‘No one wants to be stuck with a dusty old lawyer’

afr.com:

Law students are reading the winds of technological disruption in the legal profession and pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees tostand out from their peers.

Statistics from three of Australia’s leading law schools show the number of undergraduates studying STEM with law has increased dramatically in the past decade.

From left: University of Sydney Law-STEM double degree students Madeline Kan, Michelle Chen, Riley Vaughan and Piadora Rahme. Oscar Colman

Lawyers with science and technology backgrounds are more likely to “embrace change”, firms and students say, as law firms grapple with the impacts of artificial intelligence on their business and clients increasingly demand lawyers with industry-specific knowledge.

At the University of Sydney and the University of Queensland, enrolments in law-STEM programs have more than doubled in the past 15 years. At the University of NSW, enrolments in the same programs have increased six-fold in that time. Double degree law-STEM students now make up 15 per cent to 20 per cent of law school cohorts at these three universities.

Piadora Rahme, a University of Sydney student in the final year of a law-science degree, said the advance of technology in the legal profession was driving demand for lawyers with science and IT backgrounds.

“It’s really important that the law is able to keep up with [technological change], and by doing law and science you’re better placed to interpret and know about these things,” Ms Rahme said. She said her STEM degree has proven attractive to firms during the competitive clerkship process.

Another law-science student, Michelle Chen, agreed. “I think there is definitely something [law firms] see in us … it’s probably that diverse