New Surrey Law and Technology Hub!
The new Surrey Law and Technology Hub is a School of Law initiative, where students, academics, business leaders and legal practitioners, will forge close links to work on complex digital transformation and law related research topics.
The Hub's website is available at surreylawtech.org.
The new Surrey Law and Technology Hub is a School of Law initiative, where students, academics, business leaders and legal practitioners, will forge close links to work on complex digital transformation and law related research topics.
The Hub will provide opportunities for collaboration with partners from both in and outside the university, aiding digital legal education, academic research, local business and community support, and, ultimately, career development for students.
Topics for the Hub under development include:
- Digital economy trends and emerging new technologies
- Digitisation of law
- Regulation, policy issues and development
- Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
- Regulatory reform
- Negative and positive effects of the digital economy on industries
- Complex interplay between technology and ethics
- Data protection and privacy
- The development of technology innovation in business and intellectual property
The way legal services are delivered and how technology enablers can be harnessed to promote and widen access to justice will also be an important area of focus within the Hub, with an emphasis on dispute resolution and the economic and social inequality in access to justice using technology.
With industries becoming increasingly digitised and therefore facing unique opportunities and challenges ahead, the Law and Technology Hub provides law students with opportunities to identify and develop relevant digital lawyering skills critical to the changing global economy and workplace. In addition, to enhance students’ employability and experiential learning opportunities, undergraduates will be invited to apply for digital law placements with companies and institutions who already lead the way in digital application, where they will gain practical experience, develop important transferable skills and carry out legal research tasks.
As well as participating in activities within the Hub, which is being formally launched during
the summer of 2020, we are in the process of expanding our optional modules for third year students to provide more coverage of Law & Technology topics, such as: contract lifecycle management, legal agreement data modelling, artificial intelligence, blockchain and smart contracts. In collaboration with D2 Legal Technology (D2LT), an award winning global legal data and technology consulting firm, students will be able to apply for various forms of work experience in due course such as pro bono research supervised by law and technology experts.
Director: Elizabeth Williams
Research Director: Dr Mikolaj Barczentewicz
Research Lead in AI: Professor Ryan Abbott
Partners: Akber Datoo, D2 Legal Technology; Sophie Walker, JUST:Access; Miklos Orban, Orban Perlaki Law Firm; Nick Atkins and Sam Salter – Galbraith, Stevens & Bolton LLP, Shashank Bijapur, Co-Founder & CEO SpotDraft.
University of Surrey Members: Dr Steve Bero, Dr Nicola Giglio, Dr Melissa Hamilton, Dr Ambrose Lee, Dr Ira Lindsay, Benita Mathew, Professor Dennis Patterson, Dr Marton Ribrary, Professor Alex Sarch, Mala Sharma, Antony Starza-Allen, School of Law; Professor Payam Barnagi, Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing; Dr Carla Bonina, Surrey Business School; Caroline Fleming, Head of Incubation and Enterprise; Professor Amelia Hadfield, Dr Alex Leveringhaus, Department of Politics; Professor Glenn Parry, Department of Digital Economy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation; Professor Steve Schneider, Centre for Cyber Security.
Advisory Board: Naveen Agnihotri, Barrister, Gray’s Inn; Hon. Charles Mok JP, Legislative Council Member (Functional Constituency - Information Technology), Hong Kong; Dr Angela Daly, School of Law, University of Strathclyde; Professor Sylvie Delacroix, Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham; Professor Uta Kohl, University of Southampton; Daniel B. Rodriguez, Harold Washington Professor, Northwestern Pritzer School of Law, Chair, ABA Centre for Innovation.
