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The International Future of Law Association recently held its in-person event, which was a conference held in Dublin, Ireland and funded by the School of Law at the University of Galway. The event was convened by Dr Rónán Kennedy of the Technology and Rights cluster, who has been leading on the development of IFLA since its early days.

The conference was opened by our keynote speaker and IFLA committee member, Professor Cat Moon of Vanderbilt University and Director of Innovation Design and the Program on Law & Innovation there. She presented food for thought on the new skills and competencies which lawyers may need in a changing world of work, and opened up the conference themes of 'Replacement or Collaboration? Imagining the Future(s) of Law, Lawyers & Justice'.

The rest of the day featured panel discussions on the future of law teaching, how lawyers can work with data, the changes that are taking place in legal practice, and how we integrate concerns regarding access to justice into legal education and lawyering. It was a hybrid event, featuring speakers from across Europe, Asia and North America, with opportunities for discussion and debate.

The first panel was on futures of law teaching and featured Paul Ippolito of the College of Law Sydney, Prof Andy Unger of London South Bank University, both addressing different aspects of future-proofing and modernising the curriculum; Prof Brian W Tang from the University of Hong Kong on integrating generative AI into law teaching and Dr. Liam Sunner of Queen’s University Belfast on using video games in the classroom. That was followed by a panel on the use of data in legal research and teaching, including Dr Rohit Verma of the National College of Ireland on investigating semantic textual similarity in legal documents, Prof Quisquella Addison of Northeastern University on how to train law students to use data for social change, and Jennifer Waters of University College Dublin, who suggested there is a need for a sector specific data protection impact assessment for irish legal analytics services.

In the afternoon, the discussion moved to the future of legal practice. Dr Brian Barry of Technological University Dublin and Prof John Morison and Dr Ciarán O’Kelly, both at Queen’s University Belfast discussed similar research that they are conducting on the use of AI and other advanced technologies by solicitors in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Audrey Fried of Osgoode Hall Law School provided suggestions on how generative AI could be integrated into legal skills, while Marc Lauritsen of Capstone Practice Systems and Suffolk University Law School suggested that legal expertise might become 'too cheap to meter'.

The final session focused on access to justice and ethics. Tereza Novotná of Masaryk University presented a project she is leading to provide online access to primary legal texts in the Czech Republic. Larry Bridgesmith of Vanderbilt University discussed principles for the responsible use of AI in the delivery of legal services which he has helped to develop. Finally, Dr Rónán Kennedy of University of Galway asked if it was ethical to use generative AI in legal teaching in light of its significant environmental footprint and the human harms caused by its development.

Video recordings from the day are available on IFLA’s YouTube channel.