This paper is the first from the Regulating Automated Legal Advice Technologies (RALAT) project supported by the University of Melbourne’s Networked Society Institute. The project focuses on a cutting-edge development in legal technology: the automation of legal advice. It seeks to understand the practice settings in which Automated Legal Advice Tools (ALATs) are being adopted,…
New guidelines published for legal professionals practising within the Coroners’ Courts
The Bar Standards Board, with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and CILEx Regulation have outlined new guidelines for solicitors, barristers and CILEx advocates working in the Coroners court. This includes: A set of competences which spell out the standards expected of lawyers by the regulators and the public Guidance and other resources to help make sure…
LSB sets clear expectations for regulators to improve consumer information, promote rights, and drive choice in the legal services market across England and Wales
The LSB in partnership with regulators is working ensure legal services providers offer helpful information to consumers about the cost and quality of their services and on redress and regulation, so consumers can make informed decisions. The LSB is also proposing that regulators implement effective programmes of activity to support public legal education, focusing on…
Legal Education in the Era of COVID-19: Putting Health, Safety and Equity First
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the traditional academic model of gathering people into physical classes into a high-risk activity. Legal education is a Critical Infrastructure sector that supports democratic access to the legal system and trains students to become ethical members of the legal profession and society. Debates about whether legal education should be…
Measuring Lawyer Well-Being Systematically: Evidence from the National Health Interview Survey
Abstract Conventional wisdom says that lawyers are uniquely unhappy. Unfortunately, this conventional wisdom rests on a weak empirical foundation. The “unhappy lawyers” narrative relies on nonrandom survey data collected from volunteer respondents. Instead of depending on such data, researchers should study lawyer mental health by relying on large microdata sets of public health data, such…
Lawyer Regulation Stakeholder Networks and the Global Diffusion of Ideas
Abstract This Article is a companion article to Laurel S. Terry, Global Networks and the Legal Profession, 53 Akron L. Rev. 137 (2019). That article explained why global networks are useful for lawyers and the clients they represent, introduced some of the scientific literature about networks, cited prior literature about (mostly domestic) legal profession networks,…
‘Smart’ Lawyering: Integrating Technology Competence into the Legal Practice Curriculum
Abstract Technology has changed modern law practice. Ethics rules obligate lawyers to understand whether, when, and how to use it to deliver services. But most law schools do not incorporate the so-called “Duty of Technology Competence” into the required curriculum. Despite broad calls for legal education to make students more practice-ready, there is no clear…
Legal Technology: The Great Disruption?
Abstract This paper considers how legal technology, defined here as the use of digital information and communication technologies to automate or part automate legal work process, to provide decision support to legal service providers, and to provide legal information and advice directly to clients/end users, is re-shaping both legal work processes, and the organisation and…
The future of legal services in England and Wales – reviewing regulation, consumer protection and responding to innovation
Tuesday, 15th September 2020 Online Leader of the review Professor Stephen Mayson, Centre for Ethics & Law, UCL is a keynote speaker at this conference. The report makes recommendations for the future of legal services, including: a single independent regulator for the legal sector – the Legal Services Regulation Authority – to replace the current arrangement…
Conference: AI and the Rule of Law – Regulation and Ethics
Friday 20th November 2020 IALS, London A call for papers is announced for the Information Law and Policy Centre’s Annual Conference, this year supported by Bloomsbury’s Communications Law journal. Further details at the event website.