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Law School launches new LawTech Industry Board

The University of Bristol Wills Memorial Building tower at night, with flashes of lights from traffic passing by.

6 April 2023

The LawTech Industry Board brings together leading industry experts, practitioners and alumni to join the Law School’s academics in advancing legal tech research and education—two key components of our research-led LLM in Law, Innovation and Technology programme.

The LawTech Industry Board will work with members of the Centre for Global Law and Innovation to develop in-depth insight into the technological advancements taking place in the legal services, technology and creative industries, in regulation, in policy and other related fields.

Through ongoing knowledge exchange and targeted activities, the Board will support our students in developing the skills and knowledge needed to meet the growing demand for industry-ready law graduates.

The Board provides a forum for the development of the research-led LLM in Law, Innovation and Technology programme and guidance on its academic content, structure, modes of delivery and assessment.

The LawTech team will also use its connections with legal tech and related industries to develop extracurricular activities and career enhancing opportunities for students on it courses.

The inaugural meeting of the Board took place on 29 March 2023.

The current Board members are:

  • Amy Conroy (Data scientist at Mishcon de Reya; University of Bristol alumna)
  • Alex Lennox (Director of Growth and Strategic Partnerships at Orbital Witness University of Bristol alumna)
  • Tom Morgan (Senior Associate in the Technology, Media, IP and Competition Team at CMS)
  • Andrew YM Sim (Partner at Baker & McKenzie (Hong Kong), managing the firm’s IP litigation & enforcement practice)
  • Dagmar Steffens (Head of Strategic Innovation at West of England Combined Authority, Founder and Co-Chair of Bristol+BathLegalTech)
  • Richard Tromans (Editor in Chief and the founder of Artificial Lawyer)
  • William Wortley (Associate at Bird & Bird’s Intellectual Property Group (London))

Dr Václav Janeček,LLM in Law, Innovation and Technology Programme Director, said:

“Bristol is well known for technology and innovation - collaborations between academia and industry thrive here. We've witnessed enormous changes in how people do business online and how they interact. The LawTech Industry Board will ensure we keep up with innovation, address the related challenges and provide students with the skills and knowledge they need to be future ready.”

Board member Amy Conroy, who graduated from the University of Bristol with a LLB Law in 2019 and a MSc Computer Science in 2020, and is now a data scientist at Mishcon de Reya, said:

“IT Law just got me really interested in how the law is regulating technology, so how do we actually look at upcoming technologies like artificial intelligence, like machine learning. How do we regulate them? It’s interesting that there’s so many different technologies out there, why isn’t the law making use of them? - and through studying this I ended up working in legal tech now.”

Further information

The LLM in Law, Innovation and Technology is a distinctive course that offers a unique opportunity to master the legal knowledge and skills needed to tackle problems and challenges related to technology development and innovation.

Offering in-depth, intensive study in a range of areas, students will gain expertise in IT law, IP law, privacy and data protection, e-commerce and online business development, digital markets and virtual competition, and digital technology in legal practice.

With many of those teaching on the course belonging to the Law School's Centre for Global Law and Innovation, students will understand the impacts of law on the development and use of digital technologies and the impacts of emerging technologies on law.

The programme builds on our connections with other departments and research centres within the University to help students develop a productive familiarity with computer science, data science, and economics. As a result, students will be confident facing interdisciplinary issues and producing accurate legal assessments of the relevant matters.

The Centre for Global Law and Innovation (CGLI) brings together scholars with an interest in drivers of innovation and global regulatory trends in law. Taking a broad and inclusive approach to innovation, the work of its members focuses on areas such as trade, procurement, investment, finance, intellectual property, information technology, regulation and health law.

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