Tech-based courses should be introduced in law faculties’ curricula - Deputy AG

The Deputy Attorney-General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah has proposed that law faculties should include tech-based courses in their curricula. 

He noted that technology has begun changing the practice of law, and it was important that the training of law students should be streamlined in that aspect.

“In the face of these emerging trends in the legal field, what are we training law students to become? To become the same-old conventional one-on-one, face-to-face consultative specialist, or advisors, with expertise in substantive law of particular jurisdictions only? Or we are training them to be more adaptable, team players, and professionals, who can transcend national boundaries, as well as traditional legal boundaries? I’m not suggesting that core subjects such as Torts, Contracts, Constitutional Law, and others should be abandoned or ignored. Nor am I saying, that we stop teaching legal methods, or how we think and work like a lawyer,” he remarked.

“I’m only suggesting that we give more thoughts on how we can better prepare aspiring lawyers for legal work, especially beyond Courtroom litigation as the legal market now seems to require. 

As for recommendations, he said: “For future legal education, I suggest that besides legal training, specialized and technology-based courses like Artificial intelligence and Law, Blockchain and Law, Cybersecurity and Law, Cyberforencis and Law, Space and Law, should be introduced and incorporated in the curriculum to prepare future legal practitioners in the field of law.”

He was speaking at a seminar by the UPSA School of Law, as part of its LSU week celebration. 

He told students that clients in this age expected lawyers to be tech-savvy and IT compliant, adding that legal practice does not only involve arguing cases in a courtroom. 

“Legal practice is not about going to Supreme Court every day to argue cases, going to the Court of Appeal to argue cases. You can practice law not based on the court appearance, but on other things. 

“Now if you take Dennislaw, that young man and his people are doing a great job. They go to court, but principally they are into research, and then they try to make sure that if you want to get a case, just click a button, and go to Dennislaw, and you have it. People are developing apps, some of them are lawyers. If you’re a student here, and you’re not IT compliant, then you're 10 years late.”