Innovation, Law and Technology

Overview

The GPLLM in Innovation, Law and Technology is the first offering of its kind in Canada. The program investigates the interaction of technologies and the legal frameworks that address them. Students grapple with the challenges posed by ever-accelerating technological advances by examining these problems through a legal lens. Taught by leading academics and practitioners, students will explore the systems, structures and characteristics of the legal system, and investigate how they relate to challenges posed by technology in rapid change. Classes are comprised of diverse professionals from the fields of medicine, financial services, compliance, IT, law, and many others.  

Program Length and Structure

The GPLLM is a full-time executive program offered in the evenings and on weekends in order to accommodate the schedules of busy professionals. The program consists of three terms (September to December, January to April, and May to mid-July). The schedule offers a deliberate balance between rigorous academic engagement, and respect for your personal and professional commitments.

The GPLLM consists of a wide variety of courses. Over the course of eleven months, students complete ten courses, including five courses from within their concentration. Students are required to take five courses from within their concentration, including one required course, and can take the remainder of their courses from any of the four concentrations offered.

The program may be completed in one year (three sessions with a F/W/S registration sequence) or through an extended full-time option that allows students to complete the program requirements over two years (six sessions with a F/W/S/F/W/S registration sequence).

Curriculum

The GPLLM curriculum is carefully curated in order to provide students with exposure to the legal issues and problems that are foundational, and also most timely and relevant.  Students will gain an understanding of key legal concepts and tools, and have the opportunity to apply them to real-world problems, including ones they confront in their own workplaces. Primarily through independent activities, but also in teams, students acquire skills and knowledge that will immediately being to inform how they approach problems and challenges. The skills involved in “thinking like a lawyer” are new, and, we are told, transformative.

The GPLLM program offers students both cohesiveness and flexibility in course selection. The program consists of approximately 40 courses. Each concentration is tied together by its own mandatory course, held on Friday evenings in the fall term.  Students are required to take at least five (5) courses within their concentration.  The remainder of their courses can be selected from any of the concentrations, providing students with the ability to curate a program of study that reflects their unique interests.

Students have found that there is considerable synergy between, for example, courses in the Business Concentration and in the Innovation, Law and Technology space, and they have found the ability to take courses in multiple concentrations to be an impactful aspect of the program. Please see the following pages for course descriptions for the Innovation, Law & Technology concentration, the Business Law concentration, and the Canadian Law concentration.

While subject to change, typically the method of evaluation includes written assignments, group work, presentation, and participation. 

Innovation, Law and Technology Courses

*Please note that not all courses will necessarily be available every year.

  • The Law of Disruptive Technologies and Artificial Intelligence (required)
  • Privacy and Data Governance
  • Cybersecurity & Data Protection in a Global Information Economy
  • Intellectual Property and Strategy
  • Financing Technological Innovation
  • Disruptive Innovations & Legal Infrastructure
  • Design Thinking 
  • Blockchain, Digital Assets and the Law

Please also see Innovation, Law and Technology - Course Descriptions.