Prudenti: Law schools facing new demands for innovative education

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Law schools have always taught the law and the practice thereof, but in the 21st century that is not nearly enough to provide students with the tools to succeed.

Clients, particularly business clients, are not only looking for an “attorney” in the customary sense, but a strategic partner equipped to deal with everything from project management to metrics to process enhancement. Those demands present law schools with both an opportunity for and expectation of innovation in legal education.

At Hofstra Law, we are in the process of establishing a new Center for Applied Legal Technology and Innovation where law students will be taught to use current and emerging technology, and to apply those skills and expertise to provide cutting-edge legal services while taking advantage of interdisciplinary opportunities.

Our goal is to teach law students how to use technology to deliver legal services and to yield graduates who combine exceptional legal acumen with the skill and ability to travel comfortably among myriad disciplines. The lawyers of today—and tomorrow—must be more than just conversant with other professionals. Rather, they need to be able to collaborate with experts in other fields to serve the myriad and intertwined interests of the client.

To that end, we plan to offer our law students interdisciplinary opportunities through partnerships with existing resources in the university, such as the DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Department of Computer Science, the Zarb Business School and the Center for Entrepreneurship. This would provide a new dimension to existing law school resources, such as the Law, Logic & Technology Research Laboratory and the recently-opened “courtroom of the future.”

The laboratory, which was established in 2009 by Professor Vern Walker to invent new tools to make legal practice and legal education more efficient and effective, currently has a robust initiative to assist veterans with benefits claims. With the new center, the laboratory would build upon its base to develop web-based applications and bring legal-service-delivery innovations to underserved groups, including individuals appealing the denial of Supplemental Security Income or seeking a writ of habeas corpus, or unsure whether a personal injury settlement offer is fair.

Consistent with our mission to offer students interdisciplinary opportunities, the laboratory will assume an ongoing obligation to identify new projects for legal-service delivery innovation and technology. One project now under consideration is the development of an artificial intelligence application to predict juror attitudes toward particular legal issues.

Our courtroom of the future, which opened in the fall of 2017, combines law and technology in a real-world environment, providing our students an opportunity to experience modern trial practice and equipping them with the skills of the courtroom of tomorrow. It has already been utilized by the Appellate Division, Second Department, and by the Commercial Division of the Nassau County Supreme Court as a superb venue for complex commercial litigation.

We plan to offer a technology concentration to all second and third-year law students, and to attract students already trained in technology we plan to establish a new Legal Technology Scholars Program to provide financial assistance to new students.

I envision this new center developing into an incredible resource for the community, fostering unique collaborations between the university, the law school and area firms focused on law and technology. Business leaders already “get it,” and know that to remain viable and vital they have to see ahead of the curve. That has not always been the approach of legal education. But one of my goals as dean of Hofstra Law is to send our graduates out into the “real world” not only with a sound base of knowledge, but with the skills necessary to be innovators in an increasingly demanding business environment.

Judge A. Gail Prudenti, is the Dean of the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University.