Glasgow · Senate Room
Hosted by School of Law, University of Glasgow
Explore how AI is reshaping legal reasoning with Sir Colin Birss at the University of Glasgow on 20 November 2026, from 5pm to 7:30pm. The 39th Annual James Wood Public Lecture examines the rapidly changing relationship between artificial intelligence, courts and legal practice. Sir Colin Birss, Master of the Rolls and Lead Judge for Artificial Intelligence in England and Wales, will deliver an in-person lecture titled “AI and Legal Reasoning.” Topics will include: - How litigants, law firms and courts are already using AI - Potential judicial applications such as summarisation, inconsistency detection and anonymisation - Hallucinated case references, bias and personal responsibility for AI-assisted work - Privacy risks when legal information is entered into public AI systems - Whether legal privilege should extend to exchanges between litigants and AI bots - Whether public AI chatbots could eventually produce convincing legal analysis and reasoning Sir Colin became the first UK judge to acknowledge using AI while preparing a judgment in 2023. His career spans the Court of Appeal, civil justice and intellectual property law, alongside an early professional background in computer programming. This public lecture will be particularly relevant to legal professionals, judges, academics, law students and anyone interested in AI governance or the future of professional reasoning. It is organised by the University of Glasgow School of Law in collaboration with CREATe, the AHRC-funded Centre for Regulation of the Creative Economy. The event takes place in the Senate Room, University of Glasgow Main Building, Glasgow G12 8QQ, in Glasgow. The James Wood Lecture has been the School of Law’s principal annual public lecture since 1987. Register for the 39th Annual James Wood Public Lecture
Sponsors: James Wood Bequest Fund · CREATe
