Overview & Eligibility 

The Pritzker School of Law centrally funds access to one AI tool for eligible law school residential faculty. Current options are Microsoft 365 Copilot Premium, Claude Enterprise, or ChatGPT Business.  

Request a Subscription 

Elligible law school residential faculty can start the process using our AI Platform Request form. If you need a second subscription, the expense will be charged to your research account. For questions, contact lit@law.northwestern.edu. 

Personal Subscriptions & Accounts 

Q: I already have a personal ChatGPT account. What happens to it? 

Personal ChatGPT accounts and the Pritzker Law ChatGPT Business workspace are separate environments. You'll access the workspace using your law school email; conversations from your personal account do not automatically transfer. 

If you merge your personal workspace into the Business workspace, your personal data moves in and your personal workspace is permanently deleted — this action is irreversible. See "Managing workspace lifecycle and migration" for step-by-step guidance. 

Q: I already have a personal Claude account. What happens to it? 

Personal Claude accounts and the Pritzker Law Claude Enterprise workspace are separate environments, accessed with your law school email. Conversations do not automatically transfer, and Claude does not offer a workspace merge option — save anything you want to keep before switching. Your personal account and the law school workspace remain separate; you can switch between them by signing in with the appropriate credentials. 

Choosing a Tool 

All tools support common tasks such as drafting, summarizing, brainstorming, and document analysis. The comparison below highlights how they differ. 

* Centrally funded by Northwestern per eligible member. 

** New license pricing is guaranteed for next year only, down from $30/user/month. 

*** M365 Copilot Premium is an annual license that renews in July.   

Data Use, Privacy & Security 

As with any digital tool, responsible use remains important. Northwestern classifies institutional data into four levels based on the potential harm from unauthorized disclosure or loss — from Level 1 (public information) to Level 4 (classified data, which is not permitted at Northwestern in any system). 

Key exceptions: PHI/HIPAA-protected data is not permitted in any tool, along with restrictions that may arise from sponsored research requirements or data use agreements. NIH and NSF peer reviewers are not currently permitted to use generative AI for review purposes. 

Learn More 

• University Workshops and Deeper Learning Opportunities
• AI Agents - Microsoft Webinar Series (Upcoming and On-Demand Sessions)
• Microsoft Copilot Chat at NU 
• Microsoft Copilot at NU 
• ChatGPT Business FAQ 
• Claude Enterprise 
• Claude Academy
• OpenAI Academy - ChatGPT Fundamentals
• OpenAI Academy - ChatGPT for Work Webinars

Access & Licensing 

Q: Can I subscribe to more than one centrally funded tool? 

Eligible law school residential faculty may subscribe to one centrally funded tool. If you're subscribed to a tool you're no longer using, please email lit@law.northwestern.edu to cancel it. 

Q: How do I log in to the Northwestern ChatGPT Business account once I get an account?

You will get an invitation in your Northwestern Pritzker Law Email Inbox, and you can set up your account profile from there. Sign into ChatGPT with this address: https://chatgpt.com/auth/login.

Q: How do I log in to the Northwestern Enterprise Claude once I get an account?

Follow the directions on the Northwestern IT Claude service page. Select “Continue with SSO” after entering your Northwestern email address. 

Q: How do I download the Claude app to my computer? 

Go to https://claude.com/download and choose the Claude version for your operating system (e.g. MacOS, Windows, etc.)

1. Click "Get Started"
2. Enter your law school email address.
3. Click the "Continue with SSO" button.
4. Click "Continue if prompted" 
5. Use your NetID and Password to authenticate.

Q: How do I install Claude plug-ins for Microsoft 365 (Excel, PowerPoint, Word), and also Claude for Outlook?

In Outlook (Beta), Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, follow these steps:

• Go to the Home tab and click "Add-Ins."
• Search for "Claude"
• Click Add
• In each of these apps, click "Sign in" and authenticate with your Northwestern credentials to activate it. 

An alternate means of installation is a manual install (if you don't have and Add-In button): 

In a web browser, Navigate to https://claude.com/claude-for-microsoft-365. There are two install buttons.

• There is one install button for Microsoft 365 (Excel, PowerPoint, Word)
• There is a separate install button for Outlook

Install:

1. Click the "Install for Microsoft 365" button.
2. In the Microsoft Marketplace page that comes up, click the "Get it Now" button.
3. Enter your law school email address, and Sign In.
4. On the Confirm your details page, click the "Get it now" button.
5. Go back to the https://claude.com/claude-for-microsoft-365 page and follow the same process by clicking the 
   Install for Outlook" button. 

Activate:

A Claude icon will now be on the application Toolbar:

• If you don't see it on your toolbar, click the 3 dots (...) on the toolbar to access it.

The first time you click the Claude Plug-in in each application, you will be asked to Sign In by launching a web browser:

1. Confirm the code in the app and the web match
2. Click the "Connect" button
3. Click the "Authorize" button
4. Click the "Continue" button in Outlook to finish the process. 
5. Turn On "Work across your apps."
6. Finalize any remaining steps by following the on-screen prompts.

Q: Can I connect ChatGPT to my email, calendar, or other apps? 

