College of Law puts hundreds of future lawyers through legaltech training

The College of Law – the largest provider of legal education in Australasia – has collaborated with Josef to introduce groundbreaking legaltech programs into its curriculum, preparing law students for the future of legal practice.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and legaltech are now part of the legal ecosystem at large. Responding to new ‘norms’ the College of Law has introduced two legaltech initiatives preparing law students for the reality of legal practice today and into the future.

Law graduates of today are entering a very different profession to their predecessors. Many legal processes, and related roles, are being replaced by legaltech. This presents both challenges and opportunities for new and established practitioners.

“Like the impact of Canva democratising design or Squarespace democratising digital literacy and Xero bringing automation to accounting – legaltech is now empowering legal teams globally through automation, design thinking and innovation,” Sam Flynn, COO and co-founder of no-code software platform Josef and member of the College’s Centre for Legal Innovation Advisory Board, explains.  

In an exclusive pilot, the College of Law has collaborated with Josef on a Designer & Building Program (DBP). A self-paced automation and innovation course where students in the admission to practice program – Practical Legal Training (PLT) – are introduced to legal design and ideation, as well as partaking in legal bot building workshops. Participation in the DBP is credited towards the LegalTech and Business Skills component of the College’s PLT program. The first pilot intake in April to August of 2022 involved 40 participants. The January 2023 intake has already received over 100 registrations.  

“This College of Law program looks beyond the course work and looks towards the role of AI in legal solutions,” Matthew Barnfield, PLT student and pilot participant, explains. “A lot of students look beyond law in their careers and this program introduces legaltech to their experience.”

Josef is a no-code automation platform that puts the ability to create digital legal tools in the hands of lawyers, corporate counsels and legal operation professionals globally. Automating legal tasks like lawyer-client interactions, emails, generating legal documents and providing legal guidance and advice.

“Building a chatbot, considering client needs and responses and the overall automation process, exposes students to real-world corporate thinking, learning and experience. In addition to the potential bot building tech offers to bring a business idea to life – these skills are attractive to employers,” Matthew says.