Drexel’s new Center for Law and Transformational Technology will focus on legal issues in emerging tech

Drexel University’s Kline School of Law today announced its new Center for Law and Transformational Technology (CLTT), a group of researchers and resources focused on the legal issues emerging from the tech industry.

The center will bring together researchers and industry leaders from law and tech backgrounds to strategize on the legal framework surrounding tech innovation, especially in newer disciplines like blockchain, AI and cryptocurrencies.

Professor Jordan Fischer will head the center as its director. She’s a Kline graduate, and has been been teaching at the school since 2015. She also runs a private law practice with a focus on international data privacy, cybersecurity and cross-border data management, with an emphasis in European Union data privacy regulations.

CLTT’s creation came about from a combination of emerging technologies that prompted legal research and existing technologies’ prevalence in our everyday lives, Fischer told Technical.ly.

“It’s the recognition of the increasing impact and role of technology in business and in our individual lives, and also the recognition that law has a pivotal role to play into that dialogue,” she said.

At its launch, the center has a few major initiatives, or areas of focus: risk management and design thinking, ethics and legal implications of AI, and genetic data and privacy. The center will host programming like symposiums and roundtables to bring together tech industry experts, students and attorneys. Its aim, Daniel Filler, dean of the law school said, is to “foster a community that is forward-thinking about the implications of innovative technology on the development of technology law.”

“New technology has made a dramatic impact on the human experience in everything from markets to health care, to the way we spend our free time,” Filler said in a statement. “The Center will bring together experts to help promote law and regulation that protects individuals and communities while allowing these advances to flourish.”

Fisher said that an advantage of the CLTT being established at Drexel is its ability to help Philadelphia in its continued growth in becoming a tech industry city. The center could partner with tech-oriented groups in Philly and beyond and providing resources where needed, she said.

Eight faculty from the law school will work on the CLTT, and it will host its first event, “Non-fungible tokens rocking the art world and beyond,” later this month.

“This is an incredibly evolutionary time in the law around privacy, data security, and technology,” Fischer said. “And creating a center that supports thought leadership on the role of law in the future of technology is critical at this time.”