Lawyering with Technology: Skills and Habits of Mind for Teaching How to Lawyer Effectively for Change

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: N/A

Room: Franciscan A

Floor: Ballroom Level

In a time of polarization and marginalization, it is critical that we teach students how to use technology to practice, and to use all of the tools at our disposal for our clients. We have a professional responsibility to understand the benefits and risks of technology. We need to prepare our students for practice, which includes using technology to help fill the justice gap, understanding how to communicate securely and persuasively, gathering facts online, understanding the dangers of personalized search engine practices, appreciating the impact of AI in our work, writing for the digital reader, managing our digital footprints, developing and customizing our own tech tools, and practicing in courts that increasingly require e-filing and use of technology in the courtroom.
This session combines a range of perspectives, using our clinical work as examples: a Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic that has been a pioneer in law practice technology, an Elder Law Clinic with mostly evening part-time students, and a Housing Justice Chatbot-building Clinic for online law students located in eight different states. In addition, Takao Yamada, a lawyer tech-entrepreneur who worked with Neota Logic to build the Airport Lawyer app (see www.AirportLawyer.org) after the Muslim travel ban will contribute to the discussion of why and how to teach our students about uses of technology in practice. We will ask the following questions to discover practical approaches to using technology regardless of practice area, type of clinic, or tech expertise: Why should I incorporate practice technology into my clinical teaching? What is the minimum technological competence that every law student should achieve before graduation? What technology tools can my students and I use more effectively? How can I develop the expertise to teach students about law practice technology? Where am I going to find the time to do this?