Unlocking the Potential of AI for English Law - Closing Conference: September 2021

A Webinar Series Hosted by Oxford University 

Recent progress with advanced digital technologies such as AI has been dramatic. The deployment of AI promises to expand the range of automated tasks to include those done by ‘knowledge’ workers, thus effecting a transformation of many high-value services sectors, including the legal sector. This series of webinars will form a concluding conference for the research project Unlocking the Potential of AI for English Law, carried out by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Oxford University in collaboration with a range of partner organisations. The project has explored a range of interlocking questions about AI’s potential for transformation of the legal sector, including the capability of AI in legal reasoning, the way in which AI is changing the work of lawyers and the business models of legal services firms; the constraints of legitimacy and technology for digital dispute resolution and the educational needs of lawyers in practice and at University.  The research has been funded by UKRI from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund for Next Generation Services.  
The series will run as four webinars held on Wednesday afternoons (UK time) in September, each keyed to a key theme of the research project. In each session, members of the research team will present key findings, along with commentary and discussion from panels including other researchers, private sector partners, and policymakers. 
Scroll down to watch the recordings of the webinars.

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

(1) Wednesday 8 September, 2-4 P M (UK time) - Digital Transformation in Legal Services

Presenters: John Armour (Oxford, Faculty of Law) - Mari Sako (Oxford Saïd Business School) - Richard Parnham (Oxford Saïd Business School) 

  • Augmented Lawyering: The Impact of Tech on Legal Work and Legal Sector Business Models 

  • Transforming Access to Justice: BigLaw vs PeopleLaw 

  • The Future of Legal Profession 

Discussion Panel Includes: Gillian Hadfield (Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, Faculty of Law, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto) - Sophia Adams Bhatti (Simmons Wavelength) -  Jane Stewart & Emma Walton (Slaughter and May)

(2) Wednesday 15 September, 2-4 PM (UK time)- LawTech: Progress and Challenges  

Presenters: Alina Petrova (Oxford, Computer Science) - John Armour (Oxford, Law Faculty) - Thomas Lukasiewicz (Oxford, Computer Science) 

  • The Research Frontier: Predicting Reasoning from Caselaw  

  • The Business Frontier: Deploying Deep Learning in Lawtech 

Presenters: Mari Sako (Oxford, Saïd Business School) - Richard Parnham (Oxford, Saïd Business School) - Matthias Qian (Oxford, Saïd Business School) 

  • What Makes a Successful Lawtech Startup? Determinants of Successful Scale-up 

  • What Differentiates Lawtech from Other Tech? Mapping a Lawtech Taxonomy

Discussion Panel Includes: Richard Susskind (Technology Advisor to the Lord Chief Justice) - Dan Katz (Chicago-Kent College of Law, LexPredict) - Jennifer Swallow (LawtechUK) - Daniel W. Linna Jr. (Northwestern Pritzker School of Law & McCormick School of Engineering)

(3) Wednesday 22 September, 2-4 PM (UK time) - Governance and Regulation for AI in Law

Presenters: Jeremias Adams-Prassl (Oxford, Faculty of Law) - Stergios Aidinlis (Oxford, Faculty of Law) - Hannah Smith (Oxford, CSLS) 

  • The Constitutional Framework: Access to Justice and Privacy 

  • Access to Justice Data for Researchers and Lawtech Development

Presenters: Rebecca Williams (Oxford, Faculty of Law) - Tom Melham (Oxford, Computer Science)

  • Developing Law and Regulation for Technology 

Presenter: Abi Adams- Prassl (Oxford, Department of Economics) 

  • Lessons Learned from Online Tribunals  

Discussion Panel Includes: Natalie Byrom (The Legal Education Foundation) - David Freeman Engstrom (Center on the Legal Profession, Stanford Law School) - The Rt Hon Sir Ernest Ryder (Pembroke College, Oxford)

(4) Wednesday 29 September, 2-4 PM (UK time) - Tomorrow's Legal Teams: Roles, Education, and Training 

Presenters: Adam Saunders (Oxford, Department of Education) - Matthias Qian (Oxford, Saïd Business School)  

  • ​Lawyers Who Code or Multidisciplinary Teams? 

  • Demand for Technological Skills in Legal Services, and Skill Pricing 

Presenters: Václav Janeček (Oxford, Faculty of Law, and Masaryk University, Faculty of Law) - Ewart Keep (Oxford, Dept of Education) - Rebecca Williams (Oxford, Faculty of Law)  

  • ​How Do We Build Capacity in Relevant Skills?

  • Training for Multidisciplinarity

Discussion Panel Includes: Nigel Spencer (School of Law, QMUL) - Ruth Ward (Government Legal Department UK) - Richard Susskind (Technology Advisor to the Lord Chief Justice) - Andy Unger (London South Bank University) - Emily Lew (Slaughter and May)

For questions about participation or if you anticipate any access issues, please contact Beril Boz.
 

Recordings and presentations of the webinar series:

Webinar-1 (8 September 2021): Digital Transformation in Legal Services

Webinar-2 (15 September 2021): LawTech: Progress and Challenges

Webinar -3 (22 September 2021): Governance and Regulation for AI in Law

Webinar - 4 (29 September 2021): Tomorrow's Legal Teams: Roles, Education, and Training

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See also
Unlocking the Potential of Artificial Intelligence for English Law
Unlocking the potential of AI for English Law : Research Findings, Reports, and White Papers