[https://drive.google.com/file/d/15ZKr2crqdCbbW8jwxzxr7hA9bNxETzkC/view?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/file/d/15ZKr2crqdCbbW8jwxzxr7hA9bNxETzkC/view?usp=sharing)
As coding agents mature, software is increasingly something you summon, not something you buy. As such, tech savvy lawyers and legal teams can increasingly fabricate on the spot by standing up bespoke tools, workflows and analyses in minutes rather than procuring them over quarters.This talk traces the shift from vendor-dependent legal tech to a DIY era in which agents collapse the distance between a legal problem and a working piece of software built to solve it. This shift will create large unlocks for practitioners, disrupt many software incumbents and drive demand for new literacies for lawyers.
Professor Daniel Martin Katz is a scientist, technologist and professor who applies an innovative polytechnic approach to teaching law - to help create lawyers for today's biggest societal challenges. Both his scholarship and teaching integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Professor Katz’s primary appointment is at Illinois Tech - Chicago Kent College of Law. He is also the Academic Director of the Center for Legal Technology and Data Science at Bucerius Law School. Professor Katz is a Visiting Professor at the Singapore Management University Yong Pung How School of Law and an affiliate at CodeX—The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics.
In addition to teaching and researching, Katz formerly served as an editor of the International Journal of Law and Information Technology (Oxford University Press) from 2014-2021. He is currently a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence & Law (Springer Scientific) and the Cambridge Forum on A.I. - Law and Governance (Cambridge University Press). Professor Katz has published or forthcoming work in a wide variety of academic outlets, including Science, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, Plos One, Scientific Reports, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Journal of Statistical Physics, Europhysics Letters, Frontiers in Physics, Physica A, Proceedings of the ACL and Artificial Intelligence & Law. In addition, his work has been published in legal journals including Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy, Emory Law Journal, Virginia Tax Review, Iowa Law Review, Illinois Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, Journal of Law & Politics, and Journal of Legal Education. Professor Katz is the co-editor of a volume entitled Legal Informatics (Cambridge University Press - 2021).
Professor Katz's forward-thinking ideas helped to earn him acknowledgement among the Fastcase 50, an award which “recognizes 50 of the smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders in the law.” He was also named to the American Bar Association Journal's “Legal Rebels” a prestigious group of change leaders in the legal profession. In 2025, the Financial Times named Professor Katz as one of the “Top 20 Legal Market Shapers of Past 20 Years” for both his academic and commercial work advancing the state of AI in the law.
Professor Katz received his Ph.D. in political science and public policy with a focus on complex adaptive systems from the University of Michigan. He graduated with a Juris Doctor cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School and simultaneously obtained a Master of Public Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. During his graduate studies, he was a fellow in Empirical Legal Studies at the University of Michigan Law School and a National Science Foundation IGERT fellow at the University of Michigan Center for the Study of Complex Systems.