Be ready to face challenges posed by new technologies, young lawyers told

“Young lawyers should be ready to face the challenges that will be posed by emerging fields of technologies such as data mining and artificial intelligence that will affect their work,” Judge of the High Court of Karnataka B.M. Shyam Prasad said in Belagavi on Friday.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the M.K. Nambyar National Moot Court Competition at KLS RL Law College.

“We are at the cusp of another technological innovation that will affect all walks of life. The work of lawyers will also be affected by advanced technology. We should all be prepared for it,’’ he said. He urged young law graduates and law schools to be open to such developments. He felt that moot court competitions are opportunities to expose students to such areas of knowledge. He pointed out that the earliest moot court competition about space law was held in India in 1992.

“The earliest moot courts in this country were held in 1962. In 30 years, they had evolved enough to discuss issues of space law,” he said.

He said that moot courts helped students discuss new ideas and effective ways to present those ideas. “At times, a seed sown in moot court develops into a special branch of law,” he said.

Moot courts train lawyers in simulated environments, just as pilots are trained in simulated environments. But pilots need experience and wisdom to navigate through turbulence, he said. Similarly, lawyers also face turbulence when the judges ask the most unexpected, inconvenient questions. They have to pass through it by their ingenuity and experience, he said.

Karnataka Law Society president Anant Mandagi said that unlike in the old times, today’s lawyers are being trained in a truly professional manner. He advised budding advocates not to mislead either the client or the court on facts and never to give false assurances to clients. A lawyer needs to be strong on facts and law. That would help build his reputation, he said.

College governing council chairman S.V. Ganachari, member Pradeep Sawkar, principal A.H. Hawaldar, student representatives Sachidananda Patil, Megha Somannanavar and Nivedita Dixit and others were present.