The legal profession is at an inflection point. As artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies transform how people live, work, and interact with institutions, the delivery of legal services is being fundamentally rethought. This course explores how the legal industry can adapt—by learning from how other sectors have navigated disruption, and by developing a new mindset for engineering the future of legal practice.
This course invites students to consider how law can be redesigned to better serve clients, communities, and institutions in an era of rapid change. Drawing from real-world examples of innovation in business, healthcare, finance, and technology, students will explore how organizations have embraced transformation—and how similar strategies might apply to legal services. Through these parallels, we will challenge traditional assumptions about what lawyers do, how value is created, and what the future of legal work might look like.
Students will be introduced to foundational concepts in artificial intelligence and legal technology—not for the sake of technical fluency, but to understand their strategic implications. The focus will be on how these tools reshape client expectations, redefine workflows, and open opportunities for engineering new approaches to delivering legal solutions.
Central to the course is the application of design thinking: a user-centered, creative problem-solving methodology that will help students conceptualize new models of legal practice. Working in teams, students will identify pain points in legal service delivery and prototype innovative responses—combining legal knowledge with strategic and design-oriented thinking.
No background in technology is required – in fact, combining creative insights from a wide variety of disciplines is the focus of the course. What’s needed is a willingness to rethink the status quo, draw insights from beyond the legal field, and adopt a mindset of legal engineering—one that blends creativity, systems thinking, and a drive to build better legal futures.
Method of Evaluation: 34% In class tests and assignments, 33% Reflective In-Class Presentation, 33% Class Participation and Workshops.