Students to Present ‘Innovation Lab’ Demos Exploring Technology and Law
Computer science, law students will unveil technological solutions to challenges in legal profession on April 18
Northwestern Engineering and Northwestern Law students are working together to show how technology can improve legal services.
As part of Northwestern Law’s BUSCOM 722: Innovation Lab course, six teams of students from the McCormick School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science and the Pritzker School of Law worked with clients from across the legal landscape to apply technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to address current challenges in the field.
Now, the teams are ready to unveil their solutions during an event on Thursday, April 18. Sponsored by Thomson Reuters, “Innovation Lab: Law and Technology Demos” will take place at 6 p.m. in the Arthur Rubloff Building’s Thorne Auditorium on Northwestern’s Chicago campus. A networking session with refreshments will follow the demos at 7:45 p.m.
Innovation Lab challenges students to work in interdisciplinary teams to explore problems related to the legal profession. Teams took part in the entire innovation process, from working with stakeholders to understand their needs to brainstorming and iterating possible outcomes, before they arrived at a technology-based solution.
In the course, teams worked with clients including Actuate Law, Mayer Brown, Northwestern’s Bluhm Legal Clinic, and Reed Smith to explore how AI and other technologies could improve current challenges in areas like contract terms review, financial services, court data exploration, and telemedicine compliance.
Northwestern Engineering’s Kristian Hammond, Bill and Cathy Osborn Professor of Computer Science, co-taught Innovation Lab with Dan Linna, visiting professor of law, and Dave Schwartz, Stanford Clinton Sr. and Zylpha Kilbride Clinton Research Professor of Law.