You call yourself a “legal tech evangelist”- how did you first become involved in this field? I’ve worked for the past 10 years at the UNC School of Law, in the role of assistant dean for IT. So, naturally, I became immersed in how technology was impacting the teaching and practice of law. Our clinical program was among the first at a top-tier law school to adopt Clio as a comprehensive case management platform. I led the charge on that very successful adoption and have been handling Clio training for our students ever since. I also helped developed an upper-level course, law practice technologies, which I have co-taught since 2015. Basically, I believe that technology can be a force of positive change in the legal profession, rather than a threat.
What makes you passionate about the work you do?
I’ve always enjoyed helpin
g people find solutions to their tech-related problems and frustrations. In that sense, my calling is similar to that of an attorney: helping people solve sometimes complicated issues, being an ally and advocate for the people I support, and trying to make their lives better…or at least easier!
What changes, or innovation, do you hope to see from law schools in the future?
Greater willingness to experiment and try new things! Law schools are under such pressure in recent years to maintain enrollments, increase or hold steady in rankings and reshape curricula, creating more practical skills courses and experiential learning offerings. But too often technology is the last thing to be leveraged in addressing any of these challenges. And the irony is that technology continues to change the profession while legal education continues to lag behind in exposing students to the technologies driving such change.
If attendees could take one thing from your presentation, what do you hope it will be?
I’m speaking as part of an Access 2 Justice panel, which is a new topic this year at the Clio Cloud Conference. I guess the one takeaway I would hope they get is the potential for technology to help level the playing field in the offering and affordability of legal services throughout the U.S. and abroad.
What are you most looking forward to at the Clio Cloud Conference?
The people! Just the best bunch of people I’ve ever met at any software company–or *any* company, period–and a wonderful group of enthusiastic attendees. Can’t wait!
[Editor’s note: LexBlog is proud to be an official media partner for Clio’s annual Clio Cloud Conference. In the week leading up to the event, we will be featuring an exciting mix of content, including interviews with speakers, guest posts from Team Clio, and more. Thus far we have featured interviews with Andrea Evans and Nicole Abboud, and guest posts from Joshua Lenon, and Andrew Gay. We’re pleased to feature another interview today, with Doug Edmunds, the Assistant Dean for IT at the University of North Carolina School of Law. He will be speaking on Tuesday with Andrea Stevenson, Mirriam Seddiq, and Chris Heslinga on “Access to Justice: Technology and the Justice Gap.” You can follow him on Twitter @doug_edmonds and on Linkedin.]