Surveying the Landscape
A theme in several presentations to the American Bar Association Commission on the Future of Legal Services is changes that will be needed in legal education to prepare new lawyers for the future. In Neota Logic’s recent presentation to the Commission—21st Century Technology & 19th Century Practice: The Coming Clash—we noted that of the 205 ABA-accredited law schools, fewer than 20 give significant attention to the impact of technology on practice.
For that count, we relied on a 2013 post on the eLawyering Blog, reporting an initial survey by the ABA eLawyering Task Force, an article by Richard Granata and Marc Lauritsen in the ABA Law Practice Magazine, and informal updates received recently.
Having said to the Commission that “law students who graduate without having explored the potential of software in delivering legal services are professionally illiterate,” we think the list of literacy-inclined law schools should be current and complete. We therefore publish below the results of the collective research to date, and ask others who may be knowledgeable and interested to send additions and corrections by email to data@neotalogic.com. Descriptions of programs and courses and links to website pages will be welcome. We will update the list as information is received, and we will promote awareness of the list.
The List So Far – Updated July 2015
In alphabetical order. Descriptions of many programs are on the eLawyering Blog post and in the Law Practice Magazine article, and will be included here as information is received.
- BYU
- Chicago-Kent/CALI
- Columbia
- Cornell
- Florida Coastal
- Georgetown
- Hofstra
- Indiana Maurer
- Miami
- Michigan State
- New York Law School
- Northern Kentucky University
- Notre Dame
- Pittsburgh
- Richmond
- Roger Williams
- South Carolina
- Stanford
- Suffolk
- Touro Law Center
- University of the Pacific
- Vanderbilt
- Vermont
Additions?
We know there is innovation bubbling in lots of law schools. If you know of others that should be on this list, please write to data@neotalogic.com.
ABA Criteria
The ABA eLawyering Task Force set these criteria for inclusion in the 2013 list:
- A full-time faculty member dedicated to teaching and coordinating a program in law practice technology. This subject matter should be the focus of serious research, including the development of innovations in law practice.
- At least two credit courses in this subject matter such as law practice management, law practice technology, ediscovery and big data, outcome prediction, legal project management, virtual lawyering, expert systems development, document automation, and/or other coursework which deals with innovation in the delivery of legal services and law practice.
- Non-credit courses taught by adjunct instructors do not qualify.
- Law schools sponsoring incubator programs are interesting, but these programs involve lawyers who have already graduated, not law students.