CPLE Symposium: Law Without Lawyers?
10.00am-4.00pm

It has been predicted that emergent technologies such as artificial intelligence, ‘lawbots’, smart contracts, automated dispute resolution services and the like will soon replace human lawyers in the delivery of some, most or even all legal services. How persuasive is this claim, and if it does have merit, what are the implications of ‘law without lawyers’ for the rule of law, for justice, for the community, and for law students and lawyers themselves?

Bond University’s Centre for Professional Legal Education (CPLE) will investigate these questions in a one day symposium titled ‘Law Without Lawyers?’. The symposium will explore in depth the likely impact of technological innovation on the practice of law, and the implications – both positive and negative – of the possibility that legal services will be delivered without the direct involvement of human lawyers. The symposium will include a keynote address, a panel discussion and debate, and an interactive workshop. Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea will be provided.

Legal practitioners will be eligible to earn up to 3 CPD points for their attendance at the symposium.

Keynote Address: 'The Disruptive Technologies Most Likely to Make Lawyers Redundant'

10.45am-12.00pm

Speaker: Mr Matthew Burgess – Director, View Legal

Chairperson: Associate Professor Kate Galloway – Bond University Centre for Professional Legal Education

Established in July 2014, View Legal is Australia’s first virtual law firm. View Legal co-founder Matthew Burgess and the CPLE’s Kate Galloway will identify the recent, emergent and imminent technologies that are having or are likely to have a significant impact upon the way legal services are delivered.

Panel discussion and debate: 'The Implications and Consequences of Law without Lawyers'

12.30pm-2.00pm

Speakers:

* Associate Professor Kate Galloway - Bond University Centre for Professional Legal Education

* Assistant Professor Jackson Walkden-Brown - Bond University Centre for Professional Legal Education

* Dr Michael Guihot - Queensland University of Technology

* Dr Nigel Stobbs - Queensland University of Technology

* Ms Andrea Perry-Petersen - Clinical Legal Educator, LawRight

Accepting that at least some legal services will no longer be delivered by lawyers, a panel of legal academics and practitioners will discuss and debate the implications and consequences – both positive and negative – of the absence of human lawyers for clients, for the legal system, for the rule of law, for justice, for the wider community, and for lawyers and law students.

Interactive Workshop: '2022: Law Without Lawyers'

2.30pm-4.00pm

The speakers and panellists will work with members of the audience in small groups to build upon the earlier discussions and identify the ways in which specific fields of law and legal practice – such as commercial law, personal injury law, criminal law, family law, and dispute resolution – are likely to be regulated, administered and practised five years from now. The groups will then come together to create a detailed picture of 2022 and a world where law exists without lawyers.

Winners of the Transnational, International and Comparative Law and Policy Network (TICLP) interdisciplinary poster presentation “Control and Power’ will be announced during the afternoon tea break.

Throughout the day, CPLE scholars and students will display information about their current legal education research projects with a digital poster exhibition

Please register to obtain your tickets to these events.

RSVP by 29 September 2017
Due to limited spaces, registration is essential.

Parking is available on campus, please refer to the map here.