Legal AI: MLS celebrates 10 years of a clinic breaking new ground
Last month, current students, alumni and supporters of Law Apps gathered for a subject reunion, ten years after the inaugural cohort of this innovative subject.
“The Law Apps clinic subject, using human centred design, provides greater access to justice and allows real world clients to take more control in their legal affairs”, says Associate Professor Gary Cazalet, founder and coordinator of Law Apps.
Started in 2015, Law Apps connects Juris Doctor students at Melbourne Law School with not-for-profit organisations to build technology applications that can provide legal information, collate data, and assist the legal process of their clients.
Students work in teams to build these technologies to solve specific challenges as briefed by not-for-profit partners. Some student-built apps have become integral facets of many not-for profits.
For example, in 2019 a team of students worked closely with a group of not-for-profit Australian Lawyers for Remote Aboriginal Rights (ALRAR) to develop an app to streamline requests for housing repairs in remote Aboriginal communities.
The app became an entrenched tool in ALRAR’s representation of Indigenous tenants in their legal fight against the remote-rent framework of the Northern Territory’s Department of Housing.
The ALRAR app allows tenants to enter the repairs they require directly into an automated digital system which collates the information and generates the necessary documents to lodge a request to the Northern Territory Remote Public Housing System. If the request isn’t met, the app can also generate an initiating application to the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal as well as a witness statement detailing the tenant’s circumstances.
Associate Professor Cazalet says the not-for-profit sector is commonly underfunded and struggling to assist the number of people in need of their services. He says technology can help provide an answer.
“Law Apps make the collation of legal advice, simple. These technologies, depending on the specific challenge, collate resources and gather information from users enabling an organisation to operate with better data,” he says.
Students work with software companies such as Josef and Neota to build their applications for organisations, including Moonee Valley Legal Service and Lawyers for Remote Aboriginal Rights.
The subject entwines real-world legal problem solving with the training of future lawyers, preparing students for a career in legal technology. With the current transformation of AI in the legal marketplace, graduates of Law Apps are in demand. Several Law Apps alums now work at software companies to build their technology, including Josef and Neota.
Photo: From left, Associate Professor Gary Cazalet, Chris Giradi (Law Apps 2020), Neeharika Palachanda (Law Apps 2020), at the Law Apps reunion.
Dominique Simsion is product marketing director of Neota and a Law Apps’ graduate. She says the legal tech space has evolved significantly since her Law Apps days.
“AI is now firmly in the spotlight, forcing even the tech laggards to embrace, or at least engage with, digitisation. But because it’s still an evolving space, the conversation tends to swing wildly - from trepidation about AI replacing junior roles, to confusion around where to start, or distrust around hallucinations and reliability,” she says.
“I took Law Apps at Melbourne Law School in 2015, before legal tech was a mainstream term. The subject challenged us to build expert systems that solved real legal problems at not-for-profits, using Neota’s no-code platform. It was my first glimpse into how technology could transform the delivery of legal services and led to my role at Neota.”
She says Law Apps’ principles were still something she drew on daily.
“Good legal tech is grounded in legal expertise and designed with the end user in mind,” she says.
“I won’t pretend to predict where it’s all heading, but I’m glad to be in the thick of it - helping customers cut through the noise and apply AI in ways that are thoughtful, practical, and grounded in real needs.”
ProbateMate winners: From left, ProbateMate team members Abeer Khan, Tanvi Chitale (back), Isil Lal Ozkok, Oscar Kraner-Tucci, Liza Clerehan; John Lord (chairman of Neota and Dominique Simsion (Neota).
At the end of each semester, Law Apps students present their work at an awards night sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills.
For semester one 2025, ProbateMate, an app that guides users through probate applications within the Victorian Supreme Court’s RedCrest portal, was judged best in field.
Law Apps students and the ProbateMate team says their app empowers executors and educates people on the basic law of wills and probate.
“It is designed to ease the emotional and financial burden of probate whilst allowing executors to focus on the important task of honouring their loved ones while navigating the complexities of our legal system,” says the ProbateMate team.
Associate Professor Cazalet notes Law Apps was successful at combining two foundations of productive legal education - servicing community and training future lawyers.
“Our students distil complex legal problems into technological solutions and communicate them in a way that clients understand, all while preparing them for a legal sector that will continue to make use of new AI technologies,” he says.