Since 2013, undergraduate students from FGV’s Rio de Janeiro Law School (Direito Rio) have been encouraged to develop programming skills with the complementary activity ‘Programming for lawyers’. This pioneering initiative has become increasingly popular, attracting the interest of students from other institutions – two UFRJ students participated in this edition. The closing ceremony for the class of 2017 was held on December 15, when participants presented their final project in a business pitch to a panel consisting of professors and experts in lawtechs and public interest projects involving technology applied to Law.

The four projects presented during the pitch were the following: ‘Law Docs’ created a custom environment to produce pre-drafted legal documents. ‘PLRight’ is a database of models and applications of profit sharing rules. ‘Basta’ is a mobile application that allows anonymous reporting of cases of violence against women for statistical improvement, as well as specific complaints, all seamlessly integrated to government systems. Finally, the ‘Elaw’ portal connects customers to lawyers willing to serve them, allowing searches by region and field of practice, and also includes a feedback feature for lawyers based on service quality.

The panel, which every year brings people with different backgrounds and experiences, included researching professors João Manoel de Lima e Junior and Bruna Castanheira. It also included experts Gabriella Arienne and Giullia Jaques, who have experience in Hackathon and Mind the Gap with Google. The panel also included Lindalia Junqueira, CEO of Ions Innovation and member of Direx Gávea Angels, the Board of the MIT Technology Review, Finep Council, and CTSMART. As Director of Innovation at Estácio, she created NAVE Space (Center for Acceleration and Appreciation of Entrepreneurship), elected the best accelerator in Brazil by the 2015 Bizpark Awards. Currently, Junqueira is dedicated to build the first lawtech accelerator in Brazil, based in Rio de Janeiro.

As in previous years, the curriculum included training in JavaScript, Python, and MySQL. Classes are coordinated by Direito Rio professor Ivar A. Hartmann. In this edition, the discipline was taught in alongside professor Fernando Correia Jr., Chief Engineer of the Supreme in Numbers projects.

In addition to the two UFRJ students who participated in the elective activity during the semester, another positive fact marked this edition of the course. Women accounted for more than 50% of the class for the very first time, confirming the growing interest among women in the field of programming.

About the ‘Programming for Lawyers’ ATC

Held since 2013, FGV’s Direito Rio was the first law school in the country to offer a programming course. Recently, the initiative has been replicated in both Brazilian and foreign schools, including with the same name. PUC-Rio and Harvard Law School have courses called ‘Programming for Lawyers’, which started in 2017.