Four third-year Hofstra Law students, Philip Coatl, Jalen Coleman, Juliet Ramdas, and Najelie Smith-Ortiz earned a competitive scholarship to attend the 11th annual Relativity Fest conference in September at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
“The students obtaining this scholarship and attending Relativity Fest reflects the continued growth of Hofstra Law’s legal technology program and the recognition we are getting throughout the legal tech community,” said John Tsiforas ’10, Director of Law & Technology, Distance Education, and Analytics, and Director of the Law, Logic & Technology Research Laboratory (LLT Lab).
This year’s conference, which brought together e-discovery, compliance and tech professionals, covered data privacy, building trust in AI, and more, through panel discussions, breakout sessions, hands-on learning labs, and networking and professional development opportunities.
“Hofstra Law established a relationship with Relativity, a market leader in e-discovery software, several years ago, and they provide us with educational licenses and test environments for students to work and learn in,” said Tsiforas. “The scholarship recipients were each Legal-Tech Fellows who worked on the chatbot in the LLT Lab. As the chatbot began to gain attention in the legal-tech community, they were encouraged to apply for the scholarship and attend the conference.”
Coleman felt prepared to understand the capabilities of AI and document analysis, in part, due to his work as a Legal-Tech Fellow: “If I didn’t have the experience of being a fellow, I might not have been able to understand the applications to the various products we were introduced to.” Smith-Ortiz agreed: “the fellowship exposed me to the world of legal technology and innovative tools like e-discovery for the first time, which helped me understand the discussions and demonstrations at the conference.”
Ramdas was grateful to have worked with Relativity as part of her position in the LLT Lab, and said “it was easier to understand the new concepts demonstrated at the conference, because I was also able to conceptualize how these features could work in practice with the specific use case I was familiar with.”
“My role as a Legal-Tech Fellow and involvement in the LLT Lab equipped me with foundational skills and a mindset focused on technological integration in legal practices,” said Coatl. “This background allowed me to engage more deeply with the concepts discussed at Relativity Fest, particularly around e-discovery and data analytics. I had a baseline understanding, so I could participate more actively, ask targeted questions, and connect directly with industry professionals who provided valuable insights that built on my prior knowledge.”
“The LLT Lab gave me a solid foundation in how legal tech is transforming traditional legal processes.”
“Because I had already worked with artificial intelligence through the development of our own models, I was able to dive deeper into the sessions and workshops, ask more insightful questions, and connect the dots between ideas and practical application,” Smith-Ortiz added. “The LLT Lab gave me a solid foundation in how legal tech is transforming traditional legal processes, so I could fully appreciate how Relativity and other platforms are leading the change in modernizing law practices.”
Upon their return, the students shared what they learned with other members of the Hofstra Law community and have been integrating it into the LLT Lab, Medical-Legal Partnership, and beyond.
“I brought back not only knowledge but a sense of excitement for how technology is transforming legal practice.”
“I brought back not only knowledge but a sense of excitement for how technology is transforming legal practice,” Coatl said. “I met with my fellow members of the LLT Lab to share the latest trends and best practices I learned, which sparked meaningful discussions on how our law school can further embrace legal tech and prepare students for a future where tech proficiency will be key in legal roles.”
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