What will 2022 bring for the European Data Strategy?

In 2020, the European Commission unveiled its data strategy, which looks to make the EU a leader in our data-driven society, empowering people, businesses and organisations to make better decisions based on insights from data, which should be available to all. While it has been frequently stressed that the EU has missed the boat in terms of consumer data at the height of the platform explosion not too long ago, through the European Data Strategy the EU is currently seeking to redress the balance by strengthening its position among global leaders in the data economy. Although certainly only the beginning of the story, 2022 promises to be a pivotal year for the European Data Strategy as it will require the EU to at least find a balance, establish some of the necessary trade-offs and come to a reasoned compromise in terms of how to move forward from here to ensure that all puzzle pieces that make up the European Data Strategy fit well together and with other existing EU instruments.

In this episode of The Law of Tech Podcast, I discussed predictions, promises and expectations in light of the European Data Strategy with Thomas Tombal, post-doctoral researcher at TILT and TILEC at Tilburg University.

Want to know more? Take a listen to the podcast episode on your podcast platform of preference!

What is the Code for Children’s Rights and why is it so important?

Digital technologies and services, among which various apps and games, play an increasingly important role in children’s lives. While digital technologies and services make a valuable contribution to children’s development, however, practice has shown that the design choices related to their development are not always made in the best interests of the child. To ensure that digital technologies and services are designed in a childfriendly manner, Simone van der Hof of the eLaw Centre for Law and Digital Technologies - in collaboration with the De Waag Technology & Society and commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations - has drawn up a code for digital children's rights which aims to give technology designers and developers concrete tips and tools for the implementation of children's rights in their products to ensure that new technologies exposed to children - whether directly or indirectly - are created with the best interest of the child in mind from the very start.

In this episode of The Law of Tech Podcast, I explored the origins and contents of the Code for Children’s Rights with Simone van der Hof, Academic Director and Professor of Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden Law School.

Want to know more? Take a listen to the podcast episode on your podcast platform of preference!

Why should we encourage the transition towards the LegalTech profession?

Of all traditional business sectors, the legal sector has been one of the slowest to join the digital revolution. This, however, is rapidly changing. In particular, the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated virtually every industry's path towards digitisation, and the notoriously old-school world of law is no exception with many law firms starting to take innovation more seriously. Depending on their position in the legal value chain, legal professionals may benefit from a transition towards LegalTech even though the legal sector has traditionally been described as risk- and, by extension, tech-averse.

In this episode of The Law of Tech Podcast, I discussed in more depth why it is important to encourage the transition towards the LegalTech profession with Sally Sfeir Tait, CEO of RegulAItion, a knowledge-tech company helping to unlock intelligence by reimagining the way in which organisations across the globe access data.

Want to know more? Take a listen to the podcast episode on your podcast platform of preference!

What is the value of social media for law students and legal professionals?

It should come as no surprise that over the last two decades, social media has become a large part of the lives of many people across the globe. Interestingly, in more recent years there has been a large uptake of social media use within the legal profession, despite not long before that merely very few lawyers saw any value in learning about social media since they didn’t believe it would impact their bottom line.

These days, it’s a very different story. Social media has become extremely important to legal practitioners whether it is used to market a law practice or to simply maintain a professional presence online. While social media encompasses any digital tool that allows users to quickly create and share content with the public, however, when it comes to social media marketing, and a social media presence in general, there really is no one-size-fits-all strategy. What is the power of social media within the context of the legal profession? What platforms offer a valuable forum for legal professionals, law students and law firms? How can they use social media to distinguish themselves and build valuable and meaningful connections? And how can they move from building a valuable network online to using and strengthening that network in the offline world?

In this episode of The Law of Tech Podcast, I explored the power of social media within the legal profession with Colin Levy, corporate lawyer, LegalTech evangelist, speaker and writer, and legal change agent.

Want to know more? Take a listen to the podcast episode on your podcast platform of preference!

What does it take to build a LegalTech startup in Law School?

As an industry, LegalTech has only started to scratch the surface, and many valuable companies at the intersection of software and law have yet to be built. With benefits and opportunities abound, LegalTech has captured the attention of the legal industry and beyond. As legal continues to move towards the introduction and adoption of new technologies to improve the provision of legal services, legal practice and access to justice, not only existing legal and other professionals but law students too have become increasingly interested to capture a piece of this growing field of opportunity and source of a much needed transformation. An example of a LegalTech startup built in Law School is Evisort, an AI-powered contract management company founded in 2016 by Harvard Law and MIT graduates to develop AI algorithms to help companies mine contracts for data.

In this episode of The Law of Tech Podcast, I discussed the process and experience of building a LegalTech startup in Law School with Memme Onwudiwe, Harvard Law School graduate and Executive Vice President at Evisort Inc.

