How are innovators using cutting-edge technology to bring legal practice and education into the 21st century? Find out at a unique symposium titled “Justice, Lawyering and Legal Education in the Digital Age,” which will take place on June 15 in conjunction with this year’s CALI conference at Chicago-Kent.
Chicago-Kent’s own Ron Staudt, professor and Director of the Center for Access to Justice & Technology (CAJT), will present an article at the symposium titled Access to Justice and Technology Clinics: A 4% Solution (co-authored with Andrew Medeiros, Access to Justice Fellow at CAJT). The article, which will be published alongside others from the symposium in an upcoming edition of the Chicago-Kent Law Review, outlines Professor Staudt’s Justice & Technology Practicum Course and his current A2J Clinic Project (additional information on the project here). Read the article abstract below:
This article argues that law schools should add Access to Justice and Technology Clinics: a new type of clinical course that teaches law students how to use and deploy technology to assist law practice. If widely adopted, these clinics will help law students learn core competencies needed in an increasingly technological profession while simultaneously building tools and content to help low income, self-represented litigants overcome serious barriers in their pursuit of justice. In our prototype course at Chicago-Kent, Justice and Technology Practicum, students use A2J Author to build A2J Guided Interviews and in the process students learn legal research, writing and analysis, while also developing important skills such as project management and planning, collaboration, and empathy. In addition to teaching students how to use specific document assembly and automation tools, the course exposes students to an array of technology tools and skills, providing a better understanding of the transformative effect information technology has on the legal practice. Now through CALI’s Access to Justice Clinical Course Project, faculty at six other law schools are designing courses that will build on this experience to be shared with all CALI law schools.
Click here for the full text of the article. In addition to Professor Staudt’s presentation, the A2J Clinical Course Project Faculty will discuss the development of automated law practice clinics using A2J Author®, the Clinic Project’s core software tool.
Other symposium speakers will present on such diverse topics as “Gaming the System: Approaching 100% Access to Legal Services through Online Games,” “Teaching Law and Digital Age Law Practice with an AI and Law Seminar,” “The Law School as Knowledge Center in the Digital Age,” and “Reflections on the Future of Legal Education and on the Importance of Digital Expertise.” Click here for a full schedule of the presentations.
Steven Sweat - Los Angeles Attorney
Sounds like a great project and clinic. I think technology is quickly evening the “playing field” between smaller and larger law firms. Using it to increase the access to justice for underprivileged persons is a great idea as well!