Law School Innovation Program
Pioneering education innovations. Preparing students for practice.
Bloomberg Law is on a mission to identify, recognize, and connect law school faculty, staff and administrators who are pioneering educational innovations that benefit their students, their schools, and the legal field. Through the Law School Innovation Program, we seek to acknowledge these innovators while raising overall awareness of innovation in legal education.
Industry experts
The evaluators for the Law School Innovation Program include practicing attorneys, legal tech and legal operations professionals, in-house counsel, and Bloomberg Law experts who have worked with and alongside law firms, businesses, and academic and professional institutions.
We look forward to receiving your applications for our Law School Innovation Program. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions that you may find helpful.
FAQs: About the program & eligibility
Programs, or “Innovations” must be run by U.S.-based, ABA-approved law schools. Innovations must also take place in the United States, so study abroad programs or programs that involve an element of studying abroad are not eligible. Further, Innovations must be apolitical in nature and not affiliated with any political organization in order to be considered.
- Providing meaningful and specific opportunities for diverse career path options, to better pair students with careers that match their skills, interests, and priorities;
- Engaging in partnerships with law firms or other employers to integrate real-life work into the curriculum, allowing students to “try on” a type of career;
- Promoting self-care and well-being to balance work stress and avoid unhealthy habits like substance abuse.
For purposes of this application, the term “Innovation” refers to the new/novel/unique approach to legal instruction the school has created, including but not limited to a:
- skill-based course;
- experiential learning program;
- partnership with legal employers;
- simulation pairing students with clients;
- modern technology;
- integrated instruction methodology;
- alternate innovative approach; or
- campus-wide program.
The Innovation should address at least one root cause of career burn out and show how it is working to eradicate that pitfall either by better preparing students on their career path or by fostering change in the legal community.
A panel of practicing attorneys, recent law school graduates, law school faculty and staff, and experts from Bloomberg Law will review and evaluate applications in order to determine how well the Innovations meet the stated criteria in the application. We will be evaluating what schools have done to change or improve the way law is taught or the way students approach their careers by looking at both the extent to which the submission is truly innovative as well as the extent of its impact or potential impact on the legal community.
Some of the benefits for finalists include: promotion in Bloomberg Law articles and on the Law School Innovation Program’s website, promotion on Bloomberg Law’s social media, a Law School Innovation Program finalist badge that can be displayed on the school’s website and marketing materials, among other benefits.
Additional networking opportunities, including participation in webinars and forums, and other benefits will be announced, as applicable.
FAQs: Submitting your program
Applications will be accepted starting in July 2024 through September 6, 2024.
The application is divided into three sections: (1) General Intake, (2) Written Responses, (3) Supplemental Materials (optional). Within the Written Responses, there are three separate questions. Note that the Supplemental Materials are purely optional to provide deeper context for the Innovation but will not be considered in scoring.
Download the fillable PDF application and email the completed PDF to innovation@bloombergindustry.com. We will reply once the application has been received. You may also direct any questions to innovation@bloombergindustry.com.
We ask that applicants refrain from including confidential information in their applications. While we will not publicly release or distribute supplemental materials included with applications without permission, Bloomberg Law may use information from an application’s written responses to the prompts for promotional purposes if an Innovation is selected as a finalist. This may include, but is not limited to, quotes from faculty and students, data relating to the program, and professor/administrator titles.
Access to applications will be limited to the Bloomberg Law team members involved in the Law School Innovation Program and application evaluators.
Related Innovations that are distinct in nature can be submitted as separate applications. For example, if a law school has an Innovation with different courses or clinics incorporated, either the entire program may be submitted or separate applications may be submitted for individual courses.
It is important to note that only the most impactful Innovations will be selected as finalists, so in the aforementioned example, it may better serve the applicant to submit the entire program itself to be judged as a whole, rather than as separate courses. However, there may be valid reasons to separate out and highlight individual courses, and we welcome separate applications in those instances.
