Sarah A. Sutherland

Thesis title: Computing Legal Pluralism: Document Systems, Law, and Artificial Intelligence in Canada's Hybrid Legal System

Biography

Background

Sarah A. Sutherland is a researcher and consultant specializing in legal informatics, data strategy, and the intersections of law, technology, and information. She is principal consultant at Parallax Information Consulting, where her work focuses on integrating data-driven approaches into legal organizations' planning and operations. Her book, "Legal Data and Information in Practice: How Data and the Law Interact" (Routledge, 2022), examines the ways data shapes, and is shaped by, legal systems. Previously, she served as President and CEO of the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII), where she oversaw the largest open-access legal information platform in Canada.

Responsibilities & affiliations

Research Fellow, UVic Access to Justice Centre for Excellence, University of Victoria, Canada

Advisory Board Member, Conflict Analytics Lab, Queen's University, Canada

Fellow, ISLC - Information Society Law Center, University of Milan, Italy

Organiser

Program committee member, 2026 – present, International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law (ICAIL), International Association for Artificial Intelligence & Law

Program Committee Member, 2014 – present, Jurix International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, The Foundation for Legal Knowledge Based Systems

Papers delivered

“Using Secondary Document Elements to Better Describe the Socio-Temporal Context of Law for Use in Computation,” presented at British and Irish Legal Education and Technology Association (BILETA) Conference, Aberystwyth, United Kingdom, April 15-17, 2026.

“Semanario Ética en law Inteligencia Artificial,” presented with Carlos Amunátegui, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Rónán Kennedy, University of Gallway; Raúl Madrid, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Jorge Balmaceda, Universty of Gallway; at Facultad de Derecho, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Sanitago, Chile, April 10, 2026.

“Using Primary Sources of Law as Data,” guest lecture presented to “Computation and Law” class taught by Rónán Kennedy, University of Gallway, Gallway, Ireland, February 10, 2026,

“Selective Memory: A Case Study on the Limits of Using Case Law to Understand Legal History,” presented with Amy Swiffen, Concordia University; Alec Duncan, McGill University; at Law Via the Internet Conference, Sydney, Australia, November 12-14, 2025.

“Narrowing the Gaps Between Primary Law and Computational Systems Through Better Parsing of Secondary Document Elements”, at Law Via the Internet Conference, Sydney, Australia, November 12-14, 2025.

“Process, Purpose, and Time: Examining the Gap Between Judicial Decision Making and Legal Prediction”, at Autonomy through Cyberjustice Technologies (ACT) Conference, Montreal, Quebec, October 16, 2025.

“Quantitative Assessment of Access to Justice Initiatives,” at People-Centred Justice Workshop, Vancouver, British Columbia, May 30-31, 2025.

“The Future of Law: Artificial Intelligence,” at Trial Lawyers of British Columbia Women's Retreat, Whistler, British Columbia, October 27, 2024.

“Using the Law as Data,” at British and Irish Association of Law Librarians Annual Conference, Leeds, United Kingdom, June 14, 2024.

“Data Science, AI, and the Law: An International Perspective,” guest lecture presented at Niigata Institute of Technology, Kashiwazaki, Japan, June 3, 2024.

“Can the Chatbot Write My Factum?” presented with Justice David M. Masuhara, Supreme Court of British Columbia; and Abdi Aidid, University of Toronto, at Continuing Legal Education Society of BC’s AI and Legal Research Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, October 17, 2023.

“Issues with Using Primary Law as Data,” at Legal Services Corporation 2023 Innovations in Technology Conference, Phoenix, Arizona, January 20, 2023.

“We’ve Got the Data - Now What?,” presented with Jérémy Boulanger-Bonnelly, University of Toronto Faculty of Law; Trevor Farrow, Osgoode Hall Law School; Julie Sobowale, Law Society of Saskatchewan; Pierre Noreau, Université de Montréal; to Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters, online, October 27, 2022.

“How the Structure of Primary Law Affects Its Use as Data,” presented at Australian Law Librarians’ Association Conference, Hobart, Australia, August 26, 2022.

“Law Librarian as Algorithmic Sceptic,” presented with Sarah Lamdan, CUNY School of Law; Susan Nevelow Mart, Colorado Law; and Kim Nayyer, Cornell Law School; at American Association of Law Libraries Conference, Denver, Colorado, July 17, 2022.

