Tools and skills for lawyers course
Tools are a part of us. As we change our tools, they change us.
I've had a privilege to a run a course on tools and skills for lawyers in UCU Law School
In the spirit of open-source, I am sharing the syllabus and some learnings we've had on the way.
A very brief overview
We used doc automation, process mapping, knowledge management practices and tools, lots of AI, some basics of data visualization, took a look at complexity science, tried our hand at process flow mapping and a lot of other stuff.
I've enjoyed both runs of the course so far and seemingly so did the students, but I feel it can be so much better.
Overall, the course combined various use cases with specific tools to provide practical, hands-on experiences. Most of the classes students received tasks, mentorship, reading materials and worked on solving those tasks.
We went through a lot of the common use-cases that first-year practicing lawyers have in Ukraine and in an International context: legal research, summaries, memo's, simple visualizations, contract review and drafting, basics of working with databases, etc.
What went well.
Since the course is very practical, each lesson the students were able to see the results of their work and evaluate them. We barely had lectures, more so just introductions to a topic, Socratic discussions and lots of practice.
As we mostly focused on practical skills, I emphasized and evaluated effort and practice more than the end result. We focused much more on practice, than on grading.
We were able to cover quite a lot of tools and concepts in the given time, although there is always room for improvement.
It feels like I was able to convey the key idea: no tool gives you a single answer. It's the combination of people, tools, workflows, rules that influence the results. And that result does not always have a linear dependency.
I often invited my colleagues to do a guest lecture or a workshop.
It could be better.
While I can see that many took those skills home, the nature of the tasks that could be done in a single session felt very much surface level. For my next course I will be gathering more real requests from our clients, friends, etc. and use those as base for learning in a focused multi-session project.
Introducing topics like complexity, UX laws, and other stuff that is quite from removed from typical lawyering is somewhat… challenging. Many students have a hard time grasping why such knowledge is useful or relevant. I try to frame them in the more specific legal context, and still it doesn't always quite land.
Team efforts.
All tasks were essentially a team project.
No man is an island, and I feel like lawyers are sorely lacking in their teamwork skills.
If someone in the team is being lazy — fix it or kick them. I was not a policeman in that regard.
Pain and gain
We learn best when we struggle a bit. Especially if we struggled a lot by ourselves before.
Since many students did not have too much legal experience, I created simulations and gave a few directions as to how to solve them:
Some struggled quite a bit with such an open-ended approach. Though once pushed through, their sense of agency and skill was greatly improved.
Simulations are pretty great for this, since you can merge common issues into a single scenario. Claude.ai has been quite a boon in drafting realistic scenarios with characters, artifacts (contracts, website samples) and connections between them.
Ethics
We did not have a separate lesson on ethics when using various tools. Instead, we discussed the ethical and confidentiality issues as they were applicable to the use case we practiced.
Next run
Main ideas so far
We did not have a capstone project, and this is something I think of adding in the next iteration of the course.
While the summer is on, I still have a chance to review and prepare for our next run of the course.
If you ever thought what a dream course on tools and skills would look like: I am very much open to any ideas!
And here's the draft syllabus! Here's hoping it might of some use to you too.
Legal Technology and Skills Syllabus
???? Technologies for Lawyers
Summary: Introduction to complex dynamic systems, old and new tools, and how tools change professions.
Tools: Various legal and non-legal tools
Resources:
Practical Case: Analyze how different tools have transformed legal practice over time.
?? Writing and Document Automation
Summary: Explore the power of writing as a technology and learn document automation techniques.
Tools: Word, Excel, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Coda
Resources:
Practical Cases:
??? Information, Knowledge, and Research
Summary: Learn effective techniques for navigating and researching information online.
Tools: Google advanced search, Boolean operators
Resources:
Practical Cases:
?????? Research and Communication
Summary: Develop skills in finding answers to specific questions and communicating research findings effectively.
Tools: Various search tools and communication platforms
领英推荐
Resources:
Practical Case: Research a complex legal issue and present findings in a clear, concise manner.
?? Basics of Interaction
Summary: Learn fundamental rules of communication and interaction in legal settings.
Resources:
Practical Case: Role-play various legal interactions using communication principles.
?? Hellish Negotiations
Summary: Practice achieving team interests using various negotiation tools and techniques.
Practical Case: Participate in a complex negotiation scenario with assigned roles and objectives.
?? Attention, Memory, and Communication
Summary: Understand how cognitive processes work (and don't work) in legal contexts.
Resources:
Practical Case: Analyze a legal case where cognitive biases played a significant role.
?? Visualizing Reality
Summary: Learn to illustrate ideas and visualize messages effectively in legal contexts.
Tools: Figma, Excalidraw, Mermaid diagrams
Resources:
Practical Cases:
? Sources
Summary: Learn where to find reliable information and how to synthesize it for legal work.
Resources:
Practical Case: Conduct a thorough literature review on a specific legal topic.
??? Paper Detectives
Summary: Practice finding information and answers efficiently using various tools.
Practical Case: Investigate a complex case using provided materials and research tools.
?? Processes and Structures
Summary: Learn about process mapping and structuring legal workflows.
Tools: Coda, Figma (for flowcharts)
Resources:
Practical Cases:
??? Building a System
Summary: Learn to build a working system for a real company.
Tools: Various project management and workflow tools
Practical Case: Design and implement a comprehensive legal operations system for a hypothetical company.
?? Data and Systems
Summary: Understand the difference between data and systems, and how to integrate them.
Resources:
Practical Case: Design a simple database system for a legal use case.
?? Building Connections
Summary: Learn to set up integrations between different legal tech systems.
Tools: Make, various APIs
Practical Cases:
?? Friendship with Artificial Intelligence
Summary: Learn how to effectively use and collaborate with AI in legal work.
Tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity AI
Resources:
Practical Cases: