{"id":96686,"date":"2022-11-30T08:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T13:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=96686"},"modified":"2022-12-12T09:09:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T14:09:37","slug":"whats-next","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/articles\/2022\/whats-next\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin record-block-editorial-leadin is-style-text-to-image has-media has-media-focus-center-middle has-secondary-theme\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2000\" height=\"1479\" src=\"\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal.jpg\" class=\"\" alt=\"A collage featuring a man and a woman in collared shirts, an image of clouds, legal textbooks\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-636x470.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-1024x757.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-768x568.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-1536x1136.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-1117x826.jpg 1117w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-922x682.jpg 922w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-1396x1032.jpg 1396w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-1786x1321.jpg 1786w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-465x344.jpg 465w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-715x529.jpg 715w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-930x688.jpg 930w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-1431x1058.jpg 1431w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-1844x1364.jpg 1844w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TechLawFinal-1352x1000.jpg 1352w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">LAW150<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat&#8217;s Next?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">The BU Law community shares predictions for the next 150 years of law and legal education.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin-caption wp-prepress-component-caption\">Illustrations By Stuart Bradford<\/p>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar js-block-editorial-metabar record-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">November 30, 2022<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/authors\/ting-yu\/\">Ting Yu<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-introparagraph record-block-editorial-introparagraph is-style-dropcap-dimensional has-dropcap has-dropcap-color-secondary\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-introparagraph-content\"><p>Since its founding 150 years ago in 1872, Boston University School of Law has never been afraid to break with convention in pursuit of higher values. <br><br>The school\u2019s early embrace of diverse groups of students and perspectives fostered an academic ethos of intellectual rigor and innovation that continues to this day.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Judge Sandra L. Lynch (LAW&#8217;71, Hon.&#8217;12), of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, recalls the inspiration of taking courses with pathbreaking professors like securities regulatory law expert Tamar Frankel, when almost no other law schools hired women as faculty. \u201cI consider BU Law to have been a pioneer in so many ways, to be prescient about what the future of the law would hold,\u201d Lynch says. \u201cThat history will help the law school as it approaches its future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What the future holds is anybody\u2019s guess. So <em>The Record<\/em> asked eight BU Law students, alumni, staff, and faculty to share their predictions for what comes next. What skills does the future law student need? Which novel areas of law will catch fire? Will technology be a blessing or a bane for the legal profession? And how can BU Law meet the challenges of the next century?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We heard musings on everything from holographic law books to defending democracy to the seismic impact of artificial intelligence on the practice of law. (One student\u2019s proposed future 1L course title: \u201cHow to Best Serve Our Computer Overlords.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One theme came up repeatedly: the nation is at a pivotal juncture on many fronts\u2014climate, race, politics, international affairs, even deciphering truth itself\u2014and future generations of lawyers, advocates, and judges will play a consequential role in determining the course of American life in the years to come. There is also an unshakable optimism about the potential of BU Law and its dynamic community to shape a better world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a \u2018put up or shut up\u2019 moment for the law,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/profile\/ronald-e-wheeler\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ronald E. Wheeler<\/a>, an associate professor of law &amp; legal research and the director of the Fineman &amp; Pappas Law Libraries. \u201cIt\u2019s lawyers who are going to make or break it. We need lawyers who believe in the system and want to fix it and make it work for citizens of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"wp-block-editorial-drawer record-block-editorial-drawer js-bu-block-drawer has-secondary-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-drawer-teaser\"><h2>Panelists<\/h2><p>Meet the eight members of the BU Law community who shared their predictions with <em>The Record<\/em>.<\/p><a href=\"#\" class=\"button js-bu-block-drawer-open\">Read More<\/a><\/div><section class=\"wp-block-editorial-drawer-content js-bu-block-drawer-content\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-drawer-wrapper\">\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/innovate\/profile\/jonathan-l-allen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jonathan Allen<\/a><\/strong> (\u201919) is inaugural innovator-in-residence at Innovate@BU and cofounder of the Leadership Brainery, a nonprofit that works to close wealth gaps by increasing equitable access to graduate programs and workforce leadership for underrepresented communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/imarajoroff\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Imara Joroff<\/a><\/strong> (\u201924) is a second-year BU Law student and president of the BU Law Student Government Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/profile\/mandie-lebeau\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mandie LeBeau<\/a><\/strong> is assistant dean for Career Development &amp; Public Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ca1.uscourts.gov\/sandra-l-lynch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sandra L. Lynch<\/a><\/strong> (LAW\u201971, Hon.\u201912) was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in 1995 and served as its chief judge from 2008 to 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/kiernanmc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kiernan Majerus-Collins<\/a><\/strong> (\u201924) is a second-year BU Law student who was a member of the Lewiston, Maine, school committee before law school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/profile\/naomi-m-mann\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Naomi Mann<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;is executive director of the Civil Litigation &amp; Justice Program and founding director of the Access to Justice Clinic, which pairs individual client representation with systems change projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/profile\/christopher-robertson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Christopher Robertson<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;is the N. Neal Pike Scholar in Health &amp; Disability Law and an expert in health law, institutional design, and decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/profile\/ronald-e-wheeler\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ronald E. Wheeler<\/a><\/strong> is director of the Fineman &amp; Pappas Law Libraries and associate professor of law &amp; legal research.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-drawer-close\"><button class=\"wp-block-editorial-drawer-close-button js-bu-block-drawer-close\">Close<\/button><\/div><\/div><\/section><\/aside>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"headline-1\" class=\"wp-block-editorial-headline record-block-editorial-headline is-style-emphasis-color\"><strong>Technology: The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Sci-Fi<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><em>From AI recruiting first-year associates to fortifying law libraries against hackers, our panelists recognized the profound disruptive force new technologies are already exerting on the legal profession. \u201c[It] sometimes feels like the dinosaurs mulling around right before the asteroid hit,\u201d says Kiernan Majerus-Collins. \u201cAI can be a powerful tool or a disaster.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mandie LeBeau:<\/strong> \u201cSeveral law firms are now embracing AI personality assessments as part of their recruiting. They say it\u2019s to help them see qualities in candidates they may have missed, but I\u2019m concerned it might be used to weed people out, which could go against what we\u2019re trying to do to increase diversity in the profession. Algorithms are man-made, so they\u2019re inherently biased.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Imara Joroff:<\/strong> \u201cMy generation is quick to adopt new technology, especially if it makes our lives easier and more interesting. If it takes time away from things like document review, we can spend more time doing things like <em>pro bono<\/em> work or connecting with our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ronald E. Wheeler:<\/strong> \u201cData security is going to be more and more important. With governments evolving to transact a lot of business electronically, we have to get better at securing our nation and government. No one has figured out how to do that yet. It\u2019s the dirty secret of the tech world. Law firms are paying ransoms on the sly to get information back. It\u2019s craziness. It\u2019s like the Wild West.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kiernan Majerus-Collins:<\/strong> \u201cAI could make lawyers much more efficient and bring costs down for ordinary people and potentially allow many more clients to be served and that much more justice be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"headline-2\" class=\"wp-block-editorial-headline record-block-editorial-headline is-style-emphasis-color\"><strong>Justice for All<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In expanding access to legal training and services, our panelists emphasized that a more just world is not inevitable\u2014it must be intentional. \u201cWe need to see equity as a form of innovation,\u201d says Jonathan Allen. \u201cEquity as the premise, as the lens through which we see and do everything.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Naomi Mann:<\/strong> \u201cIntersectionality is so critical to our justice system, and yet our legal system puts people into boxes. If you have an employment discrimination complaint and identify as a woman of color, the law usually requires that you bifurcate those into a race-based claim and a gender-based claim and provide different evidence for each. How can we create systems that take the individual as who they are? That understand individuals come with different identities and should not be required by the legal system to divide them up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jonathan Allen:<\/strong> \u201cWe need to recalibrate our systems and infrastructure so that the questions we ask from the outset\u2014when making a decision about priorities, admissions, hiring, allocating resources, designing a workflow\u2014are driven by equity. We need more financial aid and merit and need-based scholarships. We have to lead by example, with more diverse recruiters and admissions teams sourcing underrepresented talent and reviewing applications to decide what they connect with and what\u2019s compelling in a personal statement or r\u00e9sum\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Imara Joroff:<\/strong> \u201cOne of the big things I\u2019d like to see change is the need to fit in and conform. I hope in the future there\u2019s a societal shift in terms of what qualities we look for in a successful and professional person. You shouldn\u2019t need to be in a black pantsuit to conform to the stereotype of what we\u2019ve deemed a good leader.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christopher Robertson:<\/strong> \u201cLaw has a huge problem with access to justice. The most common legal procedures\u2014debt collections, evictions, foreclosures, child custody disputes, divorces\u2014are generally done without the benefit of a lawyer, and that cuts very much along race, class, and ethnic lines. Technology and changes in law schools will be part of the solution to expand legal services to a wider range of backgrounds. Think about TurboTax, a smart web form that fills out your taxes by asking some straightforward questions. We\u2019re seeing similar efforts to provide legal services in an automated or quasi-automated fashion. I think we\u2019ll also see a diffusion of legal practice beyond JD-trained professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote record-block-bu-pullquote alignwide is-style-modern has-image-focus-center-middle has-quaternary-theme\"><div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote-inner\"><blockquote><div class=\"container-lockup\"><div class=\"container-icon-outer\"><div class=\"container-icon-inner\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"container-text\"><hr\/><div class=\"quote-sizing\">My generation is quick to adopt new technology\u2026. If it takes time away from things like document review, we can spend more time doing things like <em>pro bono<\/em> work or connecting with our clients.<\/div><footer class=\"caption\">Imara Joroff (&#8217;24)<\/footer><hr\/><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax record-block-editorial-parallax alignfull has-object-cover-center-middle is-style-overlay\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-media\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-background-image\"><\/div><figure class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-figure js-block-editorial-parallax-active\" data-rellax-speed=\"-5\" data-rellax-percentage=\"0.5\"><picture class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-picture\"><source media=\"(max-height: 480px)\" srcset=\"\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TomorrowLawFinal-854x480.jpg\"\/><source media=\"(max-height: 720px)\" srcset=\"\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TomorrowLawFinal-1280x720.jpg\"\/><source media=\"(max-height: 768px)\" srcset=\"\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TomorrowLawFinal-1366x768.jpg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-image wp-image-96691\" src=\"\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TomorrowLawFinal-1920x1080.jpg\" alt=\"A collage featuring two women in professional dress, a judge, a column from the Supreme Court building\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TomorrowLawFinal-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TomorrowLawFinal-1600x900.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TomorrowLawFinal-1366x768.jpg 1366w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TomorrowLawFinal-1280x720.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_TomorrowLawFinal-854x480.jpg 854w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/picture><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-content-outer\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-content-inner\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"headline-3\" class=\"wp-block-editorial-headline record-block-editorial-headline is-style-emphasis-color\"><strong>The Lawyer of Tomorrow<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Future generations of legal professionals will need to possess a combination of tech savvy and emotional intelligence.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christopher Robertson:<\/strong> \u201cEven more, the soft skills and higher-order skills will be essential. Being able to negotiate, being able to predict what that judge will decide because you understand the underlying legal values and principles at stake. Seeing how this case is just one case in a larger chess game where that judge is resolving the technical ambiguities with a broader sense of the law. Those sorts of big picture skills and human skills are going to be even more important for the lawyers of tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mandie LeBeau:<\/strong> \u201cCourts are conducting hearings via Zoom. How to&nbsp;present&nbsp;yourself&nbsp;virtually, appear&nbsp;convincing to a&nbsp;judge, or connect&nbsp;with a&nbsp;client through a&nbsp;computer&nbsp;screen is a whole new skill set&nbsp;that law students will need to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ronald E. Wheeler:<\/strong> \u201cNot only does technology change fast, governments change; laws are always changing. Students will need to understand the importance of ethical rules as they apply to technology, client information safety, threats from external governments. They\u2019re going to have to have a truly global mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jonathan Allen:<\/strong> \u201cThe next generation of diverse lawyers, practitioners, and social engineers have overcome so much. They are so resilient and brilliant and creative\u2014especially on issues of race, gender, sexuality, and economic equity. They are looking for ways to solve the big social issues that they care deeply about, and they are unwilling to accept no for an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"headline-4\" class=\"wp-block-editorial-headline record-block-editorial-headline is-style-emphasis-color\"><strong>BU Law 5.0<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><em>How should we prepare future lawyers for a rapidly evolving legal landscape?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kiernan Majerus-Collins:<\/strong> \u201cLaw school should reorient toward skills that are most difficult for AI to acquire, whether that\u2019s interpersonal skills or oral advocacy. AI has the most ground to make up in areas where humans intersect with other humans. Law schools should be training students to be as effective as possible in the things that AI is worst at and avoid training them to do things that will be automated in a decade or two.