Focus On… The legal-technology gap

Technology advances are challenging the legal community’s ability to provide advice. These advances are in cyber security, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, digital transformation, cloud computing, and other areas.

My colleagues in the technology field, chief information officers (CIO), chief information security officers (CISO), and data protection officers (DPO), have opined that they need more legal advice on technology issues than they receive. In contrast, my attorney colleagues in the technology practice area opine that they provide the required guidance. This difference of opinion between technology professionals and legal professionals is the ‘legal-technology gap’. The legal community believes it is providing the advice the technical community needs, but the technical community believes it is insufficient.

The legal advice that CIOs and CISOs receive is often superficial or too conservative in implementation without adversely affecting business operations. This is because the lawyers do not have a sufficient understanding of technology.

Since 2014, I have been teaching cyber security and computer law at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, School of Law to close the legal-technology gap. I subsequently extended my efforts in that area by teaching a data protection officer course at the University of St. Gallen Executive School of Management, Technology, and Law.

I began my professional career as a computer scientist specialising in application and operating systems programming. A lawyer friend convinced me to attend law school and become a lawyer. My education and experience in computer science and law are uncommon. Technological advances, data protection, and cyber security have united these disparate professions.

The digital transformation, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, has increased the use of computers in areas such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and autonomous vehicles. However, these advances have risks.

Legal professionals are well suited to analyse and advise on risks. Advising on technology risks requires understanding the technology. Unfortunately, many lawyers lack the fundamental computer technology knowledge necessary to provide legal advice.

For example, advising on the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires knowledge of how computers store, process, and transfer data. I teach this to lawyers in LLM and master’s degree programmes. Although my students can efficiently use any computer (PC, smartphone, tablet), they do not understand how computers store, process, and transmit data. Understanding these concepts is essential for lawyers providing advice on computer technology issues.

As a computer scientist and lawyer, my aim for driving the legal industry forward is to improve the quality of legal advice provided in the computer technology field by educating lawyers on the technology issues necessary to provide that advice. I provide this education for the lawyers on my team and other lawyers through the courses I teach at universities and online programmes.

Computer technology is rapidly advancing. Lawyers have a critical role in advising on the use of technology and protecting society from adverse effects resulting from that technology. They need a level of computer technology knowledge to do so. I am attempting to fill the legal technology gap by educating lawyers.