Cancelled Being a Lawyer in the Digital Age
Course content
The course introduces students to the challenges and opportunities of being a lawyer in the 21st 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.
- Become familiar with a set of theories and empirical studies related to the evolution of the legal profession in Denmark and a number of other countries.
- Be aware of the latest developments of the legal job market in Denmark and in other countries
- Identify the central issues and challenges facing the legal profession, such as professionalization, Europeanization, globalization, and digitalization.
- Understand how the legal profession is currently conceived in terms of expert knowledge, market control, and professional orders.
- Critically read and analyze both theoretical and empirical literature on the legal profession.
- Apply the knowledge built during the course to real life examples of the legal profession.
- Be able to work and communicate meaningfully and constructively with other professional figures (i.e., consultants, economists, political sicentists, and IT experts) and clients.
- Improve job seeking skills in the present and increasingly competive legal job market.
The students are expected to read the mandatory readings and
participate actively in class. To improve the learning process, the
course uses both traditional lecturing methods and other more
interactive and research-based techniques aimed at activating the
students in class. The goal is to educate students into thinking
independently and across disciplines in order to fully understand
the impact of society and other structural forces on the legal
profession. The class room should be a learning environment in
which the students can restructure the knowledge previously
acquired through the readings into a richer and more critical
knowledge. In particular, during the course, the following
instructional strategy will be used:
- Theory-building learning with oral presentations and written
reaction papers, where the students theorize and reflect on
theories and cases that may explain the reality of legal
profession.
In addition, to encourage the reflection on the ideas presented in
the class and for the preparation of the final individual written
assignment, students will present and and discuss with their peers
questions related to a previous selected topic. Students will be
asked to investigate the topic and provide answers grounded in
research into the legal profession. The feedback collected by the
student during the presentations will be used for developing new
ideas connected to the final research assignment.
TBA
English proficiency
- Students enrolled at Faculty of Law: Self Service at KUnet
- Professionals: Single subject application form (tuition fee apply)
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
-
Written assignmentIndividual written assignment
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
Single subject courses (day)
- Category
- Hours
- Preparation
- 171,25
- Seminar
- 35
- English
- 206,25
Kursusinformation
- Language
- English
- Course number
- JJUB55178U
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Programme level
- Bachelor
Bachelor choice
- Duration
-
1 semester
- Placement
- Autumn
- Price
-
- Students enrolled at Faculty of Law: No tuition fee
- Professionals: Please visit our website
- Schedulegroup
-
Please see timetable for teaching time
- Studyboard
- Law
Contracting department
- Law
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Law
Course Coordinators
- Mikael Rask Madsen (13-547072686c733554686b7a6c7547717c7935727c356b72)
- Salvatore Caserta (17-7e6c77816c7f7a7d70396e6c7e707d7f6c4b75807d397680396f76)
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Courseinformation of students