The Law School Annual Conference took place on Friday 13th September 2019. This year the title of the conference was “Disruptive Innovation and Law… Evolution Towards A Tech-Law World”.
The theme of the conference was to explore the increasing integration and use of new technologies in the legal world, and the scale of changes to law and the legal profession, creating a ‘Law-Tech Arena’, as part of the Symposium, for key stakeholders to discuss the future of law and legal profession in connection with technological progress.
Talks were given by distinguished external professors as well as by members of Brunel Law School. The day was presented in three main sessions. The first session focused on Intellectual Property and AI. The session was chaired by Simon Stokes from Blake Morgan and speakers included Professor Dinusha Mendis from Bournemouth University, Dr Noam Shemtov from Queen Mary London and Dr Paula Westenberger and Dr Olga Gurgula both IP lecturers at Brunel Law School.
The second session focused on Technology, Legal Profession and Regulation and was chaired by Dr Francesco De Pascalis from Brunel Law School. Speakers included Dr Maria Mousmouti from Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Professor Paola Manes from University of Bologna, Dr Andrea Miglionico from University of Reading and Dr Eleni Kaprou and Dr Pamela Nika both lecturers at Brunel Law School.
The last session of the day consisted of two stakeholder roundtables. The first roundtable focused on Competition, Innovation, Opportunity vs Risk and was chaired by Professor Arad Reisberg, Head Brunel Law School. Participants included Professor Suzanne Rab, barrister at Serle Court Chambers and Practice Chair in Commercial Law at Brunel Law School, Professor Ashley Braganza, Bunel University London, Duncan Clark, Academy at Patsnap and Dr Wen Hwa Lee, Chief Executive Officer at Action Against AMD and Programme Director Oxford Martin School.
The second stakeholder roundtable focused on Ethics, Governance and Compliance and was chaired by Christine Riefa Reader in Consumer Law at Brunel Law School. Participants included Christina Blacklaws, Immediate Former President of The Law Society, Shobana Iyer, Barrister, Swan Chambers, Matthew Allison, Senior Public Policy Manager, Data, Platforms and AI at Vodafone, John Ogia, Director of Intellectual Property Awareness Network (IPAN), and Professor Panos Louvieris, Brunel University London.