UST Law Journal Fall Symposium 2022

In 2012 something occurred that some have described as “a sea change in the legal profession.” In that year the American Bar Association approved a change to Model Rule 1.1 by adding Comment 8 which, some have written, “make clear that lawyers have a duty to be competent not only in law and its practice, but also in technology.” In the ensuing ten years, forty states have adopted the “duty of technology competence.”

But now, a decade since the duty was introduced and more than two decades into the 21st century, why are lawyers struggling with technology competence?

At the core of this conundrum is the need for law students to gain technology competence. Law Schools are well positioned to embrace teaching technology competence but must overcome resistance to curriculum change and tradition. In addition, it also incumbent on the bar to clarify what is meant by technology competence.

The Fall Symposium of the University of St. Thomas Law Journal seeks to provide a Roadmap for Law Schools to develop technology competent lawyers. The Symposium speakers will help craft the Roadmap and describe major steps that Law Schools can adopt to achieve the goal. The focus will be on explaining what needs to transpire to increase law school administration and faculty awareness that legal technology is a real path for future opportunities and employment. Included in this discussion will be practical steps practicing attorneys can take to assist law schools to achieve this desired outcome.

** 6 Standard CLE credits applied for.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

The program will follow Central Standard Time (CST). Panelists will participate in-person and virtually. Panels will be introduced by Damien Riehl, vice president of litigation workflow and analytics content at Fastcase.

8:00 a.m. - Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m. - Welcome & Introductions

8:45 a.m. - Keynote Speakers Katie Brown and Jessica de Perio Wittman, Navigating legal ethics and law school curricula: Attempting to find technology competency without a compass

Crafting the Roadmap Part 1: FRAMING THE CURRICULUM

9:30 a.m. - Panel

Michelle Hook Dewey, Patrick Parsons & Kris Niedringhaus, Legal Technology Literacy: a framework for envisioning a technologically competent lawyer

10:00 a.m. - Panel

Justice (ret.) John Browning, Ignorance is Not Bliss: Educating Lawyers and Law Students about the High Cost of Shirking the Duty of Technology Competency

Iantha Haight, A Rubric for Analyzing Legal Technology Along the Ethical Benefits/Risks Continuum

10:40 a.m. - Break

Crafting the Roadmap Part 2: PEDAGOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

10:50 a.m - Panel

Drew Simshaw, Technological Competence as a Compass for Helping to Close the Justice Gap

Jennifer Brobst, Teaching Professional Responsibility Students about the Disparate Impact of the Lawyer’s Ethical Duty of Technological Competence

11:30 a.m. - Panel

Jenny Wondracek, What does relevant mean to you? Creating a choose-your-own-adventure technology competency framework

Ashley Arrington, “Purposefully Vague” or Problematic?: Why Lawyers Need to Define the Duty of Tech Competence

Beth Parker, Technology Competence in the Real World

12:30 - Lunch

1:30 p.m. - Panel

Jacob Sayward, Making Law Practice Technology Instruction More Experiential

Eliza Boles, Microtraining Technology Competencies through Interdepartmental Partnerships

Stacey Rowland, Understanding our digital fingerprints: metadata, competency, and the future practice of law

Peter Hook, Developing Data Driven Lawyers by Teaching Litigation Analytics

2:50 p.m. - Break

Crafting the Roadmap Part 3: TESTING COMPETENCY

3:00 p.m. Panel

Korin Munsterman, Technology Competency for Law Students

Artie Berns, Open Source as an Open Road for technology competency testing

Amy Emerson, The ultimate assessment: Is technology among the competencies tested by the MPRE?

Part 4: READING THE ROADMAP

4:00 p.m. - Damien Riehl

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Host or Publisher University of St. Thomas Law Journal