University of Chicago Professor Gibbons employs the computer in a variety of ways in his courses in Torts, Legal Philosophy, Law and Economics, and Computers and Privacy. He has often been an expert consultant and witness regarding business organization and valuation, and is now one of the handful of experts on the long-range impact of computers on the law. Law, someone said, is the storm anchor of society, calming the ship of state as it pitches and yaws in a turbulent world and making life for the passengers and crew tolerably stable. When you have a storm anchor that works as well as ours has for two centuries, you are reluctant to fool with it.
Conservatism runs deeply through all legal institutions, particularly through legal education.
With the exception of the telephone and typewriter, the technological revolution of the past century has left the law untouched. Law has dealt at arm's length with technology, making new rules to cover air travel, genetic engineering, and the like, while the lawyers who do the work carry on with paper and pencil - until the advent of the computer. The computer is making serious changes, from the mechanics of organizing a law office to programs that help solve legal questions. It promises to change legal education by providing students with new ways of thinking about law. I exult in these developments and enjoy almightily working with students to pursue them.