“Lawyering in a Digital Age: Equipping students for the technologically advancing practice of law” – University of Cumbria Conference Call for Speakers

September 16, 2018

The Legal Education Research Network (LERN) and the University of Cumbria Centre for Learning Education and Development (LED) are calling for speakers for their Conference “Lawyering in a Digital Age: Equipping students for the technologically advancing practice of law”.

The Conference is taking place on Thursday 27th and Friday 28th June 2019 at the University of Cumbria’s Ambleside Lake District campus.

These two days in Ambleside Lake District will be practical and collaborative, with the aim of facilitating conversations around a range of pressing issues faced by law schools. The event is a fantastic opportunity for law academics, law practitioners and professional regulators to come together to discuss modern legal education, its purpose and values and how new opportunities, such a digital technology, can be introduced to enhance learning and prepare students for the digital nature of legal practice. With a particular focus on the ‘digital age’ the symposium will seek to address the use of technology to enhance the design and delivery of the law curriculum and the need for the curriculum to be developed to prepare students for the use of technology in the work environment (with a focus on legal practice).  

Technology continues to disrupt, challenge, innovate and impact legal education and legal practice. We are keen to hear from presenters who would like to discuss both the emerging digital proficiencies needed for legal practice and the legal knowledge, and consequent curriculum developments, required to enable practitioners better understand some of the emerging and complex issues such as artificial intelligence, digital currencies, electronic execution of contracts, internet regulations, digital theft, digital ownership of property. We also invite participants to consider and contribute ideas that might relate to both the creative and evidenced-based approach to using technology to deliver legal education as well as the teaching of technology as a legal subject in preparing students for a technologically-advancing legal practice or any other professional practice. Interested colleagues are invited to contribute to the symposium with either a fifteen minutes presentation or lead a practical workshop of around forty-minutes in length.  

Deadline for call for speakers is Monday 1st October 2018. Speakers will be notified by Monday 8th October 2018. Booking details will be made available from December 2018. A small charge of approximately £45 for the event is proposed in order to cover catering expenses and a lake district tour. Accommodation is available on university premises and in Ambleside town centre itself. We intend starting with lunch on the first day and concluding the event with lunch on the second day.  

On a separate note, if you are considering presenting at this symposium, please also consider submitting an abstract and a short biography of yourself for a book proposal which is currently being developed on ‘Using technology in Legal Education’, due for submission to Routledge. 

Please email any questions you may have and your abstract for this symposium and/or book chapter to Ann Thanaraj: Ann.Thanaraj@cumbria.ac.uk