Thursday, May 28, 2015
Legal Tech Firm UnitedLex Establishes Residency Programs With Emory, Miami, Ohio State & Vanderbilt
Legal technology services provider UnitedLex has established legal residency programs with Emory, Miami, Ohio State, and Vanderbilt law schools:
Recent law graduates who participate in the two-year UnitedLex residency program will learn to use cutting-edge legal technologies and processes to provide high-quality and efficient legal services to corporate legal departments and top law firms. Those selected for the residency program each year will receive rigorous classroom instruction provided by senior attorneys, will serve in a supervisory capacity, and will work directly with clients to deliver legal services in such practice areas as litigation management, e-discovery, cyber security, contract management, patent licensing, IP management and immigration law. At the end of the residency, some residents will continue on the UnitedLex legal staff, while others will join employers seeking experienced attorneys trained in the technologies and processes of 21st-century law practice. ...
The legal residency program is similar to a medical residency in that it provides both full-time employment and rigorous, hands-on training.
“There is much that we can learn from medicine, in particular, from the large teaching hospitals where teaching, research, and clinical work is fully integrated and undertaken under the one roof. Central to this teaching is offering students direct access to patients,” explains Richard Susskind, author of The End of Lawyers? and Tomorrow’s Lawyers, as well as the Larry Hoffman/Greenberg Traurig Distinguished Visiting Professor at Miami Law. “The contrast with the legal profession is profound. I welcome all efforts to encourage greater synergy—by analogy with teaching hospitals—between client service delivery, education and training, and academic research.”
“Our legal residency program was created to address challenges facing the legal industry, including the lack of training opportunities for recent graduates and the ever-increasing costs for both the providers and consumers of legal services,” said Daniel Reed, CEO of UnitedLex. “The program represents a novel and innovative way for law schools and the legal industry to tackle a challenging situation.”
William D. Henderson, Professor of Law at Indiana University Maurer School of Law and Director of its Center on the Global Legal Profession, agreed, “Law is becoming more process- and data-driven because this is what clients need, yet where do JD grads acquire these skills? A paid apprentice program is a way to restart the training model for the next generation of legal professionals. UnitedLex is a leading New Law service provider with work that spans litigation, intellectual property, cybersecurity, and sophisticated data analytics. When this type of diverse, challenging work is combined with young people, innovation occurs. In 10 years, the wisdom of this approach will look obvious.”
Affiliated law schools will receive a portion of the proceeds from UnitedLex, which they will use to fund scholarships and other student-oriented programs. Initially, UnitedLex expects to employ three to ten recent graduates of each affiliated school and will hire more as the program grows.
Update:
- Legal Tech News, Four U.S. Law Schools and UnitedLex Launch Legal Residency Program
- National Law Journal, A New Career Path — Legal Residencies
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/05/legal-tech-firm-unitedlex-establishes-residency-programs-.html
This is a fine and inevitable development. BUT for those expecting to see the return of traditional law jobs this approach creates significant efficiency and multiplier effects that further reduce the need for lawyers as well as law firms since companies and some firms will be able to do much more with less.
Posted by: David | May 28, 2015 3:00:53 PM