Northwestern Law Ranks at Top of New Law School Innovation Index

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law is ranked at the top of a new Law School Innovation Index that aims to measure the extent to which law schools prepare students to deliver legal services in the 21st Century.

The index was created by Daniel W. Linna Jr., director of The Center for Legal Services Innovation at Michigan State’s University College of Law. Linna previously launched a Legal Services Innovation Index that looked specifically at innovation in law firms. This new index, focused on law schools, is an expansion of his previous project. Its stated mission is to accelerate legal-service delivery innovation and technology adoption across the legal industry. “Given law schools’ foundational role in the legal ecosystem, we must also expect law schools to evolve if we hope to move the legal profession forward,” explains the project’s website. In order to be considered in their prototype list, a school must offer a course with instruction in at least one of the following legal-service delivery disciplines:

• Business of Law
• Process Improvement
• Leadership for Lawyers
• Project Management
• Innovative/Entrepreneurial Lawyering
• Computational Law
• Empirical Methods
• Data Analytics
• Technology Basics
• Applied Technology

Northwestern Law ranked in the Top 4, given its robust course offerings in legal-service delivery disciplines as well as its innovation and technology programs. The Law School has long recognized the impact of technology on the practice of law and has embarked on a series of curricular and programming initiatives designed to prepare its students for the future of the profession.

“We are excited to be included in Dan Linna’s new Law School Innovation Index,” said Alyson Carrel, Assistant Dean of Law and Technology Initiatives. “Our Center for Practice Engagement and Innovation is the first legal education innovation incubator and we are always exploring ways we can best prepare our students for the changing legal services landscape. But so much more is to come. On the same day as Linna’s innovation index was launched, we announced a new partnership with ROSS Intelligence that will not only give our students access to the latest technology innovations in the classroom, but will allow them to use that technology to increase access to justice in our community as well.  We are proud Linna recognizes the accomplishments here at Northwestern, but even more excited to see how this index sparks increased innovation in legal education across all law schools.”

Other tech-based initiatives at Northwestern Law include the Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Concentration, designed to expose JD students to the issues that drive the innovation process, and the Master of Science in Law degree, which provides practical, business-centered legal training to STEM professionals.

“This has been a key goal for Northwestern Law – to be at the forefront of efforts to advance new initiatives at the intersection of law, business & technology and to educate our law students for a rapidly changing world,” said Dean Daniel B. Rodriguez.