Boston University School of Law Partners with Harvey AI to Equip Its Students, Faculty, and Staff with Leading Artificial Intelligence Tools
Boston University School of Law is thrilled to announce its partnership with Harvey, a leading provider of domain-specific generative artificial intelligence designed for legal and professional services. BU Law is one of 18 schools to join Harvey’s expanded law school alliance program, –including the University of Chicago Law School, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, NYU School of Law, University of Michigan Law School, Stanford Law School, Vanderbilt Law School, and more–which is catered specifically to the needs of legal education and the increasing use of AI in the legal profession.
This partnership will allow BU Law students, faculty, and staff access to the Harvey platform and will support BU Law’s efforts in building course content and an overall curriculum that will prepare students to employ generative AI effectively, efficiently, and ethically in a rapidly evolving legal profession. The alliance with Harvey is a continuation of BU Law’s longstanding tradition of providing students with relevant hands-on experience that enables practice-readiness on day one. Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig affirms, “At BU Law, we were among the first law schools to employ clinical legal education to prepare our students for the ethical practice of law. We are also proud to be among the first to work with Harvey to give our students the critical thinking and technological skills they will need to navigate a complicated world of seemingly endless, but often questionable, information and provide their clients with first-rate legal work.”
The Harvey alliance holds great potential for extending the reach of the legal services provided by BU Law’s clinics. Access to Harvey’s platform will allow students enrolled in clinics to save time on more rote tasks, which will enable them to spend more time and resources on improving client advocacy and even extend access to justice by serving more low-income clients. By joining Harvey’s law school program, BU Law is also helping to level the playing field for its students by providing both broad access to an important AI tool and the guidance and direction on how to use the tool.
“Our goal at BU Law is to ensure that every graduate is prepared to use artificial intelligence wisely, ethically, and skillfully in both learning and practicing the law. By providing Harvey to all of our students, we are giving them hands-on experience with the same advanced tools already reshaping legal practice,” shares Professor Timothy Duncan, lecturer and director of BU Law’s new AI Program. “This partnership reinforces Boston University School of Law’s commitment to leading the thoughtful integration of AI into legal education, and it will help our students stand out as future leaders in an evolving profession.”
BU Law’s AI Program is currently in the process of developing a new certificate in AI for Law Practice, through which students will learn how to write various legal documents, such as complaints, answers, and motions. This certificate program will also equip students with the ability to conduct legal research using state-of-the-art AI legal tools.
Dean Onwuachi-Willig says, “The certificate will serve as an important signal to employers about our students’ continued preparedness for real-life legal practice and, more so, for their ability to evolve as the profession changes. We are very excited about the possibilities that this important partnership presents for our students, their future development as lawyers, their future professional opportunities, and the positive impacts we know they can and will have on our society.”
In a statement announcing the partnership, Harvey shared that they are “thrilled to collaborate with this next wave of AI-forward institutions to enhance our existing ecosystem and to continue to embed Generative AI in legal education.”
In addition to its law school partners, Harvey has worked with leading law, tax, and finance firms, including global law firms and Fortune 500 enterprises around the world, to innovate, foster success in their workflows, and drive efficiency and value.