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Naomi Mann:<\/strong> \u201cHaving law schools without a required experiential component is like having a cooking school where you teach students about ingredients and the chemistry and science of baking, but no one ever turns an oven on. There has been resistance to this\u2014a fear that if we infuse law school with too much experiential education that it will become a trade school. But law determines the rights we have, how we live every day. We as a profession deserve to have people exiting law school who know what they\u2019re doing, who aren\u2019t going to be learning how to practice law on real people\u2019s lives the very first day that they start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Imara Joroff:<\/strong> \u201cLaw students need to be self-aware and have compassion for everybody in the room. Part of that comes from educating students, starting in elementary school, about the full history of the United States. In law school, we work so much with the Constitution\u2014being able to come in with a clear and accurate history of how that document came to be and how it was written is important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sandra L. Lynch:<\/strong> \u201cSocietal norms exist side by side with legal norms, and there is an interplay between the two. Lawyers are called upon to be leaders in the community, to articulate what those norms are, and build a consensus that people agree with. Law schools are going to have to be even more mindful of that role.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christopher Robertson:<\/strong> \u201cIf [AI] models are based on data that don\u2019t represent populations that have been systematically, economically excluded, that\u2019s another institutional bias that can be baked into the data. It\u2019s really important for law students and future lawyers to become fluent in those systems, be curious, and learn continuously about how these technologies work under the hood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mandie LeBeau:<\/strong> \u201cThere used to be rules and&nbsp;timing&nbsp;guidelines&nbsp;of when&nbsp;law firm&nbsp;recruitment could happen. Historically,&nbsp;firms waited for grades at the end of the 1L year. But some employers aren\u2019t willing to wait anymore, so&nbsp;1Ls are being recruited before&nbsp;they finish the 1L year.&nbsp;If this early recruiting trend continues, the&nbsp;summer&nbsp;on-campus interview programs that law schools pride themselves on\u2014I slowly see that being obliterated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote record-block-bu-pullquote alignwide is-style-modern has-image-focus-center-middle has-quaternary-theme\"><div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote-inner\"><blockquote><div class=\"container-lockup\"><div class=\"container-icon-outer\"><div class=\"container-icon-inner\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"container-text\"><hr\/><div class=\"quote-sizing\">People cannot become disengaged from the political process. The assumption that we will always have a constitutional democracy is not necessarily accurate.<\/div><footer class=\"caption\">Hon. Sandra L. Lynch (LAW\u201971, Hon.\u201912)<\/footer><hr\/><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax record-block-editorial-parallax alignfull has-object-cover-center-top is-style-overlay\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-media\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-background-image\"><\/div><figure class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-figure js-block-editorial-parallax-active\" data-rellax-speed=\"-5\" data-rellax-percentage=\"0.5\"><picture class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-picture\"><source media=\"(max-height: 480px)\" srcset=\"\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_NextBigThingFinal-854x480.jpg\"\/><source media=\"(max-height: 720px)\" srcset=\"\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_NextBigThingFinal-1280x720.jpg\"\/><source media=\"(max-height: 768px)\" srcset=\"\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_NextBigThingFinal-1366x768.jpg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-image wp-image-96689\" src=\"\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_NextBigThingFinal-1920x1080.jpg\" alt=\"A collage featuring a woman in professional dress, windmills, an x-ray of a chest\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_NextBigThingFinal-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_NextBigThingFinal-1600x900.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_NextBigThingFinal-1366x768.jpg 1366w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_NextBigThingFinal-1280x720.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/WhatsNext_NextBigThingFinal-854x480.jpg 854w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/picture><\/figure><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-content-outer\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-parallax-content-inner\">\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"headline-5\" class=\"wp-block-editorial-headline record-block-editorial-headline is-style-emphasis-color\"><strong>Law&#8217;s Next Big Thing<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Some new frontiers of law are being fueled by headlines, while others will be driven by science.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mandie LeBeau:<\/strong> \u201cHealth law is booming. Data privacy is on fire. Voting rights and immigration continue to stimulate growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris Robertson:<\/strong> \u201cOne of the most radical shifts we\u2019ll see in the decades ahead is the changing of what it means to practice medicine. We\u2019re just now starting to experiment with medicine being practiced by intelligent devices and systems. Increasingly, the role of the physician will change as expert systems get smarter, and the law around them will have to change. It won\u2019t be medical malpractice so much as product liability or product regulation. The thing that delivers treatment or tells you what kind of leukemia you have will be some weird amalgam of the institution, the software, and the human doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Imara Joroff:<\/strong> \u201cIf you think about social media, amateur video editing, deepfake videos\u2014we\u2019ll need more focus on privacy, data protection, fraud. And at what point does having access to the internet become a universal right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kiernan Majerus-Collins:<\/strong> \u201cClimate justice. People suffering the effects of climate change often did nothing or next to nothing to cause it. How can the law deliver some recompense to them while holding those most responsible accountable?