Ride the Lightning

Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Suffolk Law School Will Offer Online Certificate in Legal Innovation and Technology

November 9, 2017

My friend Bob Ambrogi recently blogged about the new online certificate in legal innovation and technology that will be launched by Suffolk University Law School in Boston.

Six courses will focus on teaching lawyers and other legal professionals how to deliver their services more effectively and efficiently. Those who complete all six courses will earn Suffolk's legal innovation and technology certificate.

The first two courses commence next summer, with another two to be released in the fall semester and the final two in the spring semester. You can "reserve your seat" now at https://www.legaltechcertificate.com/.

The six courses are:

  1. Legal Operations, taught by Lucy Bassli, assistant general counsel for legal operations and contracting at Microsoft.
  2. Process Improvement & Legal Project Management, taught by Catherine Alman MacDonagh, founder and CEO of the Legal Lean Sigma Institute.
  3. 21st Century Legal Profession, taught by Jordan Furlong, legal market analyst and forecaster.
  4. Design Thinking for Legal Professionals, taught by Robert Taylor, vice president and senior corporate counsel at Liberty Mutual Insurance.
  5. The Business of Delivering Legal Services, with the instructor to be determined.
  6. Legal Technology Toolkit, taught by Erika Rickard, associate director of field research at the Access to Justice Lab at Harvard Law School.

The certificate program will be directed by Suffolk Professor Gabriel Teninbaum, who also directs Suffolk's Institute on Legal Innovation and Technology. He told Bob that he and Suffolk Law Dean Andrew Perlman were inspired to start the program by the many practitioners who approached them asking where they could learn the types of skills Suffolk is teaching law students.

Each course will run for 10 to 12 weeks and require about two to five hours of student time per week. Participants may take all six courses to earn a certificate or take individual courses.

The cost will be roughly $3,000 per course, with a discount for signing up for all six, Teninbaum said.

All the time, I hear lawyers and law students ask what will differentiate them from all the other lawyers. Well, this certainly is a differentiator and I applaud it. I just wish the costs were lower for solo lawyers and legal aid lawyers. To me, a tiered pricing structure might make sense and garner more registrants. Just a thought for my friends at Suffolk. 🙂

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