Roger Smith reviews last month’s most important developments in law & technology
The pace of technological innovation in legal services continues to step up. February began with the American Bar Association (ABA) announcing that it had already raised $600,000 for its new ABA Center for Innovation. Meanwhile, in Belfast, over 200 people turned out for the launch of a new Legal Innovation Centre at the University of Ulster, expressly built on the model of Stanford University’s Law Design Lab. The Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL) was busy recognising global contributions in developing countries to the use of technology. British Columbia was announcing a step forward in its Solution Explorer—an informal dispute resolution front end to its online court. And, down in Australia, double Oscar winner Cate Blanchett was providing the voice for a digital avatar which will give advice on disability law.
Ulster
Belfast can feel like the edge of the known world. Politics are pretty ossified; the legal profession is small; academically, Queen’s has had the Province pretty well sown up. But, one-time Ulster Polytechnic, now Ulster University, is the
