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23 March 2017 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7739 / Categories: Opinion , Profession , Technology
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Innovation hots up

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Roger Smith reviews last month’s most important developments in law & technology

The pace of technological innovation in legal services continues to step up. February began with the American Bar Association (ABA) announcing that it had already raised $600,000 for its new ABA Center for Innovation. Meanwhile, in Belfast, over 200 people turned out for the launch of a new Legal Innovation Centre at the University of Ulster, expressly built on the model of Stanford University’s Law Design Lab. The Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL) was busy recognising global contributions in developing countries to the use of technology. British Columbia was announcing a step forward in its Solution Explorer—an informal dispute resolution front end to its online court. And, down in Australia, double Oscar winner Cate Blanchett was providing the voice for a digital avatar which will give advice on disability law.

Ulster

Belfast can feel like the edge of the known world. Politics are pretty ossified; the legal profession is small; academically, Queen’s has had the Province pretty well sown

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Sponsored by
Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers joins as partner

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Group names Shakespeare Martineau partner head of Sheffield office

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Four legal directors promoted to partner across UK offices

NEWS
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NLJ this week: Renters’ Rights revolution begins—brace for tribunal chaos

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

NLJ this week: Civil procedure gets a spring overhaul
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
NLJ this week: Why GP complaints are going nowhere
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
NLJ this week: Prenups meet a jurisdictional brick wall
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
NLJ this week: Has Rylands v Fletcher come back from the dead?
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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