Congratulations to our fourteen students who completed training in the first ever ‘AI Club’ on Wednesday past. A partnership initiative between Factor Law and our School, supported by JMK Solicitors, the course ran over six weeks. A combination of undergraduate and postgraduate students participated in the final showdown, presenting large language-based products to a judging panel. These included demoing a legal assistant tool, an automated redaction tool, an app for extracting monetary values from documents, and a medical and legal review assistant.
The panel praised the students for their crisp presentations and how they paid attention to user needs and data protection, all in the context of stunning technical innovation. The winning medical and legal review app successfully navigated complex medical documents within a user-friendly interface.
Dr Ciarán O'Kelly said, "The AI club presented a real opportunity for students to learn about cutting-edge technologies, all combined with core lawyer skills around client counselling and identifying user needs. The club is a model for collaboration between legal education and industry and our thanks go to colleagues in Factor for their hard work and dedication in providing this opportunity to our students."
Claire McInerney (Factor UK Regional Lead) commented, “One of the main goals of the AI club was to encourage conversation and curiosity when it comes to Gen AI and its potential in the legal industry. There is no doubt we have succeeded in achieving our goals and in fact, surpassed what we even thought was possible in 6 short weeks! The engagement and commitment from the group has meant that we’ve not only been able to provide for the intersection of the legal industry and legal education to explore the frontier of Gen AI but also, to blend theory with real world application and solutioning! Factor are very proud to have been able to partner with QUB and the innovative and engaging students who took part! Thanks to all involved in making this initiative really come to life!”
Bearing in mind this club was a co-curricular activity in which students participated on a voluntary basis, their work outputs were incredible. The employers commended QUB on the calibre of its students, and we hope these students will be able to leverage the benefits of participation in this exciting education-industry collaboration.
Pictured with the four students who took the top prize for their project presentation are Dr Ciarán O’Kelly (QUB Senior Lecturer), Cate McQuade (Head of Legal Technology/DPO at JMK Solicitors) and Tom Reynolds (Senior Manager at Factor Law).
Applications are invited for internships in the Legal Division of Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs.
The Legal Division of the Department seeks to ensure an appropriate legal input in the formulation and implementation of Ireland’s foreign policy and to contribute to effective Irish participation in international legal fora. The internships will be for a maximum of 14 months and will commence in the third quarter of 2024.
An intern in the Legal Division will work under the supervision of a Legal Officer. They will be required to assist with a variety of tasks and projects relating to the work of the Legal Division, which will include undertaking legal research. Further details of the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs is available at:
Role and policies | Department of Foreign Affairs | Ireland.ie | Ireland - this is Ireland
The application form in relation to the internship is available below:
Completed applications should be marked Legal Division Intern Application in the subject line and sent by e-mail to the following: [email protected]
The application deadline is Monday, 29th April 2024, at 5pm, and ****should consist only of the completed application form (do NOT submit a CV). If any further documentation is required, you will be requested to supply same in due course.
See attached for further information: