Students across the Northwestern University Law spectrum including JD, LLM and MSL candidates were joined by interested members of the public and intellectual property professionals virtually for a lunch lecture presented by Eric DeChant, founder of the American Society of Legal Engineers. The event was co-hosted by the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago (IPLAC) and the Northwestern Master of Science in Law (MSL) program.

Mr. DeChant discussed the origins of the ASLE in 2019 and the different practice areas of Legal Engineering, along with presenting a case study of how Legal Engineering methods helped develop an online tool prototype designed to assist small business owners apply for emergency federal funding in the early months of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.

This seminal lecture inspired many attendees to join the ASLE, and served as a springboard for the development of a Legal Engineering lecture series targeted towards law and computer science university students.

All are welcome to join the ASLE, whether as burgeoning practitioners, established legal tech and innovation professionals, or interested supporters that want to help improve Access to Justice (A2J) and the functions of legal system overall.