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.

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.


Industry Experts

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Connie Brenton

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Amanda Brown

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Kim Craig

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David Cunningham

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Ron Flagg

FAQs

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.


About the Program / Law School Eligibility


Yes, law schools must be ABA-Approved and U.S.-based to apply.
Innovation in the context of law schools is broad, but usually includes teaching and training methods that diverge from the traditional doctrinal legal curriculum and help to further student learning and career preparation. Innovation provides students with opportunities to succeed in today’s ever-changing legal profession by furnishing them with new information and ways to address both recent and longstanding obstacles and issues in the legal field.
This year’s Law School Innovation Program is inspired by the NextGen bar exam and the introduction of the Foundational Skills it will assess:
  • Investigation and Evaluation
  • Client Counseling and Advising
  • Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
  • Client Relationship and Management
  • Issue Spotting and Analysis*
  • Legal Research*
  • Legal Writing*

*Programs which focus on these skills must go beyond what has traditionally been taught in legal education, such as 1L legal research and writing courses.

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: (1) teaching technique; (2) skill-based course; (3) experiential learning program; (4) modern technology; (5) training method; (6) integrated instruction methodology; or (7) alternate innovative approach that fosters student learning and career preparation by developing at least one “Foundational Skill”. The Innovation should provide students with opportunities to succeed in today’s ever-changing legal profession by furnishing them with current information and ways to address both recent and longstanding obstacles and issues in the legal field.

Yes, Innovations that were submitted for the 2022 Law School Innovation Program, including those that were chosen as finalists, are eligible for the 2023 Law School Innovation Program, as long as they focus on developing any or all of the seven foundational skills mentioned above.
In late 2023, we will select a group of finalists to honor in early 2024. However, application rankings or scores will not be announced.
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 by looking at both the content (what they are teaching) and the method (how they are teaching it).
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.


Submitting Your Program


Applications will be accepted from June 1, 2023, through September 18, 2023, at 8 pm.
The application is divided into three sections: (1) General Intake, (2) Scored Prompts, (3) Supplemental Materials. Within Scored Prompts, there are three separate questions. While some information may be repeated in multiple sections, only the responses included in the Scored Prompts will be used to determine the score of the Innovation.
Applications and supplemental materials must be submitted via Qualtrics. Applications submitted via email will not be considered. If you have any issues with the application portal, please direct questions to innovation@bloombergindustry.com.
Bloomberg Law takes extensive measures to protect and secure your personal information and company data. Data is collected through Qualtrics Labs, Inc. (“Qualtrics”). For more information about Qualtrics’s security practices, see here. For information on their handling of personal information please see their Privacy Statement here.

All data files submitted in applications will be downloaded and stored securely on servers owned by Bloomberg Industry Group and its corporate affiliates. For more information on how Bloomberg Industry Group handles personal information please see our Privacy Policy. Only verified and invited users may access the data.
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.

2022 Program and Finalists

In 2022, Bloomberg Law’s inaugural Law School Innovation Program recognized law schools with innovative programs that advanced new methodologies and approaches to student instruction, legal technology implementation and adoption, experiential learning, and other facets of legal education. Ten finalists received the highest overall scores. Bloomberg Law also acknowledged the highest-scoring programs in six specific categories, listed below.



Learn More About the Overall Finalists

Learn More About the Top Scoring Programs in Technology

Learn More About the Top Scoring Programs in Business

Learn More About the Top Scoring Programs in Justice

Learn More About the Top Scoring Programs in Experience

Learn More About the Top Scoring Programs in Pedagogy

Learn More About the Top Scoring Programs in Student Development

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