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UNSW Law students design apps to provide greater access to justice

UNSW Law students will showcase their own digital legal applications when they compete at the end of their ‘Designing Technology Solutions for Access to Justice’ course.

Published on the 23 Oct 2018

UNSW Law students will showcase their own digital legal applications when they compete at the end of their ‘Designing Technology Solutions for Access to Justice’ course.  
 
Course Convenor Associate Professor Lyria Bennett Moses says the course draws upon advances in technology to address overlooked issues in the community legal sector.
 
“Students are building applications to enhance access to justice in a wide variety of contexts, from assessing local interactions with police to monitoring conditions in immigration detention international.”
 
Associate Professor Bennett Moses, who is also the Director of the Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation at UNSW, also says technological skills are becoming increasingly important to the legal profession and can open up career opportunities for students. 
   
“It is important that future lawyers understand legal technology projects, and this course provides an opportunity for students to gain experience from the inside.”
 
Caryn Sandler, Gilbert + Tobin Partner and Chief Knowledge + Innovation Officer, says the course will equip law students with the technological literacy they will need to be successful once they graduate. 
 
“The ability to design technology-based solutions for legal problems and increase the efficiency of legal processes is increasingly becoming a differentiator in the delivery of legal services and the value clients are looking to law firms to provide.”
 
The course, now in its second year, is sponsored by law firm Gilbert + Tobin, and AI tech company Neota Logic provides students with its platform to build the legal applications. It has been working alongside leading not-for-profit legal organisations to design and create their legal applications.  
 
Participating not-for-profits include Kingsford Legal Centre, Diplomacy Training Program, Redfern Legal Centre and Bonigi, which helped the students research and compile the legal knowledge used in the applications. 
 
Neota Logic Head of Education and Community Programs Kenji Yamada says that one of the advantages of legal applications is that “individuals can access legal information around the clock”.   
 
“There has been a growing trend within the Australian community legal sector where organisations have been able to distribute legal information at internet scale.” 
 
The students will showcase their finished legal applications at the presentation evening on Tuesday 23 October at the UNSW Law Building before a panel of judges. The legal applications will be assessed on various criteria including innovation, user experience and effectiveness.  
 
What: Designing Technology Solutions for Access to Justice – Web Apps
 
When: 23 October 2018, 6:00pm 
 
Where: UNSW Law School Building – Level 2 Staff Common Room