The Hidden Side of AI: What Public Sector Lawyers Need to Know
February 28, 2024 | 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM Eastern
Zoom Meeting
Governments at all levels are increasingly using or regulating artificial intelligence (AI) systems which impact and affect the rights and interests of citizens, particularly with the rise of generative AI.
This panel discussion will explore key legal and ethical issues of AI for public sector lawyers, including privacy, intellectual property, bias, accountability, transparency and public interest. It will also highlight recent developments and challenges in the Canadian and global AI lawmaking landscape, and their implications for public sector entities. The panel will draw on the expertise and insights of lawyers who have experience advising on AI matters in the public sector, as well as the perspectives of AI researchers and practitioners who can explain how AI works and what it can and cannot do.
Moderator
Karen F. W. Liang, Senior Litigation Lawyer, City of Vancouver
Speakers
Ryan Black
Partner, DLA Piper LLP (Vancouver)
Ryan Black practises technology-related business law, with a particular focus on intellectual property, information technology, video games and esports, and internet-facing businesses at DLA Piper (Canada) LLP’s Vancouver office. Ryan combines his expertise in these areas with a background in corporate/commercial law, including mergers and acquisitions, technology outsourcing, service provisioning, high-technology employment, licensing and commercial contracting, and venture capital funding, to provide clients with market-leading legal advice. As a former software and Internet developer, Ryan has a unique insight to emerging technology matters important to today's businesses, such as cybersecurity, blockchain technologies, artificial intelligence, open source software, deepfakes, cloud computing, and social media.
Ryan is a member of DLA Piper Canada’s National Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee. He has been recognized as a Thomson Reuters Stand-Out Lawyer for peer-recommended lawyers (2019-Present); a Best Lawyer in Canada for Information Technology Law (2020-Present), FinTech Practice (2022-Present) and Privacy and Data Security Law (2021-Present); a Canadian Legal Lexpert®-listed lawyer for Computer and IT Law, Corporate Mid-?Market and Technology Transactions (2020-present), and a Legal 500 Canada-listed lawyer for Corporate and Technology (2022-present). When not lawyering, he is a member of the board of directors for the Vancouver Fireworks Festival Society, the Claren Learning Academy Society, and the Video Game Bar Association, and he also enjoys playing basketball or spending time with his wife (Yolanda), cat (Kitty), daughter (Liara), twin brother (Tyler) and/or 84TB game-streaming media server (Gandalf).
Lisa R Lifshitz
Partner, Torkin Manes LLP (Toronto)
A partner in Torkin Manes’ Business Law Group, Lisa practices exclusively in the areas of technology, privacy and cybersecurity law.
As Chair of the firm’s Technology Group, Lisa has extensive expertise in preparing and negotiating a wide range of technology agreements, including Internet-related, m-commerce and e-commerce agreements, cloud computing agreements, mobile payment/fintech agreements, and reseller, distribution, system acquisition, development, and master services agreements. Lisa’s practice also includes the acquisition of artificial intelligence products/systems and blockchain technologies. She represents both vendors and users of technology and excels at negotiating large and complex technology transactions and procurements. Lisa’s clients range from the private sector to the public sector, including federal/provincial governments. She also has an extensive cross-boarder practice, as well as considerable experience helping non-Canadian companies, especially American entities, enter and thrive in the Canadian marketplace.
Lisa is the Chair of Torkin Manes’ Privacy & Data Management Group, where she advises Canadian and international clients on compliance with Canadian privacy and cybersecurity requirements. She routinely provides clients with advice on trans-border data transfers, inter-company privacy arrangements, breach coaching, privacy compliance in corporate transactions and negotiations, and privacy considerations in technology transactions. She also advises on complying with Canada’s anti-spam legislation.
A sought-after thought leader, Lisa has presented and written extensively within the field of technology and privacy law. She has been a frequent contributor to Business Law Today, Canadian Lawyer and the SciTech Lawyer and was also the co-editor and a contributor to Cloud 3.0: Drafting and Negotiating Cloud Computing Agreements, published in May 2019 by the American Bar Association. She has recently contributed to the Director's Technology Handbook: Tips and Strategies for Advising Corporate Directors (published by the American Bar Association in May 2021).
Lisa has earned numerous elite accolades and rankings by all of the preeminent legal directories as a leading lawyer in Canada and internationally, including Chambers Global and Chambers Canada in the areas of Information Technology and Privacy & Data Protection, The Best Lawyers In Canada© in the areas of Information Technology Law, Privacy and Data Security Law, Technology Law, and 2023 LEXPERT®/ALM 500 Directory as “Most Frequently Recommended” lawyer in Computer & IT Law and “Consistently Recommended” lawyer in Technology Transactions. Amongst her numerous other accolades, Who’s Who Legal has repeatedly named Lisa a Global Elite Thought Leader in Data – Data Privacy & Protection, Data Security and Data Privacy and Protection.
Currently, Lisa is the Content Officer and Chair of the Content Board of the Business Law Section (BLS) of the American Bar Association (ABA) and is the Co-Chair of the BLS’ Robotics and AI Subcommittee, Cyberspace Committee. She is also a member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Technology and Information Systems. Lisa is a Director of the Canadian Technology Law Association and the Co-Chair of its Privacy and Cybersecurity Committee and is a past President of the Association. Lisa is also a Director, Crossroads International, a member of its Executive Committee and the Chair of its Risk Committee.
J Summer Lane
British Columbia Ministry of Attorney General
Summer has practiced corporate commercial law in British Columbia since 2010. She has been a public servant since 2019, first with a health authority and now with the Legal Services Branch of the BC Ministry of the Attorney General. Summer is a member of a team that assists clients across government to procure technology used for internal government operations and services to the public, including software, hardware, systems, services, and ‘as-a-services’ offerings. In 2021 Summer earned a Global Professional LLM in Law, Innovation and Technology from the University of Toronto and recently completed the CBA Skilled Lawyers Series in Artificial Intelligence.
Joseph Pagé
New Brunswick Department of Justice and Attorney General
Joe was called to the British Columbia Bar in 2006 where he practiced corporate commercial law with 2 large Vancouver firms before moving to a small, community-based firm in 2013. Joe also worked in-house with Rio Tinto Alcan.
Joe personally took on a Charter case in 2007 and was successful at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2015. Joe moved to New Brunswick in August 2018 and currently works in the corporate-commercial-property group for the Office of the Attorney General in Fredericton. He was recently tasked with introducing AI to the office and has been navigating this challenging undertaking for about 6 months.
Prior to law school, Joe was a forester with Canadian Forest Products in northern Alberta.
