Duquesne Law Expands Law Firm Collaboration to Shape AI Education

Duquesne University’s Kline School of Law is extending a law-firm collaboration into a second academic year to align AI education with legal practice. Faculty and staff visited six firms during the program’s first year, including Jones Day, Reed Smith and Babst Calland. The school plans six additional firm visits during the current academic year.

The initiative places legal education inside the market’s accelerating debate over how lawyers should use artificial intelligence. Law firms are developing practical approaches to legal research, contract management and other legal technology applications, while law schools face pressure to prepare students for work in practices where AI tools may influence research, drafting and legal operations. Duquesne’s approach treats firms as sources of operational insight rather than limiting AI instruction to classroom theory.

The school launched its AI and Law Collaboration last year and is continuing it through visits to a range of law firms. The source does not identify the full group of participating firms or describe a commercial technology arrangement, licensing agreement or financial commitment. Instead, the program is structured around information gathering: faculty and staff examine how legal professionals use AI in real-world settings and use those observations to inform education. That distinction matters in a market where law schools, firms and technology companies are still defining what practical AI competence should mean for future lawyers.