Legal Innovation Lab Wales

Theory of change for the LILW Swansea University’s Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, is an internationally leading hub for research into cyber threats, and a UK-leading institution in the emerging field of LegalTech research and innovation. The application of technologies such as AI and blockchain are becoming increasingly important in legal practice and national security. However, existing infrastructure barriers and capacity limitations at the School of Law act as a constraint to the University further pursuing world-leading research and securing competitive research income across the LegalTech and cyber threats disciplines. The Law School has no existing facilities to support legal innovation, research in legal informatics or the application of AI in a legal context, or the facilities necessary to work on secure or sensitive data, nor to meet in a secure environment with partners from law enforcement or international security agencies. Further, the University lacks research capacity across the across the legal services, computational social sciences, and cyber/counterterrorism spectrum. The LILW will enable the Law School to enhance its internationally leading position in LegalTech, cyber threats and associated technologies (AI, blockchain etc.), accelerating innovation and research for both academics and sector organisations across Wales, contributing to the recruitment and retention of academic talent in Wales, and supporting the development of a robust and vibrant LegalTech sector in Wales alongside the access to justice agenda. LILW will provide Swansea with a significant competitive advantage in securing competitive research income from public and private sources. These positive effects will be achieved through the development of a purpose-built LILW suite within the Law School’s Digital Technium building. This will be complemented by the expansion of the existing research and technical capacity by recruiting additional researchers and a DevOps software development team to work with academic and commercial partners to design, develop and implement software solutions. Engagement with external partners will be facilitated by the appointment of a LegalTech Engagement Officer, and funding to enable researchers to identify, scope and submit grant applications and secure competitive research funding.

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