| Unit name | Digital Technology in Legal Practice |
|---|---|
| Unit code | LAWDM0164 |
| Credit points | 30 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Janecek |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None. |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None. |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None. |
| School/department | University of Bristol Law School |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Why is this unit important?
Across the globe, legal systems are entering a period of profound transformation brought on by innovative technologies and alternative business models. This has significant impacts also on the legal profession.
Such LawTech developments promise to reduce the costs of legal services and increase access to justice. At the same time, however, they challenge long-standing (and often implicit) beliefs behind the functioning of our legal system, jurisprudence, and practice of law more generally.
The aim of this unit is to provide established and aspiring legal professionals with an in-depth understanding of LawTech innovation from legal, technological, economic, as well as ethical perspectives. You will understand the frontiers of AI in legal reasoning, as well as new business models behind tech-enhanced legal services. You will gain confidence to evaluate, procure, and deploy best-in-class digital technologies in your future practice without compromising the integrity of our legal system and without breaching any professional standard as a lawyer.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
‘Digital Technology in Legal Practice’ is a core unit on the LLM in Law, Innovation and Technology programme. In contrast to other units, ‘Digital Technology in Legal Practice’ focuses more on how digital technology can enhance legal practice rather than on how the law needs to respond to digital technology (tech for law, rather than law for tech).
An overview of content
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
You will become confident in identifying the key challenges concerning the deployment of digital technology in legal practice. You will understand enough of a technical detail to propose well-reasoned and practicable solutions to these challenges or to assess solutions proposed by experts from other disciplines (especially data and computer scientists). You are thus likely to bring long-term value to your prospective employer or business. Owing to your solid orientation in the relevant regulatory landscape, you will be able to identify new ways of working for lawyers whilst maintaining the legal and ethical standards that are vital for the legal profession at large. You will develop your project management and planning skills, commercial awareness, and (through group presentations) teamwork abilities. As a result of the unit, you will be well-positioned to pursue a career of a legal technologist, for example, and thus become the first port of call when it comes to explaining the core concepts, issues, and solutions to other lawyers as well.
Intended Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the unit, you will be able to:
Learning activities include lectures, small group work, discussions, individual tasks, and in-seminar presentations. These learning sessions can be on campus or online, and both synchronous and asynchronous. The unit will also require directed and self-directed learning, which will include activities such as reading materials included in the unit’s reading list, accessing web-based supplementary materials, critical analysis, completion of tasks for in-seminar presentation, and completion of assessments.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Half-way through the term, you will prepare a group presentation (10 min) in which you will present a case study concerning recent LawTech practice and identify its main challenges. As part of this formative task, your group will be expected to identify not only legal, but also ethical, economic, and conceptual challenges of the selected LawTech practice. A short training regarding the presentation format will be provided at the beginning of term. At that time, you will be allocated to your group (groups will have up to 5 students).
Feedback will be provided immediately after the group presentation to make sure that you are prepared to develop your presentation into a summative task—a hypothetical client memorandum—which will be due during the assessment period at the end of Teaching Block 1 (see below). If the formative group presentation does not go to plan, you will be assigned a specific case study for your memorandum by the unit director.
Additionally, formative tasks will come in many forms such as informal questioning, presentations and group exercises in lectures, seminars, and asynchronous activities in the virtual learning platform.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Building on the case study developed for your group presentation (or a case study assigned to you by the unit director), you will write a hypothetical client memorandum (up to 4,000 words in total) in which you will:
You will be expected to demonstrate all of the Intended Learning Outcomes in your memorandum.
When assessment does not go to plan:
When a student fails the unit and is eligible to resubmit, the unit will be reassessed on a like-for-like basis with new assessment questions.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. LAWDM0164).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
