“Leaning into the moment is something that we’re proud of having done through these initiatives,” said Quinnipiac School of Law Dean Brian Gallini.

Several new revisions are being introduced to advance 1L foundational knowledge as part of the School of Law’s innovative Bridge to Practice curriculum. Throughout all three years of study, the curriculum’s immersive on-campus experiences build practical skills and knowledge for law students as part of their law school and licensure journey. The new revisions address critical skills needed to excel in evolving areas of knowledge ranging from technological advancements to preparation for new testing modalities in Connecticut’s NextGen bar exam arriving in July 2026.

With the inaugural appointment of the director of the evening program, Quinnipiac School of Law is implementing new initiatives supporting evening and part-time students and will encourage sharing their lived experiences to help shape the program’s future.

With another new initiative which is also a differentiator for Quinnipiac, technology fluency is being brought to the forefront with the development and implementation of a required generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) course for all 1L students.

Gallini said Quinnipiac School of Law’s grounding as a student-centered institution is supported by exceptional leaders who care deeply about fostering a meaningful, impactful student experience.

“There are a lot of schools that may talk about being student-centered, but these are illustrative proof points of how we do it,” Gallini said. “It’s one thing to have the bells and whistles we really need to have so students feel exceptionally confident, whether it’s going into a high-stakes bar exam or that first job; but the ‘how’ is at the center. Everyone who I’m privileged to work with is always focused on the student perspective and these are the results of those conversations.”

This fall, impactful revisions to the Bridge to Practice curriculum include changes such as the new Integrated Professionalism class for 1L students, said Associate Dean of Career Development Millie VandenBroek.

“The redesigned Bridge to Practice curriculum ensures that all students have the skills and confidence they need at every stage of their legal education and sets them up to hit the ground running when they graduate. This training begins immediately in the 1L year with the new Integrated Professionalism class,” said VandenBroek.

The School of Law drew on student feedback and industry best practices to create the fall class, which gives all 1Ls critical training in professionalism, career skills, and academic excellence.

Some additional changes made to the previous 1L curriculum include a new focus on cultivating qualities of presence and attention that support learning, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities in a rapidly evolving world; integrating more career skill development early in the 1L fall semester to meet the demands of an accelerating legal hiring process; and building in academic excellence training, so that all students have access to the learning skills they need to thrive in their legal education, VandenBroek said.

Revisions to the Bridge to Practice curriculum also help to provide critical support to today’s law students as they enter the profession at a challenging time.

“The Bridge to Practice curriculum supports law students in navigating that complexity and gives them the training they need to meet the moment,” said VandenBroek. “The curriculum provides the pathway for the whole lawyer. It has been a pleasure to work on this redesign, bringing the best of the first iteration and folding in new ideas responsive to today’s challenges.”

VandenBroek said the curriculum redesign also further supports the School of Law’s evening and part-time student learning experience.

“It was very important to us to honor our commitment to the evening students and that all the essential components of the 1L experience would be made accessible to the evening cohort,” VandenBroek said.

For example, the School of Law’s 1L “Gateway” day -- a celebrated mid-year event bringing dozens of visiting lawyers to campus to lead small groups of students in experiential learning modules – now includes a bespoke version designed for evening students during normal class hours.

Additionally, by listening to feedback from the evening students about the content that they most need during the 1L year in the areas of career, professional identity formation, and academic skills, the Bridge to Practice Integrated Professionalism class content for evening students has been differentiated to best meet their needs.

Director of the Evening Program, Brendan Holt serves as an important point of student contact and sees much potential for further collaboration and program growth.

“We obviously want our evening and part-time students to excel at bar passage, to get the best academic experience, and be ready day one to practice. But the idea of this new position is in recognizing there sometimes are nuances and approaches that might help them in different or better ways by increasingly focusing on their lived experiences and making it better and easier for them to achieve those goals,” said Holt.

Recognizing the different professional experiences of evening and part-time law students can create efficiencies to help them excel and can also serve to augment the program.

“They might hit the ground running better in some ways from that experience. It’s trying to figure out ways we can tailor the experience to them knowing they are in a different professional place right now; and we might structure and tweak things that really lean into that knowledge that they bring to us as community,” said Holt.

In his role as director of the mediation clinic at the School of Law, Holt has seen the benefits of inviting students’ lived experiences to the table.

“I’ve had evening students in my clinic, and the nuance and perspective they bring to conversations make it a better clinic and a better class. With the evening program, we’re acknowledging that lived experience,” Holt said.

Another goal is to connect evening and part-time students with all of the resources and opportunities at the School of Law and tap into their feedback to develop constructive change.

“It’s making sure they have equal access to the resources but also recognizing they may have some unique insights to be a part of the change. We’re looking for that energy and experience in some ways, rather than just making it cohesive. It’s leaning into a place where we are benefited by you and acknowledging that we’re creating a pipeline for you to bring great ideas and energy about things we haven’t maybe imagined or run into,” Holt said.

Holt, who also co-teaches an AI symposium, values the School of Law’s commitment to instituting a required 1L course in generative AI.

“That excites me even more so with the evening students, because uniquely they might see little things day-to-day involving generative AI or other technology and come in with a different imagination of problems that can be solved,” said Holt.

The spring course focuses on legal research and writing applications, critical thinking skills, and ethical use of generative AI. It will be constantly updated as legal resources and legal research models evolve, said course co-instructor Jordan Jefferson, director of the Lynne L. Pantalena Law Library and associate professor of law.

“Generative AI is constantly evolving. It’s not a static engagement,” said Jefferson. “Our approach to educating the whole lawyer has to be in every course, in every professor, in everything we do this at the law school.”

Jefferson designed the course together with co-instructor Joseph Liptrap, assistant director of legal research instruction and research librarian. The unit focuses on generative AI tools by incorporating the assessment, evaluation and critical analysis of the tools as well as their outputs. The course complements required 1L traditional instruction in legal research and legal writing skills.

“One of the things we strive to do in the legal research part of education is not just to teach them how to use these tools, but how to understand and evaluate these tools and resources,” said Jefferson. “Having this as its own unit helps to ease the lift for the legal writing faculty; but it also gives us an opportunity to integrate and build on the skill set we were already building. Our learning outcomes are to help them build critical skills and to look at these skill sets and ask the same questions they would ask in legal research.”

Quinnipiac School of Law is taking the lead as one of very few institutions in the nation with a required, stand-alone generative AI course for 1L students.

“Most times, this is done as advanced legal research in the upper levels that’s optional and rarely required, though many students take it. We are providing this in their first year and setting a foundation for the rest of their time at law school and in their career,” Jefferson said.

Gallini said the exciting new initiatives underway at Quinnipiac School of Law are just some of the latest results of an ongoing conversation focused on educating the whole lawyer.

“We’re always going to be in dialogue about the student experience. We’re always going to be in dialogue about the bar exam, or the curriculum, or the evening program. There’s no finality here. It’s people who care and who think in this moment this is the best way to leverage our expertise for the benefit of students,” Gallini said.