{"id":115520,"date":"2025-04-18T13:02:51","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T21:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/18\/the-three-cs-of-teaching-technology-to-law-students\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T13:02:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T21:02:51","slug":"the-three-cs-of-teaching-technology-to-law-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/18\/the-three-cs-of-teaching-technology-to-law-students\/","title":{"rendered":"The Three Cs Of Teaching Technology To Law Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post The Three Cs Of Teaching Technology To Law Students<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In law practice today, technology is no longer optional \u2014 it\u2019s essential. As practicing attorneys increasingly rely on technology tools to serve clients, conduct research, manage documents and streamline workflows, the question is often debated: Are law schools adequately preparing students for this reality?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, for the majority of law schools, the answer is no. But that only begs the question: What should they be doing?<\/p>\n

A coincidence of events last week had me thinking about law schools and legal tech, chief among them my attendance at LIT Con<\/a>, Suffolk Law School\u2019s annual conference to showcase legal innovation and technology \u2014 with a portion of it devoted to access-to-justice projects developed by Suffolk Law students themselves.<\/p>\n

Suffolk Law stands out as a national leader in legal technology, spearheaded by its dean Andrew Perlman<\/a>, the codirectors of its Legal Innovation & Technology Lab<\/a> (LIT Lab) David Colarusso<\/a> and Quinten Steenhuis<\/a>, and the director of its Legal Innovation & Technology Center<\/a> Dyane O\u2019Leary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(In the photo above from last week\u2019s LIT Con, Suffolk Law students Jack Brandt<\/a> and Erin Gray<\/a> discuss their project with the Massachusetts Appeals Court to develop an informal brief program for self-represented litigants.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Several other law schools also stand out for their legal tech programs, such as Brigham Young University and its LawX program, which follows a similar model as Suffolk, engaging students in designing solutions to specific legal problems. Of course, schools such as\u00a0Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Stanford Law School, and Chicago-Kent College of Law have long been leaders in integrating technology into legal education.<\/p>\n

But what of law schools that have not yet started down this path or are only just beginning? What should they be doing?<\/p>\n

While I don\u2019t claim the credentials of a career academic, I do have many years\u2019 experience working at the intersection of law and technology, and that has given me some perspective on this question. I have come to believe that a basic law school framework for teaching students about technology involves a tiered approach I think of as the three Cs.<\/p>\n

The First C: Technology Competence<\/h3>\n

The foundation of legal technology education begins with basic competence. This isn\u2019t merely a pedagogical preference \u2014 it\u2019s an ethical imperative. Most state bars have adopted<\/a> some version of the ABA Model Rules\u2019 duty of technology competence, requiring lawyers to understand the benefits and risks of relevant technology.<\/p>\n

Law schools, I believe, have a responsibility to provide students with a basic grounding in technology by ensuring that their graduates understand:<\/p>\n