Fellows will get $25K in funding, mentorship sessions, beta feature access
Spellbook has introduced a $1 million legal fellowship fund that seeks to support the next generation of law students and legal innovators who focus on the intersection of law, legal technology, and systems thinking.
“We believe the legal industry needs more lawyers who can connect legal judgment with systems thinking,” said Daniel Di Maria, Spellbook co-founder and former lawyer, in the blog post announcing the initiative. “People who can spot friction in workflows and help build something better.”
Every semester, Spellbook will choose at least one fellow among the law student applicants to:
- Focus on one inaccessible, confusing, or otherwise flawed legal workflow, such as an inconsistent contract review process or a negotiation or intake process that results in needless friction
- Pressure-test ideas with the Spellbook team
- Deliver a concrete solution at the end of the semester-long project
“The fellowship is designed around your coursework—one focused problem, one concrete deliverable, one semester,” Di Maria said.
Spellbook will offer the following to the 2026 fellows:
- funding of $25,000
- one-on-one mentorship sessions with Di Maria
- a small number of working sessions with other Spellbook team members
- free Spellbook access for five years
- early access to beta features
Spellbook is an artificial intelligence suite for contractual review and drafting and other commercial legal work.
Students who are a good fit
Di Maria shared that Spellbook is seeking law student candidates who are curious about systems and processes, interested in technology policy and implementation, able to identify a specific inefficiency in a legal system, and willing to move toward discomfort.
Di Maria clarified that applicants do not need to be familiar with coding.
“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,” Di Maria said in the blog post.
According to Di Maria, applications for the 2026 cohort are due by July 15. Spellbook will review applications on a rolling basis.
Di Maria noted that all applicants are also eligible for a free one-year Spellbook license via Spellbook’s Academic Partnership Program, which has 75 participating law schools, including Queen's University and Toronto Metropolitan University.
“It’s incredible to see how law schools are integrating AI into their curriculum,” said Scott Stevenson, Spellbook co-founder and chief executive officer, in the post announcing the launch of the program in September 2025.
