About the Lab
Who we are, what we do, who we serve.
The Penn Carey Law AI Teaching Lab researches how AI is changing legal education and practice, builds the tools that put those findings to work, and teaches lawyers, law students, judges, and the profession how to use AI well.
Three pillars, one loop
We organize around three pillars: Research, Build, and Teach. Research findings inform what gets built. Tools enable more research — at scale and with feedback. Teaching disseminates what we learn back to the field, and produces the questions that fuel the next research cycle. The loop is the methodology.
Who we serve
- Law students — through course tools, virtual TAs, simulation environments, AI-aware pedagogy
- Law faculty — through exam tools, grading research, teaching resources, pedagogy support
- Judges and chambers — through use-case research, chambers-facing tools, judicial AI training
- Small and medium law firms (next phase) — through training, tools, and applied resources for an underserved segment of the profession
Where we sit
The AI Teaching Lab is the build/apply arm of the broader Penn Carey Law AI Initiative. The Initiative is the strategy/curriculum/credentialing umbrella; the Lab is where tools, code, training systems, and applied research projects get made.
How we work
- Research, build, teach — in that order, on a loop. Don’t ship without learning. Don’t learn without applying.
- Open source by default. Public GitHub, public website, no-login access where possible.
- Markdown-first documentation. Code-adjacent, version-controlled, portable.
- Tools that real people use. Built for actual workflows — students, faculty, chambers, firms — not for demos.
- Penn Carey Law as the home, not the boundary. The Lab serves the profession, with PCL as its base.
Director
The Lab is directed by Polk Wagner, Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs and Innovation at Penn Carey Law.