Bloomberg Law Ranks Innovation Intensive Program One of Best in Nation

January 27, 2023

Bloomberg Law has ranked Albany Law School’s Innovation Intensive program as one of the best in the country.

In the inaugural roundup of law school innovation programs, Bloomberg Law’s evaluators—including practicing attorneys, legal tech and legal operations professionals, in-house counsel, and other experts—selected programs that are “pioneering educational innovations that benefit their students, their schools, and the legal field.”

Albany Law School’s Innovation Intensive program affords law students an opportunity to immerse themselves in on-site work at SUNY Polytechnic’s laboratories and partner with interdisciplinary teams to understand and work within the technology commercialization process in a university setting.

Law, business, and engineering students work in interdisciplinary teams—under the supervision of attorneys at the Research Foundation for SUNY—to advance their projects as a team with collective expertise.

The program has a heavy focus on intellectual property law and the regulation of new technologies, like the rapidly evolving areas of nanotechnologies, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.

“Our goal is to break down walls between the tech and the legal sides, so that our students understand technology and can effectively counsel inventors and entrepreneurs because they understand the business side,” said Albany Law School Professor Ray Brescia, who directs the program. “And in return, the innovators will know how to communicate with their lawyers, who we hope will be our graduates.”

"The Innovation Intensive has been a game changer for business and tech-focused law students, who now have unparalleled opportunities to experience actual practice in the increasingly intertwined fields of business, entrepreneurship, science, and law,” said Albany Law School President and Dean Alicia Ouellette ’94. “This is another example of the innovation we focus on here at Albany Law School by constantly providing cutting edge programming and community partnerships to educate our students and make a difference in our community.”