The VSCL will be hosting a panel discussion on the future of legal work at RMIT on Wednesday 24 August at 6pm. This panel will be moderated by Cath Nolan (Adjunct Lecturer in the RMIT Graduate School of Business & Law). The panel will be followed by networking nibbles and an opportunity for students to mingle with VSCL tech lawyers and technologists willing to shed some light on what they do at work.
Panellists for this event are:
Professor John Zeleznikow of Victoria University. John is an internationally recognised expert with over 30 years research experience including the last 15 years working on negotiation decision support and machine learning in law. For those of you into trivia, John and his former PhD student Dr Emilia Belluccia won their heat of the New Inventors program in 2005 for software that assists divorcing couples to negotiate their disputes. John will speak to the question on so many minds - can machines replace lawyers?
Associate Professor Marta Poblet Balcell of RMIT. Marta is the co-founder of the Institute of Law and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her research focuses on the intersection of law and technology and how technology can enable and enhance people's participation in legal processes. Projects Marta has worked on include new business models and ways of doing business, crowdsourcing applications for disaster management and climate change (leveraging geomobile technology), the development of constitutions using micro tasking technologies and investigations into the legal and social implications of using geo location data for driverless cars and drones. Marta will be asked to look to the future and tell us what she thinks the lawyers of the future will be advising on - and what the students and young lawyers of today should be thinking about as they approach that future.
Jordan Wilson-Otto is a senior lawyer at the Office of the Commissioner for Privacy and Data Protection in Victoria. Jordan sits on the VSCL Board and has worked as a government lawyer at both Federal and State government levels including at the ATO, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Department of Health Victoria. He also acts as one of the organisers for GovHack events in Victoria. Jordan will describe his life as a government lawyer and the role he sees for government lawyers in the development of legal policy appropriate for the regulation of technology.
Priyanka Nair is Vice President of the VSCL and is also a senior associate working as a tech lawyer in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications team at Allens. Priyanka's work as a lawyer involves advising on large-scale IT transformation projects, privacy and innovation. This typically involves advising on IT due diligence, contract drafting and negotiation. She also moonlights as a physiotherapist. Priyanka will talk about what life as a corporate tech lawyer actually looks like, what additional skills lawyers will need to stay relevant in an increasingly technology driven space and how you should be upskilling now to play your part as legal innovator.