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. Abstracts of between 250-300 words and some brief biographical information should be sent to Eliza Boudier, Fellowships and Administrative Officer, IALS: eliza.boudier@sas.ac.uk Further details at: https://www.ials.sas.ac.uk/events/event/22471.
State Bar publishes first annual report card on the diversity of California’s legal profession
‘Report card’ The State Bar’s “First Annual Report Card on the Diversity of California’s Legal Profession,” (PDF) provides baseline data on the diversity and workplace satisfaction of California’s attorney population across multiple demographic groups and employment sectors. The report brings into stark reality that despite significant growth in the proportion of attorneys who are women…
ABA profile of the legal profession: diversity and well-being
While the number of lawyers nationally has grown faster than the U.S. population, this growth hasn’t been spread evenly across races and ethnicities, according to the American Bar Association’s 2020 Profile of the Legal Profession. (PDF) The ABA Profile of the Legal Profession is a compilation of the latest statistics in the legal profession. In an…
The Bar Standards Board Race Equality Taskforce publishes case studies
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) Race Equality Taskforce has published two case studies to promote racial diversity and inclusion at the Bar. This marks the launch of a series of case studies that will focus on encouraging barristers’ chambers to adopt equality and diversity best practice from across the sector in order to foster a…