The future of legal professions: new “LeaDs” will be expert in law and data science thanks to EU’s H2020 project coordinated by Sant’Anna School Dirpolis (Law, Politics and Development) Institute

The “LeaDS” - Legality Attentive Data Scientist  new qualification profile will take advantage of data analytics  in the legal field thanks to the LeADS project receiving EU funding of 3,8 million euro under the Horizon 2020 – Research and Innovation Framework Programme. Sant’Anna School Professor Giovanni Comandé of Comparative Private Law will be the project coordinator with the contribution of colleagues from the Université du Luxembourg, Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, VriJE Universiteit Brussels, University of Piraeus Research Center, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Data Protection Authorities Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato, Autorità garante per la protezione dei dati personali, and large, small and medium-sized AI enterprises Intel, Indra, Byte,  Mmi and Innov-Acts Limited as the EU puts particular emphasis on the concentration of market power in the AI industry having negative implications for society and  posing a major challenge for governance.

 The overall objective of the project is to train experts in artificial intelligence (AI), big data, ethical data mining and online legal practice that will transform the traditional legal system while allowing for personal data protection and individual privacy. The project recognises the potential of young researchers as AI-legal professionals, legal risk managers, and experts in the provision of legal services in a data environment. The LeADS training is a valuable method to improve a European level decision-making process to respond to current and future needs for solving legal problems with the support of technology in courts and industries. 

In our data-driven society, the “LeADS” research activity will focus on embedding privacy and data protection into big data analytics. “Our objective is to expand benefits such as responsibility and accountability and organizational benefits such as innovation and trust in data technology. Data science offers a powerful framework to expand our evidence-based understanding of public policy but we need to oversee legislation and the legal framework for the regulation of big data, AI and machine learning that demands improved compliance as well as accurate and non-discriminatory use of data crossing over into privacy law. Data scientists will adopt GDPR regulations while improving customer data protection and trust. Our priority is to implement more stringent data protection measures and common enforcement methods across European and non-European organizations and companies”, said Giovanni Comandé.