Posted to IASSIST on: 2022-09-06
Employer: University of Virginia
Employer URL: https://www.virginia.edu
Description
The Arthur J. Morris Law Library at the University of Virginia School of Law seeks a Legal Data Scientist to lead and manage its Legal Data Lab. This is a Professional Research Staff position with the classification of Research Scientist and reports to the Director of the Law Library. The University of Virginia School of Law is consistently recognized as one of the top law schools in the country, and the Law Library is critical to its mission and culture. The Arthur J. Morris Law Library and its Legal Data Lab support the Law School’s mission of excellence in teaching, research, and publication.
The Legal Data Lab serves the ever-evolving empirical research needs of the Law School community and provides support across the lifecycle of empirical projects. As leader and manager of the Legal Data Lab, the Legal Data Scientist will work closely with the Library Director and Law School faculty to develop and implement the Legal Data Lab’s strategic vision. The Legal Data Scientist’s primary role will be to support complex research initiatives requiring the collection, cleaning, organization (e.g., web scraping, data manipulation, etc.), storage, and digital dissemination of legal and other datasets in support of the empirical scholarship of the faculty at the School of Law.
The Legal Data Scientist will engage in student instruction, including one-on-one, small group, guest lecturing, and possibly teaching short-form courses for credit. While supporting the scholarship and educational needs of faculty and students will be the primary focus of the position, there will be some opportunity for independent research, writing, and professional engagement in the library, empirical research, data science, and/or other relevant academic communities. Depending on Law School needs and the knowledge and experience of the successful candidate, faculty scholarship support and student instruction topics may include statistical analysis and/or machine learning and natural language processing. This position requires most work to be performed in person at the Law School, with the opportunity to perform a limited amount of work remotely in accordance with Law School policy.
Responsibilities:
- Extract, clean, and organize data from print and web-based sources for members of the Law School community.
- Advise and collaborate with faculty and other Law School community members on empirical legal research projects.
- Supervise one or more student research assistants and collaborate with Law Library staff to advance research projects.
- Advise scholars concerning new research tools and methods for making the empirical research process more efficient and effective.
- Exercise leadership in the planning and direction of the Legal Data Lab.
- Participate in the statistical and data science communities of the University of Virginia, and represent the Legal Data Lab with professional library, empirical research, and/or other relevant academic communities.
- Collect, organize, and analyze Law Library operational data to support managerial decision-making.
- Participate in Law Library strategic planning, resource selection, and other committees and teams.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Required Qualifications:
- A doctoral degree or master’s degree with significant experience.
- Proficiency with Python and/or R programming languages.
- Strong technical skills and problem-solving abilities related to data collection and cleaning.
- Demonstrated experience with web scraping, electronic document parsing, and using APIs to fetch data. Knowledge of HTML and JavaScript sufficient to confidently extract data from websites.
- Demonstrated experience with data wrangling, such as merging, reshaping, or manipulating data using regular expressions.
- Strong oral and written communication skills.
- Ability to manage multiple projects and produce deliverables in a timely fashion.
- Strong attention to detail and quality of work product.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s degree or higher in computer/information/data science or an applied social science field.
- Demonstrated experience with machine learning and natural language processing and/or statistics.
- Familiarity with Stata.
- Familiarity with distributed version-control systems (e.g., Git and GitHub).
- Familiarity with Unix and Unix-based systems. Comfort in using the command line.
- Familiarity with legal information or a willingness to learn.
- Experience working with and supporting faculty across the lifecycle of empirical research projects (e.g., project design, data collection, analysis, dissemination, storage).
- History of managerial and supervisory success.
The environment at the Law School is both active and supportive, with a strong sense of collegiality among students, faculty, and staff and a commitment to excellence and service. The Law School is located in Charlottesville, VA, a college town setting with natural beauty and significant historical relevance in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Charlottesville is a wonderful place to live with an extraordinary quality of life, often ranked among the best places to live in the United States.
To Apply:
Apply online at https://uva.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UVAJobs. Search for requisition R0039911. Internal applicants must apply through their UVA Workday profile. Complete the application and attach the following:
- Cover letter
- CV/resume
- Names and contact information for three professional references.
Please note that ALL REQUESTED documents MUST be uploaded in the resume submission field, and you can combine documents into one PDF.
Applications that do not have all the required documents will not receive full consideration.
The University will perform background checks on all new hires prior to employment.
Questions regarding the position should be directed to Amy Wharton, Search Committee Chair, at amywharton@law.virginia.edu. Questions regarding the application process should be directed to Marcus Rozier, Academic Recruiter, at hjv5vm@virginia.edu.
COVID Vaccination Requirement and Guidelines
Please visit the UVA COVID-19 Job Requirements and Guidelines webpage prior to applying for current information regarding vaccination requirements and guidelines for employment at UVA.
More info/apply URL: https://uva.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UVAJobs/job/Charlottesville-VA/Legal-Data-Scientist--Law-Library--School-of-Law_R0039911
Archived on: 2022-09-07