LegalLab (Legal Innovation Lab of the College of Law at Universidad San Francisco de Quito)
The innovation laboratory of the College of Law at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (LegalLab), inspired by the liberal arts foundation of the University, aims to unite lawyers, technologists, academics, and entrepreneurs to drive necessary changes in the legal sector. These changes are intended to foster professional efficiency, innovation, transparency, and access to justice.
How can technology, design thinking, entrepreneurship, and other factors transform and enhance legal services? The innovation laboratory seeks to build a disruptive community of students, professionals, and academics who contribute to creating a positive impact in the legal services ecosystem. It actively promotes the advancement of law into the future through innovation and technology.
Through academic workshops, conferences, training, publications, research, technology utilization, and other activities, the laboratory and its community will realize specific objectives related to the development of legal innovation.
LegalLab is an open space developed and managed by academics in collaboration with students from the College of Law at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Its content encompasses legal topics related to the world of innovation within various branches and areas of legal practice.
This initiative arises from the need to drive a necessary and profound change in the foundations of the legal profession through academic projects and research to foster essential changes in the practice of law. It aims to provide a platform for democratizing knowledge and promoting access to justice within our society, alongside student participation.
Main Area
The Legal Lab of the College of Law at Universidad San Francisco de Quito aims to delve into, investigate, and work on various themes, among others, to study their impact on our profession:
Computational Law
- Legal document management
- Document automation
- Contract lifecycle management
- E-discovery
- Computational linguistics and legal writing
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Legal-focused alignment of artificial intelligence with humans
- Artificial intelligence and the rule of law
Blockchain
- Researching and publishing informed perspectives on the blockchain ecosystem and its relationship with the law.
LegalTech
- Applications, initiatives, and the market. What are the recent developments, capabilities, and limitations of LegalTech initiatives?
- No Code and Low Code
- What role should LegalTech initiatives play in legal practice, research, and education?
LegalDesign
- Legal Design Thinking
- Lean Six Sigma
- Law as an advertising agency
Cultural Shift
- Emotional intelligence for lawyers
- Dispelling myths
- Hourly billing?
Data
- Uses, structuring, and interpretation
- Scraping
- Model construction
- Gathering and publishing relevant data for the national legal sphere
New Law y modelos alternativos de ejercicio profesional
- ALSP (Alternative Legal Service Providers)
Law and POP Culture
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Film, music, and their impact on the law
Gaming
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Video games and the law
Administrative Information
The LegalLab is administratively structured under the guidance of a director, a professor from the College of Law at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. It includes Senior Fellows, Junior Fellows, and external collaborators linked to the USFQ community (alumni, professors, and researchers).
LegalLab Director:
- José Sebastián Ponce
Senior Fellows:
- Diego José Jaramillo Intriago
- Miguel Ángel Villegas Pérez
- Francisco Jose Almeida De la Cueva
- José Gonzalo Adatty Molina
- Sergio Martín Mosquera Vásquez
Junior Editors of the LegalLab Journal:
- Nicolas Maldonado Garcés
- Carolina Borja Ortega
- Haly Tran Guevara
- María Emilia Acevedo Arostegui
- Andrés Peñaherrera Aguilar
- Daniela Mencías López
- Liliana Utreras Silva
- Nataly Cano Palacios
- Sebastián Raza Marcillo
- María Paula Moncayo Racines
