Introducing the Spellbook Legal Fellowship Fund

I started Spellbook with my co-founder Scott because I was dissatisfied with the status quo in legal practice. I envisioned a world where lawyers could spend more time doing what excited them about a career in law.

It was difficult to make that leap. Saddled with student loans, moving from practice to entrepreneurship seemed untenable. Luckily, we found an early angel investor who took a bet on our team.

Now that we’re in the fortunate position of being a fast-growing company in the legal AI industry, we want to pay it forward to the next generation of legal innovators.

That’s why we're seeding a $1 million Spellbook Fellowship Fund.

The Spellbook Legal Fellowship Fund is a $1 million initiative backing the next generation of law students working at the intersection of law, systems thinking, and legal technology.

Each semester, we’ll select one or more fellows to focus on a broken legal workflow they care about deeply. Anything from a contract review process that lacks consistency to a negotiation workflow that creates unnecessary friction.

The fellowship is designed around your coursework—one focused problem, one concrete deliverable, one semester.

What fellows receive

2026 fellows receive:

• $25,000 in funding
• Mentorship from co-founder Daniel Di Maria and other members of the Spellbook team
• Free access to Spellbook for five years
• Early access to beta features
• A semester-long project focused on one broken legal workflow, ending in a concrete final deliverable 

Fellows will have one-on-one sessions with me, a small number of working sessions with the Spellbook team, and the opportunity to pressure-test their ideas with the people building legal technology for real workflows.

By the end of the semester, you’ll have done meaningful work on a clear problem and have something concrete to show for it. 

Who we’re looking for

1. Curiosity about systems

Law school is built to train excellent rule-learners. It teaches students to make the argument, file the motion and close the deal. 

But there's a certain kind of student who cares not just about the rules, but the day-to-day processes that surround them. The workflows, the handoffs, the templates, the entrenched old habits. The person who feels, at some low-level hum, that legal practice could be designed better than it currently is and has already started forming a point of view about how to get there.

These are the students we want to help.

2. You do not need to know how to code

But strong candidates will have had some exposure to technology: building something, working at a startup, or thinking seriously about technology policy and implementation. 

3. A clear view of what is broken

The best applicants will point to something specific. A workflow that is inefficient. An intake process that creates unnecessary friction. An experience with a legal system that felt confusing, inaccessible, or poorly designed. 

We care less about general interest in legal tech than about whether you can identify a concrete problem with precision and want to be part of the solution.

4. Willingness to move toward discomfort

Legal tech is not the default path in law.

The people who do important work here are often the only lawyer in the room or non-engineer on the team. They’ve learned to operate without a playbook and find that energizing not unsettling. If that describes you, then we want to hear from you.

What we’re building

We believe the legal industry needs more lawyers who can connect legal judgment with systems thinking. People who can spot friction in workflows and help build something better. That is what this fellowship is designed to support.

If this sounds like you, apply here. Applications are due by July 15 and reviewed on a rolling basis. 

Every student who applies for the Spellbook Fellowship is also eligible for a free one-year Spellbook license through our Academic Partnership Program. Click here to get free student access to Spellbook.

‍