The Southern University Law Center, in partnership with Penn State Law in University Park, has been chosen as a winner in the second annual Leading Edge Prize for Educational Innovation, which rewards teams with $10,000 for the best educational and professional solutions for law students and new legal professionals.

 “We are honored to help law students and other members of the legal ecosystem gain critical skills for success in a rapidly changing legal marketplace,” said John Pierre, chancellor of the Southern University Law Center. “This award will allow us to build on a concept initially developed by NetApp, Inc., in partnership with the Southern University Law Center and enhanced by the efforts of Penn State Law, which led to the creation of an innovative summer webinar certification program.”

 The title of the project is How Can We Educate 2L and 3L Students to be Better Equipped for Practice?, which aims to educate, empower, and equip law students about the impact of artificial intelligence, legal process automation, data analytics, e-discovery, design thinking, and other technological innovations on the delivery of legal services. This training will also help future lawyers address the access to justice gap and support diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.

 “This opportunity will allow us to serve law students and advance critical diversity and inclusion and access to justice goals,” said Osofsky. 

The competition is through Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory and the prestigious Leading Edge Prize unites law schools, companies and agencies from across the legal industry to collaborate on projects to benefit law school students. Through this process, teams deliver proposals to address a challenge facing legal education, such as access to justice, diversity in law schools, cost of law school, practice readiness, student wellness, and bar passage rates.