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Technology & Legal Innovation Specialization

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Technology plays a significant role in the evolution of legal education and practice.

The "case method," how law is taught in most American law schools, is more than 100 years old and exists because of a technological innovation—the spread of cheap, mechanized printing in the second half of the 19th century.

As digital technologies affect the way law is presented and delivered, we will see profound changes in how it is practiced, taught and conceptualized. Among these changes are new opportunities for creating digitized platforms to support the governance of formal and informal institutions. Like cheap printing before it, digital technologies create a wealth of new possibilities around how we define, deliver, and teach that set of rules and enforcement mechanisms we call law. What does government become as legislation and regulation open to digital means of access and participation? What will law itself look like when the means of interacting to create legal arrangements like corporations, wills, leases, even families, become a set of software options delivered by mobile devices? What is lawyering when it becomes a help desk click-through? What is dispute resolution when the full digitization of discovery migrates fact determination out of a jury box? And what does governance look like when it is delivered through digital means?

Students at Vermont Law School have a front-row seat in helping create a future where innovation and entrepreneurial energy redefine legal education and practice. Through course work, research sponsored by Google, and internships in new firms that are creating tools and practices for lawyering in a digital age, Vermont Law students see what law is becoming and have a platform to influence what the law will be.

Students work to standardize contracts, create transparency in financial transactions, and transform legal education through distance learning. And, as a result, they are creating careers—and getting jobs—in a field that is quickly evolving.

Food and Agricultural Law Specialization Block
Food and Agricultural Law Specialization
Food is a basic necessity of human life and a unique vehicle for change, as it is intimately tied to human health, the environment, poverty, immigration, animal welfare, law, politics, and culture, on every step of its journey from farm to plate.
Sustainable Entrepreneurship MBA program, UVM's One Year MBA
Business Law Specialization
A targeted suite of classes for students who want to specialize in business. Courses include corporations, bankruptcy, nonprofit management, white collar crime and more.
China & Southeast Asia - Feng Huang
China & Southeast Asia Specialization
As the challenges posed by climate change grow in urgency, the power that massive developing countries like China, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar can leverage to effect change cannot be overstated.
Climate Change Law
Climate Change Law Specialization
In a time of broken global temperature records, increasing natural disasters, emerging U.S. and international law and policy will be key to governing mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.
Criminal Law
Criminal Law Specialization
The certificate in criminal law provides broad-based, comprehensive training and skills needed by students to become prosecutors, defenders, or to practice criminal law in a private firm setting.
Dispute Resolution
Dispute Resolution Specialization
In an increasingly complex world, dispute resolution offers a way to find solutions that allow all parties to move forward without entering a courtroom.
Energy Law
Energy Law Specialization
VLGS courses and clinics consider the relationship between energy and the environment in the context of its legal, scientific, commercial and human implications.
Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice Clinic
Students who specialize in Environmental Justice will develop their personal and professional environmental ethics.
Environmental Law Specialization
Environmental Law Specialization
Vermont Law School offers a multidisciplinary array of environmental courses in law, policy, science, economics, and ethics to students studying for any one of our degrees or certificates.
International & Comparative Law
International & Comparative Law Specialization
Prepares students for careers with international organizations, NGOs, law firms, multinational enterprises, and government agencies. We offer study experiences that broaden knowledge and skills, add new perspective, and open opportunities.
International Environmental Law
International Environmental Law Specialization
Environmental issues are global issues. The unique opportunities at Vermont Law School prepare our graduates to be leaders in international environmental law and policy.
Land Use Law
Land Use Law Specialization
Including smart growth principles, ecological planning, affordable housing, flood hazard mitigation, energy and land use regulatory decision-making, permitting processes, and land conservation strategies.
Legal Writing
Legal Writing Specialization
Words are the fundamental tools with which lawyers and policymakers conduct their business, it is paramount that today's law and policy graduates know how to write the law, not just read cases.
Restorative Justice Specialization, VLS
Restorative Justice Specialization
A specialization in restorative justice provides students another way to look at conflict and conflict avoidance, preparing graduates to become forceful agents for change in law and restorative justice.
Brown Slopes Bare Trails Panel
Sports Law Specialization
A specialization in sports law might seem out of place at the nation's top environmental law school. But consider the impact that climate change will have on Vermont's ski industry.
Tax Law and Policy
Tax Law and Policy Specialization
We know that improving the environment requires changing the way we run our businesses, use our resources, and act as citizens. But how do we actually make that change occur?
Technology & Legal Innovation
Technology & Legal Innovation Specialization
Digital technologies create a wealth of new possibilities around how we define, deliver, and teach law. What does government become as legislation and regulation open to digital means of access and participation?
Water Resources Law
Water Resources Law Specialization
Learn about local, national, and global efforts to secure water supplies through research, education, and policy development. Focus on water law, environmental justice, and policy initiatives to further wise, judicious use of water as a public resource.