NuLawLab

What happens when lawyers start working like artists and designers? Northeastern University School of Law found out by launching NuLawLab, our interdisciplinary innovation laboratory, where the question isn’t just “what does the law say?” but “who can actually use it?” Guided by a bold vision of a world where everyone is empowered to use the law, NuLawLab is a leader in the fast-growing global legal design movement, engaging the tools of art and design to invent new strategies for legal empowerment.

NuLawLab doesn’t design for communities; it designs with them. Through co-design, co-creation and participatory methods, the lab builds teams that pair students, scholars and community partners with the people who will use what gets made. The results are as varied as the challenges they tackle: Boston Housing Support Stations and the East Boston Spatial Justice Lab take on displacement and housing insecurity, the Colorado Virtual Courthouse reimagines how people reach the justice system, MAPLE (the Massachusetts Platform for Legislative Engagement) invites residents into the lawmaking process and projects like RePresent Games and Mapping Historical Racial Violence turn play and data into tools for understanding and change. Work spans housing, LGBTQ+ rights, trauma-informed practice, technology and human rights.

At its heart, NuLawLab is a training ground for the legal inventors of the future. The lab’s seminars, programs and research give students the skills to transform legal education, the legal profession and the way legal services reach people. NuLawLab is even studying its own impact: a research project traces how NuLawLab participants carry its methods and values into their careers, proof that the lab’s ideas keep working long after graduation.