Law Schools Are Neglecting The Desperate Need For Lawyer Tech Training

Law.com, Law Schools Neglecting Desperate Need for Tech Training:

Cyberattacks are one of the greatest threats facing companies, while harnessing the power of generative AI stands as one of companies’ greatest opportunities.

The trouble for in-house attorneys trying to demonstrate their mettle by managing risk and helping their companies grow and prosper is that most lack deep knowledge of either.

Indeed, 2023 has become the year that practicing attorneys’ long-percolating sentiment that law schools fall short on technology-related education boiled over.

That reality shows up in a deluge of surveys of legal department professionals. One released in October by Lowenstein Sandler and the Association of Corporate Counsel, for instance, found most in-house counsel haven’t used generative AI for legal tasks—in large because their lack of knowledge of the technology made them wary.

Only 25% of respondents say they’ve received training related to AI, and 43% expressed either no confidence or only slight confidence in their understanding of it.

A report issued this month by FTI Consulting and the legal tech firm Relativity added an exclamation point to that theme. It found that in-house counsel feel less prepared to handle risks related to data privacy, cybersecurity, AI and emerging data sources now than they did a year ago. ...

Law school professor Raymond Brescia, the Harold R. Tyler chair in law and technology at the Albany Law School, argued in a paper published in February that “the American legal profession is at a critical inflection point. Some may argue that lawyers face dramatic threats not only to their business models but their very usefulness in the face of new technologies.”

In his 33-page paper, “Teaching to the Tech: Law Schools and the Duty of Technology Competence,” Brescia described law schools’ efforts so far to rise to the challenge “somewhat feeble,” highlighting trailblazing programs at a smattering of universities.