EXP: Legal Access and Innovation Lab (Kosuri/Tung/Carlson)
Faculty
|
|
| Praveen Kosuri Practice Professor of Law and Director of the Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic pkosuri@law.upenn.edu |
|
|
| Genevieve Tung Associate Director for Educational Programs gtung@law.upenn.edu |
|
|
| Benjamin E. Carlson Associate Director for Scholarly Data & Innovation bencar@law.upenn.edu |
Additional Information
Skills Training
Team Projects
Grading
100% Other (See syllabus. This is a graded course. )
No
Class meets in person.
Meeting Times/Location
M 10:00AM - 12:00PM
Tanenbaum Hall 320
Category
Upper-Level
Credits
2.0
The Legal Access and Innovation Lab (Legal AI Lab) is a year-long course in which students design, build, and evaluate legal technology tools to expand access to justice for underserved communities. In this exploratory, first-time offering, students will partner with courts, legal aid organizations, and community organizations to identify systemic barriers to justice and develop potential solutions in response—such as AI-driven legal assistance tools, document automation platforms, and virtual self-help portals. Students will also have the unique opportunity to shape the course and future iterations of the Legal AI Lab.
The course prepares students for a legal profession in which technology is already embedded in research, drafting, and client service. Rather than studying legal technology in the abstract, students will pair classroom theory with real-world experience as they work directly with institutional partners to scope real projects, applying design-thinking methods grounded in a clear understanding of the people and systems they serve. Through this work, students will build skills that matter regardless of where technology goes next: managing client and stakeholder relationships and projects from problem identification through deployment; collaborating across disciplines with technologists and policy experts; evaluating legal tech tools with the rigor competent practice demands; and communicating about complex technical systems to both legal and non-legal audiences. Students will also engage directly with questions of bias, transparency, data privacy, cybersecurity, and equity raised by the use of technology in legal systems.
The Legal AI Lab combines a seminar component—addressing the theoretical, ethical, and practical foundations of legal technology and access to justice—with supervised project work. The fall semester will be more seminar and simulation based with the spring semester focused on problem identification, design, and execution of solutions. Students will be working in teams on their projects. The course is led by Professors Praveen Kosuri and Genevieve Tung, with technical guidance from Tech Lead Ben Carlson.
Format and Credits: Year-long course, 2 credits in the Fall and 3 credits in the Spring. The class meets once per week for two hours.
Application: Students need not have a technical background to apply, though an interest in technology, data, or design is helpful. Because projects are selected to align with the skills and interests of enrolled students, registration is by application only. The application is available at https://upenn.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bQ74rxevluMyshE.. The deadline to apply is Monday, July 13 (applicants will receive notice of admission or waitlist status by Friday, July 17. Because projects are chosen in part to match enrolled students, once you accept a spot in the Lab, you may not drop the course.
Questions: Contact Prof. Praveen Kosuri, pkosuri@law.upenn.edu; Prof. Genevieve Tung, gtung@law.upenn.edu.
Skills Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of the individual course skill; Demonstrate the ability to receive and implement feedback; Demonstrate an understanding of how and when the individual course skill is employed in practice.
Perspectives on the Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.
Professional Responsibility and Ethics Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.
Public Interest Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of the varied legal aspects of public interest law; Perform legal analysis in the context of public interest law; Communicate effectively on topics related to public interest law; Demonstrate an understanding of how public interest law is connected to and affected by a wide variety of legal and regulatory structures and doctrines.