• This certificate provides a perspective on the global IT legal environment and the best management practices in responding to it, with heavy emphasis on emerging information technologies (e.g., blockchain, AI, Robotics Process Automation, IoT). 
  

•  It will be of widespread interest to IT practitioners and vendors, especially service providers, managers of IT ventures, senior managers with responsibility for implementing IT solutions enterprise wide, security officers, and IT consultants.

• The cadre of candidates for this program includes attorneys, compliance officers and IT and non-IT managers responsible for solutions bearing on compliance with regulatory requirements and discovery requests. 

• The faculty that teaches these courses are usually practicing attorneys that have experience with the respective "global/local" regulations/laws.

While the Managing Legal Issues Certificate focuses on helping candidates understand the myriad legal digital/IT considerations, the strategic, tactical, and operational elements across the entire legal (e.g., law-firm) value chain can also be addressed:

The Legal Issues in IT Program consists of selecting at least four courses from the following:

1. Enterprise Issues in IT Law
   
2. Legal Issues & Contract Management in IT Outsourcing
   
3. Information Assurance & Law
   
4. Issues & Trends in IT Law

               Electives:

1. Contract Mediation/Arbitration (part of Managing Vendors/Outsourcing )
   
2. Intellectual Property (including Cyber Security considerations)

All courses are available live/synchronously face-to-face & online

1. Enterprise Issues in IT Law

The course is a survey of every major area of law that has an impact on information technology, developed through an examination of judicial decisions and legislation that concern web based business ventures. The course discusses basic commercial law as it applies to information technology, jurisdiction over Internet based activity, the contracting environment for online activity, intellectual property law, the domain name system, the protection of databases/data protection, privacy rights, and government regulation of Internet based business activity, including content based restrictions, and the prospective taxation of ecommerce. The goal of the course is to provide an overview of these issues for non-lawyers and to promote sensitivity to the technological and business scenarios in which legal issues arise. As the course progresses, students become progressively better equipped to recognize legal issues as, or soon after, they arise. This skill is highly prized by lawyers and sophisticated clients alike, for one reason –as they persist, legal problems become more complex and more difficult and expensive to resolve. By being able to spot the issues sooner and more completely, students are better able to manage the resources that information technology ventures require and to respond to the commercial opportunities and risks such ventures present.

2. Legal Issues & Contract Management in IT Outsourcing

One of the critical aspects of IT outsourcing is creating a legal agreement that appropriately protects the client organization and fairly defines the work of the service provider. Most of the headline failures in outsourcing are a direct result of poorly crafted contracts. The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with the specialized legal aspects of IT outsourcing needed to manage contract negotiation, ongoing relationship management and measurement, regulation, specialized aspects of offshore agreements, and termination of IT outsourcing. Successful completion of the course allows the student to achieve a useful level of specialized management knowledge and an appreciation for the role of the legal function in outsourcing.

3. Information Assurance & Law

This course examines the relationship between information security and the law, at a level suitable for information security specialists and managers with responsibility for supervising information security operations. In the first phase, the course explores substantive legal principles relating to information security, with regard to both private and government interests. The second phase of the course explores AI, information security, and data protection operations as the repository of information that may be at issue in legal proceedings. Finally, the course concludes with a discussion of the balancing process required to promote information security in a system of ordered liberties, that is, with due respect for civil rights.

4. Issues & Trends in IT Law

This course is a comprehensive exploration of how pertinent developments in law and policy impact the management of information technology. The course will be presented at a level suitable for senior managers (IT and business) and compliance specialists who have or aspire to responsibility for regulatory compliance, advocacy at the policy level, or other interactions with regulators, lawmakers or other governmental entities or agencies. The discussion will address how recent legislation, judicial decisions, rule-making, and events bear on the adoption and execution of IT business models, business decision-making at the level of IT ventures, enterprise management, and corporate governance. The discussion will present new and anticipated legal and regulatory requirements that relate to the core business of information technology (contractual implications and outsourcing), rights and obligations in information technology and information-based assets themselves, (e.g., intellectual property), AI, information security and privacy, data protection, and corporate governance (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley). The discussion will emphasize issues of particular concern to the financial services and pharmaceutical industries (e.g., the privacy discussion will address the enforcement history of, and industry response to, the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Law, HIPAA, EU Safe Harbor and General Data Protection Regulation, and related regulations). The course will address the management issues that arise from the international legal and regulatory environment for IT ventures, civil and criminal law issues, government contracting standards, and the evidentiary aspects of stored information (e.g., electronic discovery). The course builds an understanding that responsiveness to changes in IT law and policy is pivotal to the management of IT ventures, impacting the rights, interests, and obligations of enterprises sponsoring IT ventures, and those enterprises’ shareholders, affiliates, customers, and vendors. 

General Business Law Elective

This course provides a systematic understanding of the legal environment that affects individuals, businesses, and business transactions, focusing on IT considerations. The course provides a general introduction to the national and international legal environments and focuses on specific legal topics such as contracts, anti-trust law and financial transactions.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge

On successful completion of this course candidates will demonstrate:

1. A conceptual grasp of how to interpret legal texts related to business.

2. A critical awareness of the legal environment and its implications as a basis to adapt professional decision-making and practice.

Skills

At the end of this course the successful candidates will be able to:

1. Analyze relevant legal terminology and concepts.

2. Evaluate issues of legal significance in business transactions.

3. Apply legal reasoning to situations and draw legal conclusions.

4. Compare, apply and evaluate various legal theories/interpretations to factual situations.

5. Identify, analyze and assess risks, and demonstrate sufficient familiarity with the legal system to be able to act effectively in relation to relevant legal issues.

Topics

•    Civil law/business law

•    Competition law

•    Financial law

•    US/European/International law

•    National Law  

As regulations continue to evolve and legal organizations accelerate the digital transformation of their industry, they are focusing their investments in leveraging information technology to improve client outcomes, improve the quality of their services, and lower overall costs. In today’s highly regulated, increasingly resource-constrained, and cost-focused environment it is essential to understand how to effectively and efficiently manage an organization’s information technology (IT) resources. There are numerous strategic, tactical, and operational choices to be made about managing legal IT resources and it is essential to ensure that IT and non-IT executives across the organization work in harmony.

Experience has made it clear that legal organizations need well-conceived organizational structures, skills, processes, and decision rights to ensure that IT investments are appropriately leveraged across the organization, especially when considering the impact of emerging information technologies, while ensuring that these emerging technologies conform to changes in regulations. 

This course prepares executives/professionals (legal and non-legal ) by providing a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental decisions related to the management of IT resources in this dynamic environment. The course will also provide an overview of current and future relevant information technologies and their potential impact on regulations, organizations, and associated stakeholders.

IT-Legal topics include:

• Deriving IT-business strategies
• Changes in digital regulations
• Considerations for types of
• organizational structure
• sourcing
• governance (i.e., decision-making and decision rights)
• roles/responsibilities
• processes
• Leverage emerging digital technologies
• The business value of IT
• The definition, concepts, and contexts of Legal IT
• Enhancing business-IT alignment