Want to know more? Take a listen to the podcast episode on your podcast platform of preference!

To what extent do current and proposed legal frameworks sufficiently address the risks of technology-facilitated domestic abuse?

Domestic abuse is not new to this age, yet technology has enabled perpetrators of such abuse to take their acts of harassment and violence to new and unprecedented levels. While many of these efforts are concerned with 'conventional' cyber risks such as abuses on social media platforms and restrictions to devices such as laptops and phones, emerging "Internet of Things" (IoT) technologies such as 'smart' meters, locks, and cameras expand domestic violence victim's risk trajectories further.

In response to these developments, UCL STEaPP researchers in collaboration with UCL's Department of Computer Science are conducting a research study that analyses these evolving IoT privacy and security risks in the context of domestic violence and abuse. More specifically, the Gender and IoT research project - led by Dr Leonie Tanczer - studies the implications of "smart", Internet-connected devices on gender-based domestic violence and abuse and what socio-technical measures will need to be implemented in order to mitigate against those risks.

In this episode of The Law of Tech Podcast, I explored the legal implications of technology-facilitated domestic abuse with Francesca Stevens, Research Assistant at the Gender and IoT project at UCL.

Want to know more? Take a listen to the podcast episode on your podcast platform of preference!

How should we reshape legal professionals to meet a new demand for legal services?

For years the notoriously static legal industry has shielded itself against the prospect of undergoing significant technological and cultural transformation. Yet for some time, there has been a call for the legal industry to innovate and to change not just what legal services are provided but also how they are provided. ‘And for me, I think that is the biggest shift - the focus on how we do things as legal professionals versus what we do’.

But what does innovation mean in the context of the legal services ecosystem? To what extent are (aspiring) legal professionals sufficiently equipped to meet the new demand for legal services and encourage further innovation? What knowledge and skills will become more relevant? How can we tackle existing barriers? And where do we move from here?

In this episode of The Law of Tech Podcast, I explored these and many more related questions with Michele DeStefano, professor at the University of Miami School of Law, Affiliated Faculty at Harvard Law School Executive Education and IE Law School, author, speaker, and independent consultant on innovation, technology, culture and cross-practice, cross-border initiatives.

Want to know more? Take a listen to the podcast episode on your podcast platform of preference!

How can we make education more digitally accessible?

In its effort to share Europe’s digital future, the European Union has taken several regulatory initiatives to promote digital accessibility, thereby aiming to build a social and inclusive European “union of equality”, where all Europeans can take a full and active part in the digital economy and society. Strong accessibility requirements make a real difference for disabled people but they affect many others too, including professions, businesses and public organizations, among which in particular educational institutions. While a major cause for concern with regard to the accessibility of legal education, new digital technologies, paradoxically, have a lot to offer education in terms of accessibility, for example in the field of enriching course material, increasing the accessibility of education, reducing disadvantages, enabling new forms of education and reaching new target groups.

In this episode of The Law of Tech Podcast, I explored the existing and upcoming requirements towards making education more digitally accessible with Raffi Lion, former business developer at the young tech-startup Amberscript.

Want to know more? Take a listen to the podcast episode on your podcast platform of preference

Should BigTech be collectivized on the premise that it infringes upon the right to self-determination?

Although BigTech companies have offered us tremendous benefits and opportunities for further progress, it has become clear that when building something so great - both in terms of size and power -, things are bound to get messy. An illustrative example of this is the BigTech titan Facebook, which impacts our social, economic and political lives in an unprecedented way, for better or for worse, leading some to believe that its actions are infringing upon our fundamental right to self-determination. Bearing this in mind, a collective action lawsuit was initiated to force legal recognition of Facebook as a public domain that should be under ownership and control of its users. The lawsuit will be submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2021.

In this episode of The Law of Tech Podcast, I discussed the ‘Collectivize Facebook’ initiative with its initiators, Jonas Staal (artist) and Jan Fermon (lawyer).

Want to know more? Take a listen to the podcast episode on your podcast platform of preference!

What role does constitutional law play in the digital age?

In the last couple of decades, the EU’s approach towards regulating the field of digital technologies has shifted from a liberal economic perspective to a constitutional-based approach, passing by the phase of judicial activism. If the digital environment has become an opportunity to offer cross-border services and exercise individual freedoms, on the other hand, it has also led to serious interferences with fundamental rights and the rise of private powers online, thus triggering the EU to enter a new phase of modern constitutionalism. This evolution challenges the role of constitutionalism as a means for the protection of fundamental rights and the limitation of powers, especially as the first steps towards the next phase of digital constitutionalism are already being taken.

In this episode of The Law of Tech Podcast, I explored the role and importance of constitutional law in the digital age with Giovanni De Gregorio, postdoctoral researcher working with the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University Law School.

Want to know more? Take a listen to the podcast episode on your podcast platform of preference!