the Tech,’ Artificial Lawyers (25 May 2018) <https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2018/05/25/teaching-legal-tech-forget-the-tech-adam-curphey-bpp-law-school/> accessed 16 September 2021 (emphasis in original). While many articles, including this one, frame law tech around the idea of the practice-ready lawyer, there is a growing awareness and discussion of whether a lawyer can meet their ethical obligations to a client without basic competence in legal technology. cf Diamond (n 5).

22 Lawson, Joseph D, ‘Talking Tech: Teaching Legal Tech Is Not Optional; (2021) 25 AALL Spectrum 35Google Scholar.

23 Dan Reed, ‘Legal Tech Can Differentiate Young Lawyers at Law Firm Interviews’ New York Law Journal (14 August 2019) <https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2019/08/14/legal-tech-can-differentiate-young-lawyers-at-law-firm-interviews/> accessed 16 September 2021.

24 Some types of law tech programming are perhaps better geared towards this than others. The long-term learning of attendance at a singular event is not the same as a student who successfully completes a semester-long course.

25 Based on the author's own experience in law school and her time working in law schools, it does seem as if a good lunch is the key to law student attendance at non-mandatory events.