“Access to Justice Means Free Access to Legal Information,” presented with Jack Cushman, Harvard Library Innovation Lab; Alan Kilpatrick, Law Society of Saskatchewan, Legal Resources; at Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference (virtual), June 2, 2022.

“Finding Blue Ocean for Legal Technologies,” presented with Lixian Loong Hantover; Pablo Arredondo, Casetext; Sam Mantle, Luxoft; Rakesh Kirpalani, Drew & Napier LLC, at TechLaw.Fest (Singapore / virtual), September 28 – October 2, 2020.

“Exploration of User Attributes and Behaviour in Online Legal Research,” presented at Law Via the Internet (virtual), September 22-23, 2020.

“The Potential of LIIs in Data Bias Mitigation,” presented with Kim Nayyer, Cornell Law School; and Sara Frug, Legal Information Institute – Cornell, at Law Via the Internet (virtual), September 22-23, 2020.

“Legal Ethics in the Use of Artificial Intelligence,” presented with Kristin Johnson, Tulane University Law School; Steven A. Lastres, Debevoise & Plimpton; and Kim Nayyer, Cornell Law School, at AALL Virtual Conference, 13-16 July 2020.

“Encouraging Innovation in Legal Services Provisions Via Tech,” presented with Ivan Mokanov, Lexum; Joan Janssen, Singapore Ministry of Law; John McKinlay, DLA Piper Scotland, at International Conference of Legal Regulators, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 6 September 2019.

“Artificial Intelligence and Implicit Bias,” presented with Khalid Al-Kofahi, Center for AI and Cognitive Computing at Thomson Reuters; Pablo Arredondo, Casetext; and Kim Nayyer, Cornell University, at American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting and Conference, Washington, DC, July 2019.

“Building Commentary Collections in the Free Law Context,” presented at Law Via the Internet, 2018, Florence, Italy, October 2018.

“Breaking the Mold: Ways to Develop and Validate New Approaches in Libraries,” presented at Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 28, 2018.

“Open Access: A Panel Discussion to Explore How the Free Availability of Information Can Reach People Beyond the Research Community. What Barriers Are Limiting Equitable Access to Information and How Can They Be Addressed?” presented with Mary Francoli, Janelle Hinds, and Saeed Selvam at OpenOn: a conference organized by the Ontario Open Government Office. Toronto, Ontario, March 2018.

“A Conversation on the Semantic Web and Legal Information,” pre-conference workshop presented with Tim Knight Osgoode Hall Law Library, York University at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference, Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 2014.

Book

Legal Data and Information in Practice, Routledge, 2022.

Articles

“New Panic over Old Mistakes: Judicial Sanctions and Hallucinated Citations,” Australian Law Librarian (Australian Law Librarians' Association), vol. 34/2, June 2026.

“Hallucinated References, Government Reports, and Managing Your Citations,” AALL Spectrum (American Association of Law Libraries), vol. 30/5,  May/June 2026.

 “Demographics, Civil Law, or Something Else? Understanding the Lower Rate of Reported Legal Problems in Quebec” / “Démographie, droit civil ou autre chose ? Comprendre le taux plus faible de signalements de problèmes juridiques au Québec,” Lex Electronica, vol. 31/1, January 2026 [published in English and French].

“Cheapening the Written Word,” AALL Spectrum (American Association of Law Libraries), vol. 29/3, January/February 2025, 30-31.

“The Case for Algorithmic Scepticism in Law,” Legal Information Management, December 2024, 261-63.

“The Law and Politics of Legal Data,” Journal of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Law, vol. 5/4, July-August 2022.

“Forecasting Technology Developments in the Legal System,” AALL Spectrum (American Association of Law Libraries), vol. 25/5, May/June 2021, 42.

“Exploration of Attributes Associated with User Behaviour in Online Legal Research,” Canadian Law Library Review, vol 45/2, 10-13.

“Artificial Intelligence & Implicit Bias: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility,” written with Kim Nayyer and Marcelo Rodríguez, AALL Spectrum (American Association of Law Libraries), vol. 24/5, May/June 2020.

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