Not currently. Northwestern has not approved third-party AI integrations while it evaluates these tools.  

Q: What AI tool do students have access to? 

Students can access Microsoft Copilot Chat. When signing in with student Northwestern credentials, their chats have enterprise data protection. It's available via Microsoft Edge or any browser at m365.cloud.microsoft/chat. 

Q: Do my conversations stay with me if I leave the workspace, cancel my subscription, or leave Northwestern Law? 

No. Conversations created in a law school–provided AI workspace stay within that workspace and do not follow you to a personal account or another workspace, even with the same email address. If your subscription is cancelled or your access ends, you lose access to the conversations and content stored there. 

Q: What are ChatGPT and Claude Usage Limits

All AI tools have usage limits that restrict the amount of compute available within a given time period. Standard limits apply to Pritzker School of Law subscriptions. Additional credits cannot be purchased. If you reach your limit, you will need to wait until it resets.

• ChatGPT Business limits
• Claude Team limits

ChatGPT Best Practices - staying within limits

ChatGPT Business is designed for heavy everyday use. Limits are most often reached when high-compute modes are used inefficiently.

Understanding the Modes:

• Instant: The default model, optimized for speed and general tasks. Effectively unlimited for standard use.
• Thinking: Deeper reasoning, slower, and usage is limited. Use for complex tasks only.
• Pro: The highest compute option. Most resource-intensive. Use sparingly and intentionally.

Recommended Practices:

• Use Instant for most everyday work.
• Use Thinking only when deeper reasoning is genuinely needed.
• Be structured in your prompts. Include objectives, constraints, and the desired format.
• Batch edits into a single request rather than many small prompts.
• Start new chats regularly rather than maintaining one long conversation.
• Use advanced tools such as Deep Research, Image Generation, and Voice selectively.

Common Mistakes to Avoid:

• Defaulting to Thinking or Pro for simple tasks.
• Keeping one long conversation with repeated context.
• Pasting the same content multiple times.
• Using advanced tools for tasks that Instant handles well.

If something stops working, switch back to Instant, start a new chat, and continue normally.

Best Practices for Claude Team - staying within limits

Claude Team limits operate on a session-based system that resets every five hours, with an additional weekly limit that resets seven days after your session starts. Limits are most often reached by sending long, complex messages or maintaining very long conversations.

• Understanding how limits work:
• Usage limits control how much you can interact with Claude over a specific time period. Think of it as a conversation budget that resets on a rolling basis.
• Standard seats offer 1.25x more usage per session than the Pro plan, with a weekly usage limit that applies across all models.
• You can monitor your usage by navigating to Settings > Usage to view progress bars showing how much of your five-hour session and weekly limits you have consumed.

Recommended Practices:

• Group multiple related questions into a single message rather than sending them separately.
• Use Projects for recurring work. Documents uploaded to a project are cached, so referencing them repeatedly uses fewer messages than re-uploading each time.
• Start new chats regularly rather than maintaining one very long conversation. Claude re-reads the entire conversation history with each message.
• Be specific and structured in your prompts. Include your objectives, constraints, and desired format upfront to reduce back-and-forth.
• Use extended thinking and complex reasoning modes intentionally, not by default.
• Batch related edits and questions into a single message.

Common Mistakes to Avoid:

• Keeping one very long conversation. The longer it gets, the more tokens each new message consumes.
• Pasting the same content or documents repeatedly instead of using Projects.
• Using high-compute features for simple tasks that a straightforward prompt would handle.
• Sending many small iterative messages instead of one well-structured request.

For More Information see Claude usage limit best practices.

Integrations & Connections 

Q: Can I connect Microsoft 365 Copilot Premium to my email, calendar, or other apps? 

Yes. The following are permitted for Copilot Premium: 

• Email, calendar, OneDrive, etc.) 

• Office (Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint) 

Use the Add-Ins button in each application, search for Claude, and add it. Sign in to Claude in each application to activate it there.

Collaboration 

Q: Can I collaborate with colleagues who do not have Microsoft 365 Copilot Premium? 

No. Agent Builder is part of the Copilot Premium license, and collaboration is limited to those who also have that license. 

Conversations & Data Portability 

Q: Can my conversations transfer if I switch tools or cancel my subscription? 

No. There is no native way to export or transfer conversations across AI platforms — each tool stores conversations within its own environment, and conversations cannot be migrated between platforms. 

• ChatGPT Business: No data export available. Manually copy and save anything you want to keep before cancelling or switching. 

• Claude Enterprise: No native conversation export. Manually save important outputs before cancelling (see "Import and export your memory from Claude"). 

Q: What happens to my data when I cancel my subscription? 

You lose access to your workspace and its contents once your subscription is cancelled. Review each tool's retention policy before cancelling: "Data retention when a member is removed from a ChatGPT Business workspace" and "What happens to a user's data when they are removed from Claude Enterprise." 

You lose access to your workspace and its contents once your subscription is cancelled. Review each tool's retention policy before cancelling: "Data retention when a member is removed from a ChatGPT Business workspace" and "What happens to a user's data when they are removed from Claude for Education." 

Support 

For questions or access issues, email lit@law.northwestern.edu. 

Upcoming Events and Workshops