During the past few years, Professor Joe Rosenberg (’86) has been working to infuse technology throughout the law school curriculum, including in his lawyering seminar and the Disability & Aging Justice Clinic.
Inspired by a growing number of CUNY Law students committed to studying technology in law, in the spring of 2019, Joe collaborated with Mark Berman of the NYSBA to create a survey course on “Tech & Law.”
New York is one of a growing number of states that have adopted a professional duty of technology competence. Comment 8 to Rule 1.1 of the NY Rules of Professional Conduct states that a lawyer should: “Keep abreast of the benefits and risks associated with technology the lawyer uses to provide services to clients or to store or transmit confidential information.”
Joe believes the success of the course was a direct result of the passion, commitment, and knowledge of the students, and an inclusive approach that did not require any technological expertise or knowledge. Drawn from both the day and evening programs, the 17 students in the course participated enthusiastically with guest speakers, who shared their expertise on a broad array of topics related to the impact of technology on law practice, the legal system, inequality, racism and oppression, and marginalized communities.
According to Professor Rosenberg, “The interaction between the students and the weekly guest speakers created a dynamic learning environment for everybody involved. Our students soaked up the expertise of the speakers, while also probing and challenging them to explore more deeply the impact of technology on social injustice.”
Kimberly Means, an evening student in the course, wrote: “Professor Rosenberg and Professor Berman! I loved (and miss) the class. Truly the best and one of the most beneficial courses I’ve taken in law school. Hope to continue our work!”
A particularly memorable class was attended by CUNY Law Dean Mary Lu Bilek and then NYSBA President Michael Miller. The class featured a distinguished panel discussing technology and social justice advocacy: CUNY Law Professors Nina Chernoff and Chaumtoli Huq, Elbert Garcia, a Producer of Law at the Margins, Miguel Willis, Director of the ATJ Technology Fellows Program, and Dan Kass, Co-Founder of JustFix.nyc.
Other classes focused on automated decision-making systems and how algorithms reinforce racism and oppression. CUNY Alum and Legal Aid attorney Cynthia Conti-Cook discussed technology and the criminal justice system and demonstrated CAPstat, the police misconduct database she developed.
In a class on access to justice, expert systems, and guided interviews, Professor Conrad Johnson talked about the development of his Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic at Columbia Law School, and Professor Rosenberg, CUNY student Mariana Negron-Quinones (’19), and Thomas Office of community.lawyer demonstrated the guided interview that grew out of the law school’s “Planning with Parents Project.”
Another class focused on cybersecurity for attorneys and provoked a particularly rich and practical discussion, out of which grew a cybersecurity hygiene checklist that was developed by the students for fellow law students and new attorneys and published in the September 2019 NYS Bar Journal.
Students’ topics for their final paper or project included:
- How to use technology to facilitate reentry after incarceration
- An analysis of Wisconsin v. Loomis and the implications of using risk assessment tools in criminal law
- Ethical issues related to autonomous vehicles
- Why technology should be integrated into the law school curriculum and connected to anti-racism and anti-oppression work
- How to use blockchain technology to help student groups, including creating more participation in votes on student and law school initiatives
- The use of automated weapons in the U.S. military
- Facial recognition technology and its origins in physiognomy
- Why drones need to be regulated
- Analysis of smart contracts and the common law
Students in the course included: Mirian Albert, Erol Akpinar, Eleni Barefoot, Stephan Cardio, Charles Cooper, Trent Fucci, Matthew Glover, Andrea Irias, Emily Jenkins, Eric Johnson, Jamal Johnson, Andy Laine, Kimberly Mims, Tyreke Moses, Geno Nettle, Antonio Ponton-Nunez, and Jonathan Saxton. The course was also supported by CUNY Law colleagues Amanda Beltran and Chris Argiropolous.