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"headline-6\" class=\"wp-block-editorial-headline record-block-editorial-headline is-style-emphasis-color\"><strong>The Evolution of the Law<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The nation is at a crossroads and the next generation of lawyers must act with a recognition of the gravity of this moment.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Naomi Mann:<\/strong> \u201cPeople debate vigorously whether the law itself creates social change or whether social change creates changes in the law. We see that playing out in real time with Supreme Court decisions. The law has been created and structured in a way that prioritizes certain identities over others. The challenge for us is, how can the legal system recognize the full panoply of identities and determine what justice means and how we achieve justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kiernan Majerus-Collins:<\/strong> \u201cThere\u2019s a crying need for thoughtful and talented lawyers all across the country. We desperately need the sorts of people who go to BU Law to end up in a wider variety of places and to engage in politics and civic life. The era of saying \u2018this is how I make my living, and I\u2019m not interested in the broader social ramifications\u2019\u2014that can\u2019t continue. People need to think about jobs they want to have, the clients they want to take, and what values they do and don\u2019t hold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jonathan Allen:<\/strong> \u201cWe have a legal profession that does not represent all of the communities in our country, especially those that are disproportionately impacted by the legal system. So we are essentially upholding a caste system based on racism and systems of oppression. To shift the tide will require that we begin to see more people of color of diverse backgrounds practicing and influencing the law but also building the connections and relationships yielded through the legal profession, which hold significant power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-end-of-article\"><strong>Sandra L. Lynch:<\/strong> \u201cOver my lifetime, although a great many battles for equality still remain, there is more sharing of responsibility and power spread among more diverse groups and so in that sense the country has become more democratic, and that gives me hope. There are of course all sorts of countervailing trends that are very worrisome. People cannot become disengaged from the political process. The assumption that we will always have a constitutional democracy is not necessarily accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-medium is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-496x636.jpg\" alt=\"The cover of the fall 2022 issue of The Record magazine: a bronze metallic page with the numbers &quot;150&quot; cut out, through which both color and black and white images are visible on a page underneath\" class=\"wp-image-96909\" width=\"136\" height=\"175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-496x636.jpg 496w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-798x1024.jpg 798w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-768x985.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-1197x1536.jpg 1197w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-644x826.jpg 644w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-532x682.jpg 532w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-804x1032.jpg 804w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-1030x1321.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-268x344.jpg 268w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-412x529.jpg 412w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-536x688.jpg 536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-825x1058.jpg 825w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-1063x1364.jpg 1063w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-1288x1652.jpg 1288w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover-779x1000.jpg 779w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2022\/11\/Record-F22-cover.jpg 1414w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 136px) 100vw, 136px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<p>FEATURED IN<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2><em>The Record<\/em>, Fall 2022<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/news-stories\/issues\/fall-2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">See all stories<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What the future holds is anybody\u2019s guess. So The Record asked eight BU Law students, alumni, staff, and faculty to share their predictions for what comes next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11260,"featured_media":96690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"{\"post_id\":96827,\"hed\":\"All in the Family\",\"dek\":\"Next Article\",\"class\":\"wp-block-editorial-billboard record-block-editorial-billboard is-style-accent-photo has-light-overlay has-media\",\"backgroundId\":\"96879\",\"backgroundUrl\":\"\\\/law\\\/files\\\/2022\\\/11\\\/All-in-the-Family-crosstitch-970x456.jpg\",\"backgroundType\":\"image\",\"backgroundOpacity\":\"100\"}","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"LAW150","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[4137,3801],"bu-publication":[3742],"record-article-category":[3744,3749,3751,3765,4135,3786,3758],"record-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/96686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96686"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/96686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97167,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/96686\/revisions\/97167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96686"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=96686"},{"taxonomy":"record-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/record-article-category?post=96686"},{"taxonomy":"record-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/record-topic?post=96686"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=96686"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=96686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}