HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. (Jan. 16, 2014) – The Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law has approved a new curriculum for the W. Bruce Lunsford Academy for Law, Business + Technology, with the first courses being offered in the 2014-15 academic year.
The W. Bruce Lunsford Academy for Law, Business + Technology will be an honors immersion program operated by the NKU Chase Law + Informatics Institute. The focus of the program will be to develop “Renaissance lawyers” for the information age, with specialty courses that emphasize legal technology, business, finance, leadership and other skills critical to the future of the practice of law. 
The program’s technology-focused, skills-based curriculum is designed to help students acquire the fundamental skills that will make them more productive for their clients, more attractive to employers and better prepared to practice law upon graduation. Many of the courses developed for the honors program will be available for other students enrolled at Chase. Students are also encouraged to expand their skills training with full-time field placements, which provide students with professional, live-client experience while in law school.
“This program will become an integral part of our curriculum and will provide Chase students with a dynamic environment in which to learn the skills they need to succeed in a technology-driven world,” said Chase Dean Jeffrey A. Standen.
The announcement regarding the opening of the Lunsford Academy has received a warm reception. The E-Lawyering Task Force of the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section named Chase as one of “13 Top Law Schools Teaching Law Practice Technology.”
Lunsford, a 1974 Chase graduate, is chairman and CEO of Lunsford Capital LLC, a private investment company headquartered in Louisville. In September 2013, the NKU Board of Regents approved the name of the new program as the W. Bruce Lunsford Academy for Law, Business + Technology, in recognition of Lunsford’s 10-year, $1 million commitment to the program.
In addition to taking the program’s required and elective law and informatics courses, students will also be able to earn one of three joint degrees. Chase partners with the NKU College of Informatics to offer a Juris Doctor/Master of Business Informatics and a Juris Doctor/Master of Health Informatics, and with the NKU Haile/US Bank College of Business to offer a Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration.
Professor Jon Garon, director of the Law + Informatics Institute, explained that “all lawyers need business education, information technology and intellectual property knowledge, and law practice management experience to compete in today’s global marketplace. The Lunsford Academy is the first law school curriculum in the United States to focus on this new core of professional education.”
To learn more about the program, visit chaselaw.nku.edu/content/chaselaw/centers/la.html.
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