Becoming the Tech Creator and Regulator: Redefining Insurance Solutions (808X)

Consumers are often faced with insurance policies that are lengthy, incomprehensible, and incredibly vague. Whether it’s healthcare, homeowners or auto insurance, people cannot easily determine the extent of coverage and risk represented in insurance contracts. The contracts alone do not express clearly whether they provide sufficient coverage to the individual and/or how to make use of them when a problem arises. In this Policy Practicum, jointly hosted by Stanford CodeX and the Legal Design Lab, students will research and learn both theoretical foundations and practical tools to develop solutions that solve for transparency, accessibility, and literacy in the insurance industry. Students will gather the technical knowledge of the industry, conduct client interviews, and learn design thinking and product management skills. We will focus on the use case of revolutionizing the insurance ecosystem to address the aforementioned issues.

Students will first interview and understand our client’s, NAIC, needs in addressing the insurance concerns of various constituents, and identify their most pressing and specific obstacles. Students will act as creators — in this role, they will learn skills on how to develop technologically driven solutions, gain an understanding of how to apply a suite of AI-driven applications, analyze legal information problems through the lens of computational law, and advise on how to best address clients’ needs. Students will also gain insight into methodologies in Science and Technology Studies (STS) to critically analyze their solutions, when they transition into their roles as regulators. Technology-driven solutions are frequently developed in silos and do not have sufficient foresight around the unintended consequences. In applying an STS framework, they will evaluate their solution’s policy implications: ethical, regulatory and legal standards; and fairness, accountability, and inclusivity measures. The policy lab aims to help students understand and contribute new insights and communities of practice on how to use, assess, develop, and iterate on technology-driven solutions that are “future-conscious,” – weighed against ethical, regulatory and legal concerns, to help address NAIC’s challenges in the insurance industry.

This class is open to Stanford law students, and available for cross-registration for engineering, computer science, and humanities students. Students will be working together in small teams. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Performance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper.

CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and submit a Consent Application Form available at https://law.stanford.edu/education/courses/consent-of-instructor-forms/. See Consent Application Form for instructions and submission deadline.

Course Catalogue
Consent of Instructor – Application Portal

Instructors

Roland Vogl 2

Roland Vogl

  • Executive Director of CodeX - the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics
  • Executive Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology
Megan Ma

Megan Ma

  • Associate Director of the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics (CodeX)
  • Associate Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science, and Technology
  • CodeX Fellow