Cancelled Being a Lawyer in the Digital Age

The course introduces students to the challenges and opportunities of being a lawyer in the 21^st Century, in the so called digital age.

Using theories and case studies, the course examines the history, structure, functioning, market competition, career development, and other relevant topics concerning the legal profession in Denmark and other comparable countries of interest to Danish legal profession (France, Germany, United States, and England in particular). The aim is to provide law students with an in-depth knowledge of the various challenges and opportunities that they will face once graduated from the Faculty of Law and entering the job market. The main focus of the course is to prepare students to face the most recent developments triggered by the rising importance of new technologies for legal work, such as the role of networks, outsourcing legal work, e-lawyering, big data, and articifical intelligence.

The first part of the the course introduces students to to the most actual concerns concerning the legal profession. In particular, the focus will be on the challenges to the lawyers’ monopoly over the practice of the law triggered by changes in society and technology. To this purpose, the course covers the following themes:

1) a general introduction to the structure and socio-political dynamics of some of the most important professional systems (Denmark, Italy, France, Germany, United States, and England) with a specific focus on the relationship between lawyers and the state;

2) the vertical competition within the profession and the horizontal competition of the profession with other experts service providers, such as accountants, economists, and, more recently, tech companies;

3) the challenges and opportunities deriving from the professionalization of the legal practice and the rise of large law firms;

4) the Europeanization and globalization of legal professionals;

5) the disruptive impact of new technologies on the legal profession;

6) the role of formal and informal networks. During the course, students will be also invited to discuss some of the main issues with leading figures of the Danish and international legal profession that will be called to speak to provide a practical guidance to them in their future professional choices.