Emergence Of EdTech In the Legal Industry  

By Ashlesha Suryawanshi 

Introduction

Digital education in India is continuously growing. The Ed-Tech industry plays a key role in the covid pandemic, and it is proved that online learning is more effective and efficient than a physical classroom. This article more focuses on technological advancement in the legal industry.  Many legal functions are incomplete without technology.  The Ed-Tech sector is rising significantly and with prudent planning and legal assistance, investors can drive the web of legal and regulatory challenges in this sector and find reasonable returns on their investment.

The term EduTech means the use of technology in education.  The Indian education sector has made technological progress in recent years, especially during the Covid 19 pandemic epidemic, and the entire education system is dependent on technology.  EduTech is a kind of digital learning that makes the use of technology in learning easier and possible because there is a lockdown all over the world.  During these epidemics, Edutech made it possible to run classes and learn. The epidemic becomes a barrier to learning but it cannot stop students from learning. The legal industry also slowly shifts towards technological advancement, many legal departments are based on technology that includes all tools, machines, hardware, software, artificial intelligence. Law students also access virtual sites for their study, also they can easily seek guidance from lawyers and judges through online webinars and interviews. Students publish their articles on different websites, they can participate in virtual moot court competitions. The use of technology in the legal field increases the efficiency of legal offices and gives productivity to clerical workers. It reduces a large number of papers and it is very difficult to correct mistakes in offline mode once it is framed on paper.  Transparency is seen between legal entities and consumers. Technology does not keep work pending and is done efficiently, law firms get a lot of help from technology. The changing form of the legal sector due to the emergence of technology coined it as the legal tech sector. While the legal sector is growing among corporate companies, corporate law firms have also embraced technological advances. With this rapid change in technology in the legal sector, law students need to prepare for new ways in the era of legal technologies, because it is an integral part of everyday legal practices.

Technological Emergence in Legal Industry 

We know that law is everywhere because it is the governing authority of society. And therefore law students need to update with changing systems in legal fields. Innovation of Technology in every field like education, medical, business, therefore technological understanding of law students is more important. The law covers a variety of areas, so law students need to know each area, including law.  The law school provides basic education to the students, the skills of the students are improved for their future careers. Law schools provided a variety of activities such as moot court competitions, parliamentary debates, internships, competitions, however, rapid advances in technology and globalization have changed legal practice in India and the world. The integration of technology and experiential learning is shifting the attention of students towards learning. New technical integrated courses in collaboration with legal firms help law students become entrepreneurs and enter the corporate sector.  These include technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, data analysis, machine learning, and more. Also, some laws like Space laws, Cybercrime law, Intellectual property law, Corporate law prepared students in the technical field. To update law students for these skills, law schools should focus on clinical legal education, this is the only way in which law students can do theory and practice together.  So students can learn some legal methods such as case hearing, settlement negotiation, client interview through practical training. Many corporate companies virtually perform their contractual obligations, like mergers and acquisitions of companies for which law students should learn contract drafting, presentation skills, and entrepreneur skills.  In short, more effort will have to be made to move beyond traditional methods of law school and legal education, to include practical education based on direct projects.  Multi-disciplinary alliances to enhance entrepreneurial capacity, which is essential for legal firms or corporate law practice, and technology integration law streams to keep pace with the advancement of technology for better legal service delivery, areas that require to be focused on. EdTech applications are completely flexible for students, programs are usually self-speeding and courses are modified according to the needs of students.  Although one cannot say that EdTech is renewing the experience of the physical class, it is filling the void with effective teaching tools.  The use of graphics and quizzes with text gives more understanding for problem-solving and critical thinking skills development.

Legal Industry dependent on technology by following ways such as

Social Media

Social media is a way to connect with people, it helps students update with current legal knowledge, students can connect with other lawyers and law aspirants through social media.  Many law firms have their social media handle on which they upload their information so that it can reach students.  Many professional companies need legal advice so they get information about law students through social media and from there they can be appointed law students.

Legal Process Outsourcing

This is an agency service in which law firms and other organizations outsource legal work from other places, it includes litigation research, drafting contracts, patent services, etc. It is a technology-driven service so students must acquire technical skills as well as interpersonal and negotiation skills.

Virtual Law Firms

Virtual law firms are different from traditional law firms. It helps lawyers to engage with their clients virtually from anywhere. It is a new version of service delivery from which lawyers and companies can create a profitable and perfectly legal practice. Law firms give students experience of practical applicability therefore commercial knowledge and technical knowledge are very important.

Intellectual Property Law

People have to rely on the law to protect their intellectual property, in today’s technological era there are a lot of risks like content getting stolen, people can copy the content and gain profit, therefore, intellectual property law protects properties like copyright, patent, etc. Intellectual property and technology law is a major part of business transaction or policy controversy and has become one of the most serious legal areas as companies around the world expand and protect their technology, brands, products, data, and services.

All these legal areas are interdependent on technology and hence the emergence of technology in legal education is important as well as beneficial.  Understanding the new transforming legal methods and technical facilities is an important skill of law students.

Conclusion 

Technology is the greatest blessing because it makes everything easy, fast, and efficient.  The concept of legal education is changing due to the emergence of technology in the legal industry and therefore law schools must give updated training to their students, to provide online portals for research. Teachers need to teach students the adequate use of technology, which is a tool that eventually improves the way lawyers practice law. Every student who practices law should become aware of the use of artificial intelligence and computer technologies and this will surely become significant for the role of legal professionals in the future.  In the modern era, both technology and the legal education system are integral components. Technological advancement helps the legal field in many positive ways, various works such as time and billing software used in commercial firms, customer care management,  taxation, accounting and finance, all fields of law are dependent on technology.   Our education system should indeed impart to us the knowledge of the latest technology because for the standard legal profession technological knowledge is most important. The adoption of technology in the legal profession creates flexible services, increases transparency, and helps to reduce documentation errors.