The Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School is pleased to host the Twelfth International Conference on Substantive Technology in Legal Education and Practice (SubTech 2012). We are excited to bring SubTech to New York City and very much look forward to seeing you in July.

 

The Twelfth International Conference on Substantive Technology in Legal Education and Practice (SubTech 2012) will be held Thursday through Saturday, July 26-28, at New York Law School in New York City. (http://www.nyls.edu/ ) 

 

SubTech has been held every other year since 1990. Its venues have included Salzburg, Chicago, Paris, Montreal, Stockholm, Cambridge (MA), Warwick (UK), Seattle, Oslo, Williamsburg, and Zaragoza. It is the premier international multidisciplinary gathering of specialists who work in the confluence of legal education and the technology of law. 

 

SubTech is dedicated to distinctively legal applications of information technology, as used or studied in legal education. By “substantive” we mean technologies of law teaching or practice that involve significant legal content. Artificial intelligence, computer-aided instruction, practice systems, online legal research, and Web-based applications are typical examples. By “legal education” we mean all contexts in which law is studied and taught, not just traditional law schools. 

 

Much of SubTech's success depends on keeping our participant roster appropriately sized, to preserve the informal atmosphere that differentiates it from other conferences.

 

We decided to run the conference a little differently this year.   Legal education and practice face some profound challenges, and we wanted to explore how SubTech can address those challenges.   The New York location offers us a perfect opportunity to do this, and we want to cap the event at 30 people.  We think this will make the discussions particularly fruitful.

 

 

 

We will initially convene on Thursday, July 26, at a dinner to get to know all the participants.  Then, on Friday we will all meet as a committee of the whole, to discuss the opportunities and implications of the rise of substantive advice giving systems and new online educational technologies (including legal expert systems, online automated document repositories, online educational innovations like MOOCs and electronic casebooks, automated learning tools, legal learning games, and so forth.)  We will ask how such systems can be developed and deployed to increase access to justice and enhance communications between government and citizens.  We will consider how in house legal departments can use such systems to re-engineer legal processes and provide efficient legal guidance to employees.  And we will discuss the implications of these developments for legal education.  We will also discuss the regulatory environment and available business models and career paths for recent law graduates.

 

On Saturday, we will take time to reflect on the lessons of the previous days, and participants will have the opportunity to make short presentations regarding their own projects and recent innovations in light of this. We will make also time for such reports in the context of the broader discussion and brainstorming sessions of the Friday session.

 

We hope that the conference can produce innovative ideas and concrete suggestions for changes to legal education, and we hope that the group will develop ideas for new, innovative projects involving various participants.

 

A list of those expected to attend can be found here.

Cocktail reception and dinner.  

Venue TBA

 

Conference welcome and scene-setting

       Conveners: Dan Hunter, Marc Lauritsen, David Johnson

 

 10:00am -11:15am

What technology/applications will most significantly increase efficiency of law practice?

What technology/applications will most significantly increase access to justice?

What legal processes are most in need of enhancement/reform by means of technology?

What technologies are causing more problems for the legal profession than they solve?

Convener: David Johnson

 

Break

 

 11:30am -12:45pm

What are the main barriers to adoption of these new technologies by the profession?

How can those barriers be lowered or eliminated?

Do we need to create new business models for the profession and/or substantive legal technology providers?

Do we need to rethink ethics rules and regulatory structures?

Convener: David Johnson

 

Lunch

 

What should law schools be doing to prepare students for a newly technology enhanced profession?

Should different schools focus on differing approaches/opportunities? What choices make sense?

Can training in law practice technology and legal process engineering scale?

What are the most promising new career paths for law students?

Convener: Dan Hunter

 

Break

 

In light of the preceding discussion, what new inventions are needed?

Are there opportunities for cross-discipline collaboration?

Will the nature of law change as a result of new technologies?

Convener: Dan Hunter

 

Open discussion

 

Dinner and Keynote Address: Professor Elizabeth Chambliss (NYLS), 

Venue TBA

 

 

Demonstrations and paper presentations

Convener: Marc Lauritsen

 

Call to Action

If we as a group were to issue a call to action, to law schools and legal technology innovators, what should we call for?

Conveners: Marc Lauritsen, David Johnson, Dan Hunter

 

Conference close

 

If you are interested in receiving an invitation, contact David Johnson at: djohnson at nyls.edu.

 

 

         Kevin Ashley, University of PIttsburgh

         Bill Boyd, James E. Rogers College of Law
         Núria Casellas, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona
         Elizabeth Chambliss, New York Law School
         Daniel Dabney, West Group
         Nick Diamand, Spindle Research/Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
         Brian Donnelly, Columbia Law School
         Larry Farmer, Brigham Young University
         Fernando Galindo, University of Zaragoza
         Monica Goyal, My Legal Briefcase
         Richard Granat, Granat Legal Services
         Dan Hunter, New York Law School
         David Johnson, New York Law School
         Maria Elena Sánchez Jordán, University of Canary Islands
         Ethan Katsh, University of Massachusetts
         Dan Katz, Michigan State
         Stephanie Kimbro, Virtual Law Office
         Marc Lauritsen, Capstone Systems
         Paul Lippe, Legal OnRamp
         James Lunsford, Boult, Cummings, Conners & Berry
         Kingsley Martin, KIIAC
         John Mayer, Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction
         John Murdock III, Boult, Cummings, Conners & Berry
         Daniel Poulin, Université de Montréal
         Lavern Pritchard, LawMoose
         Brock Rutter, Berkman Center
         David Schnurman, Lawline
         Erich Schweighofer, University of Vienna
         Ron Staudt, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law
         Richard Wright, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law
         Yajun Zhang, University of Zaragoza

              aloft 

              Rate -   King rooms @ $166 plus taxes/night.

              Two double beds @ $189 plus taxes/night.

              Reservations can be made here.

              Or by phone - 718.256.3833