Students to Compete for Top Honors in Legal Tech App Building Course
NEW YORK (November 13, 2018) – Littler, the world’s largest labor and employment firm representing management, AI software platform Neota Logic, Cornell Law School and Cornell Tech, will hold the competition event on the evening of Monday, December 3, 2018 at the Tata Innovation Center, on the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island.
The event will feature expertise-automation apps developed by students participating in the Cornell Law course, Delivering Legal Services Through Technology, which is taught by Adjunct Professor Scott Rechtschaffen, Littler’s Chief Knowledge Officer, with support from tech innovation experts from Neota Logic. The course curriculum was designed to help students understand the rapidly transforming legal landscape and get the hands-on app-development skills that are becoming critical in the practice of law.
Students from the J.D., LL.M. and M.B.A. programs at Cornell Law School and Cornell Tech have developed rules-based legal tech apps on the Neota Logic platform to address challenges posed by three legal service organizations:
- Housing discrimination (app for Pine Tree Legal Assistance)
- Personal bankruptcy (app for Legal Assistance of Western New York)
- Rights of service dog owners (app for Canine Companions for Independence)
“I look forward to seeing all of the hard work of this interdisciplinary group of students come to fruition,” Rechtschaffen said. “It’s important for the next generation of lawyers to understand the intersection of technology and law and to give them the hands-on technical skills needed as they embark on careers in the legal profession.”
“This course exemplifies the growing trend of delivering legal services through innovative practices, where lawyers are leveraging technology, not competing against it,” said Kevin Mulcahy, VP of Education and Community Programs for Neota Logic. “And the fruits of these students’ labor extend beyond the semester because the apps will be put to work to solving real-world problems soon after the course ends,” Mulcahy added.
“We’re excited at Cornell Tech to offer our students the opportunity to explore the vibrant legal tech arena while developing applications for the underserved non-profit community,” said Matthew D’Amore, Associate Dean at Cornell Tech and Professor of the Practice at Cornell Law School. “Utilizing cutting-edge technology for the public good is an important part of our mission, and it’s thrilling to see this interdisciplinary group of students put that principle into practice.”
The teams will be judged in a number of categories, including “Excellence in User Experience,” “Excellence in Leveraging Technology” and “Best Overall Application.”
The panel of judges includes Joe Breda, President of Bloomberg Law, Meredith Williams-Ranges, Chief Knowledge Officer at Shearman & Sterling and Eduardo Penalver, Dean of Cornell Law School.
The event will take place at the Tata Innovation Center on Cornell Tech’s campus on Roosevelt Island in New York City. The event, which is open to the public at no charge, begins at 5:30 p.m. Attendees can register here and the event will also be available to be viewed online via live stream.
About Cornell Tech
Cornell Tech brings together faculty, business leaders, tech entrepreneurs and students in a catalytic environment to produce visionary results grounded in significant needs that will reinvent the way we live in the digital age. Cornell Tech's world-class faculty, graduate students, researchers, PhD candidates, and postdoctoral entrepreneurs are focused on building technologies that will directly address societal and commercial needs. They conduct groundbreaking research, collaborate extensively with tech-oriented companies and organizations, and launch their own startups. Cornell Tech has seven Masters programs, including two dual-degree programs with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology through the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. Key to Cornell Tech is its relationship with New York City -- the campus has a dedicated K-12 initiative to bring tech education into local schools, and the WiTNY program, a partnership with City University of New York to encourage more young women to pursue degrees and careers in tech. For more information visit tech.cornell.edu.
About Cornell Law School
Cornell Law School combines cutting-edge legal scholarship, inspiring teaching, and a close-knit, intellectually rich environment. In recent years, it has ranked number three in job placement among all law schools and has been rated the most diverse top law school in the country. For more information visit www.lawschool.cornell.edu
About Neota Logic
Neota Logic provides artificial intelligence software for automating legal services delivery. Neota Logic’s platform allows clients to rapidly automate their professional expertise, helping to improve the quality of business decisions while reducing risks and costs. For more information, visit www.neotalogic.com.
About Littler
Littler is the largest global employment and labor law practice, with more than 1,500 attorneys in over 80 offices worldwide. Littler represents management in all aspects of employment and labor law and serves as a single-source solution provider to the global employer community. Consistently recognized in the industry as a leading and innovative law practice, Littler has been litigating, mediating and negotiating some of the most influential employment law cases and labor contracts on record for over 75 years. Littler Global is the collective trade name for an international legal practice, the practicing member entities of which are separate and distinct professional firms.
