Welcome back to Ahead of the Curve. I'm Karen Sloan, legal education editor at Law.com, and I'll be your host for this weekly look at innovation and notable developments in legal education.

This week, I'm chatting with Hofstra law professor Courtney Selby about her school's legal tech boot camp, which gives students a taste of what tech can do in the law in hopes that they'll want to learn more. It was a busy news week on law campuses, so I've got quick updates on Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloyteaching at Boston College Law; a University of Oklahoma law prof coming under fire for his retrograde attitude about women; Antonin Scalia coming to George Mason's law school in bronze form; and a dustup at UCLA law over the dean's message to students regarding the Kavanaugh SCOTUS nomination. Read on.

Please share your thoughts and feedback with me at [email protected] or on Twitter:@KarenSloanNLJ

|

Legal Tech Gets the Boot (Camp) at Hofstra

Let's take a break from Brett Kavanaugh for a moment and turn our attention to legal tech in law schools. (I know I need a SCOTUS breather. How about you?)

I got a notice last week that Hofstra University Maurice A. Deane School of Lawwas hosting a legal tech boot camp on Saturday. I've been following how law schools are slowly introducing legal tech into their curriculum, and I love a good boot camp, so I rang up organizer Courtney Selby to find out more about it. I was curious how much students could really learn about the deep and complex legal tech ecosystem in a single day.

It turns out that getting students well versed in the in-and-outs of legal tech isn't the point of the event. Rather, it's intended to introduce them to the possibilities of legal tech and pique their interest enough that they decide to get involved, either through Hofstra law courses, clinics or pro bono work. Here's Selby: “What we're really trying to do is give students a glimpse of not only the big picture of the place of technology in the practice of law, but the types of technology used and the ways they can grow their own professional skills in those areas. It's more of an introduction into all the areas where we can offer students the opportunity to develop professionally.”

And there's apparently demand among the student body for some Legal Tech 101. Fifty students signed up for the boot camp, which featured speakers from the faculty, the bench, from practice. It also featured legal technologists. The agenda included some obvious areas of legal tech, and some less obvious ones. Among the topics covered:

➤➤ E-Discovery (duh) and analytics as used in litigation and the judiciary

➤➤ Smart computing, along the lines of artificial intelligence. (Think teaching computers to recognize patterns within litigation.)

➤➤ Data security and privacy.

➤➤ Blockchain, the moment's buzziest of buzzwords.

➤➤ Legal technology and access to justice.

Legal tech is an easier sell to law students these days, in part because they are simply used to integrating technology into most things, Selby said. But that familiarity with technology doesn't necessary translate over to legal technology, she said.

“I think our students have a much greater facility with technology, generally, than, say students a decade ago,” Selby told me. “But what they probably haven't been introduced to is the application of technology in a business and legal setting.”

My thoughts: I like the idea of giving students a quick overview of legal tech and allowing them to discover what interests them. Hofstra already has a solid legal tech program in its Law, Logic and Technology Research Lab—which has been around since 2010. But the reality is that not every law student will be willing to sign up for a full-blown legal tech course or project without any sort of foundation in what legal tech is and what it can do. So I think a daylong bootcamp is a nice strategy to reach students with a moderate interest but who need a bit more coaxing to pursue it further. Selby's hope is that attendees with leave motivated to sign up for the school's veterans rights clinic, which utilizes legal tech, or get involved with the LLT Lab, and jump on another access to justice project that incorporates legal technology.

➤➤ Would you like to receive Ahead of the Curve as an email? Sign up here for a trial.

|

Legal Ed Lightning Round

Lots of law school stories caught my eye last week and I didn't have the chance to cover them all, given the ever-shifting Kavanaugh confirmation. So I'm giving you a lightning round this week, touching briefly on some interesting developments.

Ello Go'vna: Yes, part of me just wanted to write that headline, and yes, I did Google to find the correct spelling and punctuation. (Alas, there is disagreement on that point.) But still, it's notable that outgoing Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy is joining the faculty of Boston College Law School as a visiting professor for the spring semester. Law schools make pretty good way stations for public servants in transition. (Ahem, Preet Bharara.) They get a comfortable place to plot their next move while students get the benefit of learning from those with real world experience. It's a nice get for BC, from which Malloy graduated with a J.D. in 1980.

Scalia in the Lobby: I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. On Thursday, the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University unveiled a larger-than-life bronze statue of its namesake and late SCOTUS justice. (Elena Kagan, Samuel Alito, John Roberts and Clarence Thomas attended the dedication). Scalia stands at eight-and-a-half feet tall, wearing a judicial robe in front of a desk, holding court (see what I did there?) in the law school's atrium. George Mason has obviously gone all in on Scalia, what with the 2016 name change. And from the photos, the statue looks nicely done. But Scalia was also a polarizing figure, and I wonder how minority law students might feel walking past his looming metal frame on the day-to-day.

Speaking of Controversial: Brian McCall, a professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, wrote a 2014 book about modern Catholic life that expresses some pretty retrograde ideas about gender. (As in, women should wear skirts to hide their curves and shouldn't engage in any activity that can't be performed modestly in said skirt.) The campus newspaper unearthed the apparently very under-the-radar book and the university launched an investigation. Law dean Joseph Harroz Jr. told law students on Tuesday that the investigation did not uncover any misconduct or wrongdoing by McCall. But McCall voluntarily resigned his post as associate dean for academic affairs amid student outcry. Let this be a lesson: Even tenure can't shield you from angry students who don't like being told their gender should relegate them to the kitchen.…

Still More Campus Controversy, This Time in Sunny SoCal: Some students at UCLA law were riled up last week after dean Jennifer Mnookin sent an email to the student body expressing reservations about some aspects of Christine Blasey Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. To be clear, Mnookin's email says she believes Ford is telling the truth, “as she remembers it.” It continues: “At the same time, as a scholar who works in part on issues of wrongful convictions, I recognize the possibility that victims can have sincere but erroneous memories, even about traumatic events. Memory is not a camera; it is complex and sometimes fallible.” That didn't go over well with some students. Separately, about 100 students walked out of class Thursday to protest Kavanaugh's nomination.

Extra Credit Reading

➜ The crisis in legal education is costing law schools a cumulative $1.5 billion annually in lost tuition revenue, a new report has found. Ouch.

➜ In case you missed it: Brett Kavanaugh told Harvard Law School last week that he won't teach his January course on the Supreme Court as scheduled.

➜ Be careful what you post to social media, wannabe lawyers. Law school admissions officials are combing through Facebook, Twitter and the like in search of potential character and fitness issues. You've been warned. ➜ Yale Law School is getting student housing for the first time in a decade, thanks to the newly opened, $60 million Baker Hall, which has 61 apartments and classroom space.

Thanks for reading Ahead of the Curve. I'll be back next week with more news and updates on the future of legal education. Until then, keep in touch at [email protected]