Dr. Clarance Gandawa is a legal scholar, AI and governance researcher, Senior Lecturer, and Executive Director of Legal Services. She holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence in Law, and her work sits at the intersection of emerging technology, legal practice, and governance with a particular focus on what the AI era means for lawyers, institutions, and legal systems in the Global South. She has published over 40 academic papers exploring AI ethics, legal technology, corporate law, and digital governance.   

Her research challenges conventional thinking about law and technology by examining how AI systems influence legal decision-making, access to justice, and epistemic fairness in modern governance. It is research built not just for academic journals — but for the profession that needs it most, right now.

Dr. Gandawa serves as a Senior Lecturer and Executive Director of Legal Services, where she leads legal operations, teaches and supervises across multiple areas of law, and contributes to curriculum development and institutional research. She brings to her work a rare combination of academic depth and executive legal experience understanding AI ethics not only as a researcher but as someone responsible for the legal integrity of an institution.

Her current research explores algorithmic decision-making, epistemic justice, and the impact of AI on professional legal practice with a sustained focus on the implications for lawyers and legal systems in the Global South and beyond.

The CLEAR Legal Protocol is the practical expression of that research. A five-step framework designed to give every lawyer and law student a professional standard for AI use that protects their career, their clients, and their integrity. Built in direct response to what her research found that the legal profession was adopting AI at speed, without the ethical infrastructure to do it safely.

This is not a theoretical framework. It is a repeatable, professionally defensible system that any lawyer or law student can use from day one.