This webinar explores why compliance with ABA Standards 301 and 303 requires the inclusion of legal technology training in the curriculum. Session attendees will receive data from the speakers’ empirical studies about formal and informal training in the legal technology space at ABA-accredited law schools today. The speakers will then lead the attendees into an exercise where they can evaluate their institution’s legal technology training needs and create a standalone legal technology course using best practices and examples of course syllabi. Speakers will also engage attendees on how to integrate technology training into their courses and throughout the curriculum.
Jessica de Perio Wittman serves as the Director of the Law Library and Associate Professor of Law. Professor de Perio Wittman directs all library operations and oversees the day-to-day operations of the information technology systems, equipment and services for the law school campus. She teaches Advanced Legal Research, Technology and Law Practice, and Special Education Law. Her research interests focus on assistive and adaptive technologies and its intersection with the law and libraries.
Prior to joining UConn as the Director of Information Technology in 2012, de Perio Wittman was the Assistant Director for Academic Technology at The John Marshall Law School, and was responsible for managing classroom technology, distance education, and media services. She also pioneered the first distance education course at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and was instrumental in the creation of three online degrees at The John Marshall Law School.
Professor de Perio Wittman has held many leadership positions within the American Association of Law Libraries and continues to be a member of AALL, Law Librarians of New England, Southern New England Law Libraries Association, and the Connecticut Bar Association. She is a frequent presenter at AALL and other professional conferences, where she speaks on cybersecurity and teaching legal technology competencies to today’s law students, as well as other topics related to diversity and inclusion in law librarianship and legal education. She received her JD from Seattle University School of Law and her MLS from the University at Buffalo.
Kathleen (Katie) Brown received her library degree from the Drexel University School. In 2005, she completed her JD with an emphasis in intellectual property law. While in law school, Katie was a library intern at Seattle University Law School and a volunteer with Washington Lawyers for the Arts.
Experience & Activities
Brown’s research and scholarship are in the areas of intellectual property, acting skills for lawyers, law and literature, management and a variety of legal research related topics. She has taught specialized, beginner, and advanced legal research courses and seminar and doctrinal courses on, Legal Technology for Practice, Art of Advocacy, Contracts, and the research component of Legal Research and Writing. Ms. Brown has also previously served as an Adjunct Faculty member for the Meinder School of Business, Master of Science in Energy Legal Studies program in Oklahoma.
She is a active member of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). Brown has participated in a variety of leadership roles throughout the Association chapters and special interest sections. Currently she is serving as the Chair of the Annual Meeting Program Committee for the 2020 AALL Annual Meeting in New Orleans. In 2011, she was honored to serve a three-year term on the AALL Executive Board.
Before her law librarianship career, Brown was an acting instructor in Chicago. Currently, in her spare time, she serves as a WFTDA certified roller derby referee.
Course Interests/Research/Teaching Areas: Contracts, Legal Research, Art of Lawyering, Legal Technology for Practice
