BC Law has taken another significant step to fully and holistically engage with the emergence of artificial intelligence in the legal profession by appointing Professor Maureen Van Neste to the new position of Faculty Director for AI Initiatives.
“We are thrilled to appoint Maureen to this new position, to help address one of the crucial and transformative issues facing both the legal profession and society more broadly,” said Odette Lienau, Marianne D. Short, Esq., Dean at BC Law. “We are focused on evaluating these tools through an ethical and mission-driven lens—teaching our students to use them responsibly, without losing critical human judgment and decision-making skills. Maureen has already been deeply involved with developing and implementing best practices around AI on campus, which will allow her to hit the ground running.”
Van Neste has been at the vanguard of incorporating the use of AI in Law Practice classes at BC Law, alongside Professors Joan Blum and Lis Keller. The trio has taken a critical, considered approach that trains students to be aware of the ways that uncareful AI use can lead one astray, and has stressed the importance of using a systematic approach to minimize and detect errors when performing research using the tools.
The new faculty position is part of a larger plan to thoughtfully integrate AI tools where appropriate across BC Law. The school first set four general principles to guide its approach to AI in 2023 as it began to organize related support structures and workshops. They stated that graduates must “1) understand how to use appropriate AI tools to assist in the production of particular legal language or documents (and be trainable as tools evolve); 2) be equipped to assess and benchmark a tool’s work product; 3) anticipate how AI tools might fit within a broader client strategy; and 4) weigh the technology’s ethical implications for the legal profession and the rule of law.”
Since that time, through the efforts of the Law Library Academic and Technology Resources group and the legal information librarians, the school has been able to build significant expertise in the technology. Van Neste was also part of the Dean’s AI Task Force, convened in Fall 2025, which studied AI tools under the lens of mission, and considered applications in faculty research and scholarship, curricular innovation and formation, and administrative work. In addition to the faculty director role, the school is actively rethinking administrative roles to better support AI tools, implementing communities of practice for faculty and staff, creating workshops and an AI badge offering for students, and building an online resource hub for the community.
In her new role, Van Neste will lead BC Law’s academic and policy response to AI. She will collaboratively shape AI-related policies for the classroom and academic experience, promote faculty experimentation, spur curricular innovation, and represent the law school’s faculty perspective in university-wide and external AI discussions. As part of BC Law’s—and Boston College’s more broadly—intentionality in locating its expanding AI initiatives squarely within its Jesuit mission of promoting the common good and care for the whole human person, Van Neste plans to fully incorporate these ethical principles into her new duties.
“The Jesuit tradition of discernment has never been more relevant,” she said. “AI fluency isn’t simply a technical skill. We want students asking the right questions, about the tool and about what it produces. Should we use this technology for this task at all? Whom does it serve? Is the work product accurate and complete? Does it serve our clients well? Will it help more people get the legal help they need? In the end, human judgment always governs, and we need to help students build the judgment and skills to use these tools critically and ethically.”
The appointment of Van Neste as Faculty Director for AI Initiatives also dovetails with an effort by Boston College to be a leader in the carefully considered use and treatment of AI in society. It comes on the heels of the announcement of the establishment of the new Krantz Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Humanity at BC, which will enlist faculty, visiting scholars, and business partners to “examine AI’s long-term opportunities and impact from a humanistic perspective, while instilling BC students with the judgement, wisdom, and critical thinking necessary to help them become ethical leaders in its deployment.”
As the Krantz Institute takes shape at BC, Van Neste will also continue her work on the Provost’s Advisory Council and will become an AI Faculty Fellow in the coming year, engaging with peers across the university to represent the perspective of the BC Law faculty.
“It’s an exciting time,” Van Neste said. “I’m thrilled to be working closely with my colleagues across the university to share insights, develop resources, and help shape a distinctly BC approach to the responsible use of AI in teaching and learning. And as the Krantz Institute begins to expand, I also look forward to engaging with them on advancing their initiatives. The university is engaging with AI in such a thoughtful and comprehensive way, and I look forward to being able to contribute even more in the future.”