Legal Education Meets Computer Science: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching LawTech

This chapter presents a case study in teaching LawTech involving experiential learning and a collaboration between law lecturers, computer scientists, and local lawyers at London South Bank University. There is an urgent need to equip graduates with the skills they need to flourish in a rapidly changing legal employment market. These skills do not necessarily include coding, but project management, teamworking, and legal design skills are vital. To address this, the Law Division and Computing Science division have co-operated to offer a new practical module on law and technology. Law students and computing students are put into groups and asked to design and develop resources for real clients drawn from the local legal community, with an emphasis on using LawTech to support access to justice. Students are supported to practice and develop these key skills, as well as to think critically about the impact of technology on legal services and careers in law and computing. In the chapter, we identify the pedagogical benefits of this approach, the scope for reiterating the projects to suit other practice areas and other locations, and the importance of collaboration at all levels.