Professor Jeannette Eicks Vermont Law School Center for Legal Innovation
Realities of Today
Domestic Violence
Limited Resources
Scale Affordable Legal Services Poverty Law Clients
2.3 Legal Problems Each Year Middle Class Families Have Middle Class Families Have
They Do Not Seek Legal Advice They Do Not Seek Legal Advice They Do Not Understand Their Problem Is a Legal One
Consumer Alienation Consumer Alienation “We need to restructure legal services from the ground up and focus on clients, not lawyers.” – Jim Sandman, LSC
A troubling thought: Our Access to Justice challenge is a feature of our current system.
More Efficient Courts and Legal Practitioners
Small Innovations Borrowed from Other Industries
What Is Cybersecurity? Lawyers and technologists agree that cybersecurity Protects information and computational systems from attack, damage or unauthorized access Impacts national security, corporations and individuals Has proactive and reactive aspects Has grown as a field and deserves attention Alternative Legal Business Practices
Predict Outcomes and Prevent Mistakes
Sustaining Innovation
Disrupting Innovation
Bigger Change Is Coming
“Lawyers need to see our legal services challenges not as problems, but as opportunities.” William Hubbard, Former ABA President
Law Students Bring New Ideas and New Energy
DIY Apps – the Legal Hackathon
Legal Hackathon Course 2 or 3 credit course Open to J.D. and undergraduate students Involved stakeholders in legal and policy fields Vermont agencies, legislature & judiciary Choice of projects Prototyped web and mobile apps Stakeholders, faculty and other interested parties judged apps
Project Charter – the project plan Goals Scope Assumptions Risks Constraints Deliverables Schedule estimates Criteria for success
Flowchart of legal logic
Rapid application prototyping tool
Iterative process - teams and stakeholders Parallel tasks for team members Presentations and judging
The Apps: Text-a-Lawyer Pocket Lawyer (now OccupyLaw) Pocket Lawyer Agricultural Lease Agreement (sustainability)
Immediate Student Outcomes Portfolio J.D. advantage careers Scope management Project management via Agile (scrum meetings) Plain English conveyance of legal concepts Collaborative work Formed partnerships with customer/stakeholder Detailed understanding a specific area of the law Responded to legal needs of underserved Long Term Student Outcomes
Hackathons Foster the Ideas of Tomorrow
Empower Change Leaders
Questions?