data in law practice
data in law practice
:: VLS 7135 :: spring 2022 ::
Welcome to Data in Law Practice (DLP) v.2022! DLP is part of the core curriculum in the Program on Law and Innovation (PoLI) at Vanderbilt Law, and aims to help you develop data literacy as applied to the practice of law, both from a substantive and business perspective.
What is data literacy? Gartner's definition: being able to read, write, and communicate with data in context, including an understanding of data sources and constructs, analytical methods, and techniques applied, and the ability to describe the use case application and resulting value.
In collaboration with the Vanderbilt Data Science Institute, this course seeks to empower Vanderbilt Law students with a foundational understanding of data and data science and its various applications in the practice of law, and to teach law students how to identify, collect, manage, analyze, and communicate with data relevant to legal practice.
The practice of law has always been concerned with data, and in this age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this concern has become a mandate to understand how data impacts legal practice and legal services delivery on multiple levels. Today’s lawyers must know how to extract actionable knowledge from increasingly vast and complex sources of data, both to adequately represent client interests and to successfully manage the business of a firm, corporate legal department, or any organization delivering legal services including legal non-profits.
From a demand perspective, corporate law firms and in-house legal departments are increasingly relying on sophisticated data applications to manage their work and inform their legal counsel. This reliance is impacting all aspects of legal services delivery, including both the how and what of legal work.
To prepare you for this reality, in this course you will actively engage with real-world legal data sets using cutting-edge data science tools to learn and practice various analytical skills. As a result, you will enter practice as data-savvy lawyers, ready to contribute data skills to your organizations, enhancing both the delivery of legal services and the quality of your legal work.
We look forward to working with you this semester!
Professor Caitlin "Cat" Moon, VLS and Professor Jesse Spencer-Smith, Vanderbilt Data Science Institute
3 January 2022
about this syllabus
This website serves as the syllabus for Data in Law Practice (DLP) 2022, and is a living document that will be responsive to our work together over the course of the semester.
Course Essentials
On the Course Essentials page, find core information about DLP 2022:
Course Goals and Objectives 🎯
Weekly Assignments 📚
Course Content + Structure 📖
Learning in the time of COVID 😷
Class sessions: lectures, guest speakers, and small group discussion 📣
Course Work Product: Required Assignments 📓
Assessment 💯
Schedule
On the Schedule page, find the schedule for all class sessions, including topic, guest expert speakers, and assignments.
Technology
On the Technology page, find information about the tech platforms that will support our work in LAB 2020.
Policies + Resources
On the Policies + Resources page, find information about the following:
Class Ethos ☮️
Attendance ✔️
Accommodations, Inclusion, and Diversity 🏳️🌈
Mental Health and Wellness ☯︎
Contact + Office Hours
On the Contact + Office Hours page, find all you need to know about contacting and meeting with the profs during the semester.
About Professor Moon
After practicing law for nearly 20 years, Cat started teaching in the Program on Law and Innovation (PoLI) at VLS, her alma mater (VU '92, VLS '98). She currently serve as Director of Innovation Design and also Director of the PoLI Institute, VLS's executive education platform. She has designed and teaches a number of PoLI courses, including LAB, Legal Problem Solving, Legal Operations, Blockchain and Smart Contracts, and Leading in the Law, and now Data in Law Practice. Her greatest joy is helping new lawyers enter the profession equipped to thrive in the 21st-century practice of law. 😻
About Professor Spencer-Smith
Jesse is Chief Data Scientist for the Data Science Institute at Vanderbilt University, where he leads a team of data scientists who collaborate with researchers across the university and medical center and with industry partners. Jesse is an adjunct professor in Computer Science and at the Law School. Previously at HCA Healthcare, he built their first DS team. In his work at Vanderbilt, Jesse trains, mentors, assesses skills, and consults on DS. He has been working in analytics since high school, when he founded a software company.
Learn more about our work:
Legal Problem Solving
VU Data Science Institute
