Get Involved
Being impactful—producing real solutions for AI in legal services—is a core pillar of RAILS. We hope participants will lean in and actively contribute to moving our mission forward. The responsible use of AI to advance the practice of law and delivery of legal services to all will take the collective efforts of our dedicated participants taking up an oar and rowing together.
By volunteering your time and talents, you have an opportunity to directly shape the future of AI in legal services for the benefit of both lawyers and the clients they serve.
When you apply to participate in RAILS, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up for one or more Working Groups or Committees. Apply now.
If you are already a participant in RAILS and want to sign up for a Working Group or change your affiliation: go to My Profile, Login, and Edit the Working Groups section.
RAILS Fellows
We invite applications for an inaugural cohort of RAILS Fellows, with priority application deadline of July 30, 2025.
In this self-directed role, each Fellow will propose and lead a specific project with defined outputs to be completed during Fall 2025, Spring 2026, or both.
Read the full Call for Applications (PDF).
RAILS Fellows are self-motivated professionals who are committed to leading responsible AI initiatives in legal services through research, resource creation, policy development, public engagement, and applied innovation. Fellows are expected to be self-driving leaders who will propose and execute specific projects or initiatives of their own design, in collaboration with the RAILS network and the Duke Center on Law & Technology (DCLT).
Working Groups
While there are innumerable practical issues to tackle regarding AI in legal services, we kicked off our RAILS WORKING GROUPS by diving deep into these priority areas:
- Client Engagement – How do we engage with clients and their data to unlock AI opportunities while maintaining trust, transparency, and confidence?
- Duties for AI-intermediated Legal Services – What trust models and duties are needed for AI systems to deliver legal services and information directly to consumers?
- AI Policy Guidelines and Best Practices for In-House Law Departments – How can Law Departments craft AI Policies that encourage and further AI adoption without raising risk and concern for their business clients and their own department?
We invite participants to join a working group or propose a new one. Together, through discussion and research, we will develop best practices, standards, questions for policymakers, open letters, draft commentaries, model rules, draft voluntary guidelines, or whatever might be most appropriate and impactful in the particular domain. Our goal is to produce tangible, impactful results that move the needle on priorities requiring a diversity of perspectives.
Propose Additional Focus Areas
We invite you to propose additional RAILS Working Groups to take on other high-impact topics requiring multi-stakeholder perspectives.
Guidelines:
- Proposed RAILS Working Groups should have clearly defined goals and outcomes that can realistically be advanced through volunteer efforts. RAILS will help resource and facilitate the work of each RAILS Working Group that is moved from proposed to active.
- Just as with our initial working groups, the success of new working groups depends on motivated participants leaning in to do the work. We hope you’ll bring your expertise and energy to push the boundaries of what we can accomplish together. Progress won’t happen without you – so please propose and participate!
If you have a topic about which you’re passionate to drive progress, let us know if you would be interested co-chairing the working group too. We welcome ideas that further the responsible and ethical integration of AI in legal services broadly.
Engage on a Short-Term Committee
We occasionally host short-term committees for rapid feedback. Please email us at RAILS@law.duke.edu with questions about current committees.