We may consider late applications under certain circumstances, but incomplete submissions will not be considered. We will audit submissions and make every effort to inform applicants if they are missing a required element.
No, but you can provide us with the contact information of the professor or program administrator, and we will reach out on your behalf to inform them about the application process. Please direct this information to innovation@bloombergindustry.com.
No, individual applications or personal information will not be publicly available. However, the finalists will be promoted in Bloomberg Law articles, on the Law School Innovation Program’s website, and in Bloomberg Law social media posts.
No, applying to the program as well as all associated promotional materials for finalists are free for all U.S.-based, ABA-Approved law schools. There is no cost to submit your Innovation or be included as a finalist.
The Bloomberg Law team is here to support you throughout the entire application process. Should you have any questions or feedback, you may contact the team at innovation@bloombergindustry.com. We are also happy to schedule a call to discuss your questions.
2023-24 program and finalists
The 2023-24 Law School Innovation Program featured law schools with educational innovations that teach students critical lawyering skills to better prepare them for practice. Inspired by the NextGen bar exam, the 2023-24 program called for Innovations that go beyond the traditional legal curriculum and teach one or more of the Foundational Skills to be tested on the exam. Twelve finalists received the overall highest scores. Bloomberg Law categorized these finalists into four types of Innovations and acknowledged other high-scoring programs within those categories, listed below.
Learn more about the 2023-24 Law School Innovation Program.
- Brigham Young University Law School, BYU Law Academies Program
- Case Western University School of Law, Legal Writing, Leadership, Advocacy, and Professionalism (“LLEAP”)
- Harvard Law School, Legal Innovation Through Design Thinking
- Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and McCormick School of Engineering, AI and Legal Reasoning
- Suffolk University Law School, The Accelerator to Practice Program
- University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, Lawyers for America
- University of Minnesota Law School, Law In Practice
- University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, Daniel Webster Scholar (DWS) Program
- University of Oklahoma College of Law, Digital Initiative
- University of San Diego School of Law, Experiential Advocacy Practicum
- University of Wisconsin Law School, Advanced Legal Research and Legal Technology Experiential Coursework and Certifications
- Western New England University School of Law, Teaching Legal Research Through Community Outreach
Learn more about these innovations.
Finalists
- University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, Lawyers for America
- University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, Daniel Webster Scholar (DWS) Program
Honorable Mentions
- Seattle University School of Law, Preparing Students for Success on the NextGen Bar Exam
- University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, Startup Legal Garage
- University of Michigan Law School, Immigrant Justice Lab
Learn more about these innovations.
Finalists
- Brigham Young University Law School, BYU Law Academies Program
- Suffolk University Law School, The Accelerator to Practice Program
Honorable Mentions
- Boston University School of Law, The Case of the Lunch & Learn Lapse
- Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Writing for the Court
- Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Writing for Practice
- The University of Tennessee College of the Law, Institute for Professional Leadership
Learn more about these innovations.
Finalists
- Harvard Law School, Legal Innovation Through Design Thinking
- Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, AI and Legal Reasoning
- University of Wisconsin Law School, Advanced Legal Research and Legal Technology Experiential Coursework and Certifications
- Western New England University School of Law, Teaching Legal Research Through Community Outreach
Honorable Mentions
- Northern Kentucky Salmon P. Chase College of Law, The Lunsford Academy for Business, Law, & Technology
- Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, CS + Innovation Lab
- Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law, Legal Research & Writing Student Outreach Committee
Learn more about these innovations.
Finalists
- Case Western University School of Law, Legal Writing, Leadership, Advocacy, and Professionalism (“LLEAP”)
- University of Minnesota Law School, Law In Practice
- University of Oklahoma College of Law, Digital Initiative
- University of San Diego School of Law, Experiential Advocacy Practicum
Honorable Mentions
- Boston University School of Law, Transactional Skills
- Roger Williams University School of Law, Tip of the Week/Writing Center
- University of Houston Law Center, 1L Legal Research Modules