Professor Richard Susskind, OBE is to take up a part-time three-year appointment as Visiting Professor in Internet Studies at the OII from June 2009.
A pioneer in the field of information technology and law, Professor Susskind is currently a professor at the Law School of Strathclyde University and IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. He is Emeritus Law professor at Gresham College in London, where he was also appointed Honorary Professor in 2004, the first in over 400 years. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a past chairman of the Society for Computers and Law, and, from 2003 to 2008, he chaired the Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information, as set up by the Cabinet Office.
OII Director, Professor William Dutton, said: “I am delighted that Richard will be taking up this post. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Oxford Internet Institute in 2000, working with Andrew Graham, Master of Balliol, and he has served on our Advisory Board since its establishment in 2002. This appointment will enable him to be even more central to the major themes of the Institute, focusing on the societal implications of the Internet and related ICTs. Moreover, his expertise in the impact of ICTs on legal practice and other professions will extend our work in important ways.”
Professor Susskind said: “I am honoured to have been appointed. The OII is a world class institution that systematically addresses the most important social questions of the internet age. It is an ideal academic home for me.”
Professor Susskind’s latest of seven books, ‘The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services’, was published by OUP in 2008. In it, he argues that IT is bringing about fundamental changes in the ways lawyers and legal professionals do their work which will signal a fundamental shift in legal service from a form of advisory service to an Internet-enabled and often packaged service.
