Technological disruption as an agent of change in legal education? Surprises, disappointments and experimentations in Australia and Hong Kong

This article examines how law schools in Australia and Hong Kong are responding to the digital disruption like legaltech with a particular focus on whether curricula prepare graduates to navigate the structural and business-model implications to legal services. Using a systematic survey of course handbooks, identified through keyword searches and coded by inclusion and exclusion criteria, the study provides a conservative mapping of formally documented legaltech education. Course descriptions were cross-verified with faculty webpages where possible, though institutional validation was not feasible, and reliance on published handbooks is acknowledged as a limitation. The findings show that while legaltech offerings are expanding, provision remains uneven and fragmented. This disparity underscores the central claim: that law schools must move beyond discrete modules on legal technology to equipping students with awareness of change management and the capacity to adapt to shifting professional models. The article further highlights the practical barriers to reform, including the high cost of software licences and limited staff expertise, which constrain adoption even where pedagogical will exists. By situating these challenges within wider debates about hybrid legal roles and regulatory disruption, the article contributes to understanding how legal education must evolve in the digital age to go beyond legal knowledge and skills to include how the legal profession is managed.