I have been lucky enough to give a session in the Master's Degree in Digital Law, Innovation and Emerging Technologies, the first edition of which began in October 2019.

This Master is organized by the Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Madrid (ICAM), with the support of the foundation of the Mutualidad de la Abogacía and under the technical direction of the law firm Ceca Magán. I would like to take this opportunity to wish them every success and new editions.

My challenge consisted of introducing almost thirty jurists of different ages, many of them active professionals in law firms or in-house lawyers in business companies in the subject, Innovation in the legal sector. The era of the New Law and the LegalTech, and, that they returned home with desire of more.

They couldn't have given me a better challenge, I thought, but then, it seemed unapproachable to me.

I had an advantage in my favour: everyone present was there eager to learn and had had a strong dose of curiosity for breakfast. They had the explorer syndrome: I can't stop learning!(1) In this case, the legal explorer syndrome, that is, the syndrome of the people who want to continually learn and try new things within the legal sector.

My constrain: the large amount of interesting information collected after a year exploring precisely the innovation initiatives in the legal world, the different approaches for the digital transformation of the practice of the profession and the panorama of technological solutions dedicated to the legal sector, as well as, the legal impact of some of the emerging technologies (such as Blockchain or Artificial Intelligence).

Where to start from? How to structure the content? What to highlight?

So, I decided not to summarize contents, nor to start with my own conclusions in order not to generate prejudices that could restrict the audience.

I chose to guide the public and provide them with resources, which are already many, on the possibilities of innovating in the legal sector.

We also work on the attitude prone to innovation, the origin of innovative projects and the need for training and practice to be in an innovative mode.

Even though they didn't realize it anyway, they all learned a little bit to open their eyes, to learn to unlearn, to question everything, to surprise oneself, to lose shame, to leave the comfort zone, to work in a team, to make connections and to trust in oneself.

Then we pay attention to what some call New Law (vs. Old Law?).

The Master's program focuses mainly on the areas of current law that should be taken into account to advise new businesses and digital platforms (Start-ups, Mobile Apps, etc.), e-contracts and e-commerce, new technology sectors (FinTech, RegTech, etc.) and those who implement new technologies such as Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence.

But we also comment on the new players in the legal market, from the new ways of providing legal services (Alternatives legal Services), to the eventual possibility of being replaced by a robot lawyer.

And, finally, we reviewed, as a quick glance, the panorama of LegalTech existing in Spain, its evolution, its difficulties, its potential and the possibilities to optimize its use.

In principle, the technological solutions serve to empower the lawyer and return the time that he/she now wastes unnecessarily in tasks of little value so that he can use it where it offers greater value to his/her clients. They will allow him/her to be more efficient and, in the long term, more competitive, if he/she buys well.

However, in order to be able to buy the most suitable LegalTech solutions for each case, there will be no choice but to invest in detecting one's own needs and analyzing the products and services that are already available and that are many. It is the work of an authentic legal explorer.

If you feel like exploring and don't know where to start, don't hesitate to contact me at info@lawingit.com

(1)     From Yorokobu, a great inspirational newsletter!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator