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5 Benefits of Learning Through the Case Study Method

• 28 Nov 2023

While several factors make HBS Online unique —including a global Community and real-world outcomes —active learning through the case study method rises to the top.

In a 2023 City Square Associates survey, 74 percent of HBS Online learners who also took a course from another provider said HBS Online’s case method and real-world examples were better by comparison.

Here’s a primer on the case method, five benefits you could gain, and how to experience it for yourself.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is the Harvard Business School Case Study Method?

The case study method , or case method , is a learning technique in which you’re presented with a real-world business challenge and asked how you’d solve it. After working through it yourself and with peers, you’re told how the scenario played out.

HBS pioneered the case method in 1922. Shortly before, in 1921, the first case was written.

“How do you go into an ambiguous situation and get to the bottom of it?” says HBS Professor Jan Rivkin, former senior associate dean and chair of HBS's master of business administration (MBA) program, in a video about the case method . “That skill—the skill of figuring out a course of inquiry to choose a course of action—that skill is as relevant today as it was in 1921.”

Originally developed for the in-person MBA classroom, HBS Online adapted the case method into an engaging, interactive online learning experience in 2014.

In HBS Online courses , you learn about each case from the business professional who experienced it. After reviewing their videos, you’re prompted to take their perspective and explain how you’d handle their situation.

You then get to read peers’ responses, “star” them, and comment to further the discussion. Afterward, you learn how the professional handled it and their key takeaways.

HBS Online’s adaptation of the case method incorporates the famed HBS “cold call,” in which you’re called on at random to make a decision without time to prepare.

“Learning came to life!” said Sheneka Balogun , chief administration officer and chief of staff at LeMoyne-Owen College, of her experience taking the Credential of Readiness (CORe) program . “The videos from the professors, the interactive cold calls where you were randomly selected to participate, and the case studies that enhanced and often captured the essence of objectives and learning goals were all embedded in each module. This made learning fun, engaging, and student-friendly.”

If you’re considering taking a course that leverages the case study method, here are five benefits you could experience.

5 Benefits of Learning Through Case Studies

1. take new perspectives.

The case method prompts you to consider a scenario from another person’s perspective. To work through the situation and come up with a solution, you must consider their circumstances, limitations, risk tolerance, stakeholders, resources, and potential consequences to assess how to respond.

Taking on new perspectives not only can help you navigate your own challenges but also others’. Putting yourself in someone else’s situation to understand their motivations and needs can go a long way when collaborating with stakeholders.

2. Hone Your Decision-Making Skills

Another skill you can build is the ability to make decisions effectively . The case study method forces you to use limited information to decide how to handle a problem—just like in the real world.

Throughout your career, you’ll need to make difficult decisions with incomplete or imperfect information—and sometimes, you won’t feel qualified to do so. Learning through the case method allows you to practice this skill in a low-stakes environment. When facing a real challenge, you’ll be better prepared to think quickly, collaborate with others, and present and defend your solution.

3. Become More Open-Minded

As you collaborate with peers on responses, it becomes clear that not everyone solves problems the same way. Exposing yourself to various approaches and perspectives can help you become a more open-minded professional.

When you’re part of a diverse group of learners from around the world, your experiences, cultures, and backgrounds contribute to a range of opinions on each case.

On the HBS Online course platform, you’re prompted to view and comment on others’ responses, and discussion is encouraged. This practice of considering others’ perspectives can make you more receptive in your career.

“You’d be surprised at how much you can learn from your peers,” said Ratnaditya Jonnalagadda , a software engineer who took CORe.

In addition to interacting with peers in the course platform, Jonnalagadda was part of the HBS Online Community , where he networked with other professionals and continued discussions sparked by course content.

“You get to understand your peers better, and students share examples of businesses implementing a concept from a module you just learned,” Jonnalagadda said. “It’s a very good way to cement the concepts in one's mind.”

4. Enhance Your Curiosity

One byproduct of taking on different perspectives is that it enables you to picture yourself in various roles, industries, and business functions.

“Each case offers an opportunity for students to see what resonates with them, what excites them, what bores them, which role they could imagine inhabiting in their careers,” says former HBS Dean Nitin Nohria in the Harvard Business Review . “Cases stimulate curiosity about the range of opportunities in the world and the many ways that students can make a difference as leaders.”

Through the case method, you can “try on” roles you may not have considered and feel more prepared to change or advance your career .

5. Build Your Self-Confidence

Finally, learning through the case study method can build your confidence. Each time you assume a business leader’s perspective, aim to solve a new challenge, and express and defend your opinions and decisions to peers, you prepare to do the same in your career.

According to a 2022 City Square Associates survey , 84 percent of HBS Online learners report feeling more confident making business decisions after taking a course.

“Self-confidence is difficult to teach or coach, but the case study method seems to instill it in people,” Nohria says in the Harvard Business Review . “There may well be other ways of learning these meta-skills, such as the repeated experience gained through practice or guidance from a gifted coach. However, under the direction of a masterful teacher, the case method can engage students and help them develop powerful meta-skills like no other form of teaching.”

How to Experience the Case Study Method

If the case method seems like a good fit for your learning style, experience it for yourself by taking an HBS Online course. Offerings span seven subject areas, including:

• Business essentials
• Leadership and management
• Entrepreneurship and innovation
• Finance and accounting
• Business in society

No matter which course or credential program you choose, you’ll examine case studies from real business professionals, work through their challenges alongside peers, and gain valuable insights to apply to your career.

Are you interested in discovering how HBS Online can help advance your career? Explore our course catalog and download our free guide —complete with interactive workbook sections—to determine if online learning is right for you and which course to take.

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From inquiry to action, harvard business school & the case method, homepage section.

Since the 1920s, the case method has been the foundational teaching practice at Harvard Business School (HBS). Based on participant-centered learning, the instructional approach facilitates discussions about real-life problems encountered in business, to prepare students for roles as leaders, managers, and decision makers. The case method encourages students to plan a course of inquiry—analyze, listen, compare other perspectives—and choose a course of action. For over 100 years, HBS has been an innovative leader in the development and refinement of teaching with the case method, helping to shape business education programs and business leaders around the world. “While cases may look different in the future,” HBS Dean Srikant Datar observes,  “the fundamental approach of discussion, debate, and deliberation will undoubtedly last into the next century.” 1 Drawing on materials from the HBS Archives, From Inquiry to Action explores the introduction of the case method in the teaching of business administration and highlights the School’s early contributions that have led to the enduring influence of this participant-centered teaching practice.

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1 Dean Srikant Datar in “Dean Datar Introduces the Case Method Centennial,” 2021.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI1-K2nECTo. Accessed 2/2/22.

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Due to licensing restrictions, Harvard Business School Case Studies are limited to classroom use by individual students. The BU Libraries (including Pardee Library) cannot purchase cases for the library’s collections, or obtain cases through Interlibrary Loan. Individuals may purchase copies of cases for their own personal use directly from Harvard Business Publishing .

Instructors that assign Harvard Business School cases to their students can set up course packs directly with Harvard Business Publishing . Students will need to pay a fee to access the course pack and cost will vary depending on number of cases involved.

If you would rather not pay a fee for cases, please review this guide further for cases available through existing library resources or Open Access Cases (free).

A small number of case studies can be found in Harvard Business Review via our Business Source Complete subscription (1922-present) or in print at Pardee Library (1990-present). To limit your search results in Business Source Complete to case studies, select "Case Study" for the Document Type. Another source for business cases is Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (2007-present). You should also select "Case Study" for the Document Type to limit search results to case studies.

In August 2013, HBR designated 500 of their most popular articles as "read-only" and restricted the ability to print or download those articles in Business Source Complete. While it may change over time, the original list of articles is available here: HBR 500 . If you need an article that is part of the HBR 500, you may be able to access it through our Harvard Business Review print subscription at Pardee Library.

*Faculty: Please note that HBR articles from our Business Source Complete subscription may not be linked to course management systems due to licensing restrictions, however, articles can be purchased directly from Harvard Business School Publishing for inclusion in course packs.

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Case collection: Harvard Business Publishing

About Harvard Business Publishing

Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) is the leading provider of teaching materials for management education.

HBP was founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit, wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvard University, reporting into Harvard Business School. HBP's mission is to improve the practice of management in a changing world. This mission influences how they approach what they do and what they believe is important.

With approximately 450 employees, primarily based in Boston, with offices in New York City, India, Singapore, Qatar and the United Kingdom, HBP serves as a bridge between academia and enterprises around the globe through its publications and multiple platforms for content delivery, and its reach into three markets: academic, corporate, and individual managers. HBP has a conventional governance structure comprising a  Board of Directors , an internal  Executive Committee , and Business Unit Directors.

About the collection

The Case Centre distributes a comprehensive range of materials including the complete collection of more than 7,500 Harvard Business School case studies, teaching notes, background notes, case videos, and a selection of software ancillaries.

Also included are:

• Brief Cases that are rigorous and compact with five-eight pages and three-four exhibits
• case studies that are popular for undergraduate-level courses
• executive education cases that provide rich yet efficient learning for managers at every level.

Additional top quality HBP teaching materials available from The Case Centre include:

• articles from the  Harvard Business Review  and other top management journals
• case method books from the Harvard Business School Press
• over 2,000  individual chapters  from popular Harvard Business School Press books
• newsletter articles  from Harvard Management Update, Strategy & Innovation, Negotiation, and Balanced Scorecard Report
• Core Curriculum Readings  that cover the foundational concepts, theories, and frameworks that business students must learn. Authored by faculty at Harvard Business School, each Reading includes a teaching note, related course materials, and exhibit slides. Many include test banks, practice questions, video clips, and Interactive Illustrations to enhance student comprehension of specific topics.

HBP also offer a number of free cases.  Browse here

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For any queries related to the Harvard Business Publishing collection, please visit:

Travis Stewart e [email protected]

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The HBP collection of over 16,000 cases, and their accompanying instructor materials, software and videos, 7,000 management articles and 2,000 individual book chapters are available from The Case Centre.

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There are restrictions on the distribution of some items. To see any restrictions login to our site (or register if you've not already done so) and use our online search to find the item you're interested in. Any restrictions will be shown alongside the product.

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Innovation at Moog Inc.

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Innovation at Google Ads: The Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL) (A)

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Hometown Foods: Changing Price Amid Inflation

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Booking.com

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Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee

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United Housing - Otis Gates

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The Great East Japan Earthquake (B): Fast Retailing Group's Response

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Insurer of Last Resort?: The Federal Financial Response to September 11

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Under Armour

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Bitfury: Blockchain for Government

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Maersk: Betting on Blockchain

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Bharti Airtel in Africa

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Li & Fung 2012

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Sony and the JK Wedding Dance

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United Breaks Guitars

David dao on united airlines.

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Social Strategy at Nike

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The Tate's Digital Transformation

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The Walt Disney Company and Pixar, Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?

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Dow's Bid for Rohm and Haas

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Data Breach at Equifax

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Apple's Core

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Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple

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Apple Inc. in 2012

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Iz-Lynn Chan at Far East Organization (Abridged)

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Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit

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Adobe Systems: Working Towards a "Suite" Release (A)

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Starbucks Coffee Company: Transformation and Renewal

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JCPenney: Back in Business

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Home Nursing of North Carolina

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Basecamp: Pricing

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J.C. Penney's "Fair and Square" Pricing Strategy

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Osaro: Picking the best path

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HubSpot and Motion AI: Chatbot-Enabled CRM

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GROW: Using Artificial Intelligence to Screen Human Intelligence

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Arup: Building the Water Cube

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Organizational Behavior Reading: Leading Global Teams

Ron ventura at mitchell memorial hospital.

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Anthony Starks at InSiL Therapeutics (A)

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Wolfgang Keller at Konigsbrau-TAK (A)

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The 2010 Chilean Mining Rescue (A)

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Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School

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Shapiro Global

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Alex Montana at ESH Manufacturing Co.

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• 15 Aug 2016

Writing a Case as a Student at HBS

There is a lot to get used to during your first semester atHBS – attending class, making new friends, finding an internship, and doing homework again. While reading and preparing cases for each class may seem daunting and time-consuming at first, it becomes second nature after a semester or two. By second year , many students decide to try their hand at writing a case themselves.

Why write a case with a professor?

In case you aren’t yet familiar with HBS cases, they are the 10-30 page packets upon which almost every class discussion is based. Cases can be and are written on many topics: a person, a company, a country, an event. They are written by HBS professors, research associates, and sometimes students.

For those who are nostalgic about undergraduate or masters’ thesis writing days, and are excited about being in an academic environment again, writing a case with a professor is a great way to do independent academic research. Depending on the topic, case writing allows you to conduct primary research and meet case protagonists .

Some students have leveraged such research to find new jobs or expand their professional networks. It is also a great way to leverage pre-HBS work experience (by writing a case on a company you’ve worked with) or learn something completely new. If you are looking to dig deep into a company or topic, writing a case is one of the best ways to do it. 

Additionally, case writing is a way to form a close relationship with a professor of your choice - they become your case advisor and mentor. It also affords you a unique “inside look” into the workings of HBS and the process by which our learning curriculum is built. Being associated with a published HBS document isn’t too bad either.

How does it work?

If writing a case is something that interests you, it is very easy to get started.

1) Choose a topic of interest or a professor you are hoping to get to know better. If you choose a topic first, find a professor that either you know and like or that is particularly knowledgeable on or interested in the topic. As you will soon see, pretty much any topic goes!

2) Determine how you want to fit the case writing into your schedule. Options include replacing a class your second year with an independent project, or treating case writing like an extracurricular activity in addition to your regular class load.

3) Meet with the professor you choose; most professors are happy to have case writing help! If you chose a professor before a topic, you will want to discuss potential topics with him or her during these first meetings.

4) Get researching! Some professors provide more guidance than others. Either way, this is your project so take initiative and make the most of it.

My personal experience

During the first semester of my EC (second) year, I continued to work part-time at the company with which I interned over the summer. Once that commitment ended at year-end, I was looking for an interesting extracurricular for my last semester.

I approached a few professors in the BGIE (Business, Government, and the International Economy) department whose classes I loved. I told them I was interested in writing about either Israel or the former Soviet Eastern Europe and asked whether either of these topics would be interesting to them as well.

Luckily, one of my favorite professors was interested in writing about Eastern Europe and we immediately got started. I chose to write a case in addition to taking five classes, which I found very manageable. Students can also get credit for case writing by doing it as an independent project. As the semester wore on, I started helping with another case about a small company started by an HBS graduate in Nigeria. I ended up learning more than I had even expected and developed a closer relationship with a great professor in the process.

However you decide to structure your future HBS case writing, one thing is guaranteed: you will get to know interesting people and become more knowledgeable about a topic of your interest. I can’t think of a better way to have spent some time during my last stint in the academic world.

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Question: How do I find Harvard Business School Case Studies that have been published in the Harvard Business Review?

A very small subset of Harvard Business School Case Studies have been cross-published in the Harvard Business Review ( HBR ).

To browse such cases:

• Log into Business Source Complete on the Business Library  website.
• In the "Publications" link in the top nav search for "Harvard Business Review" and click on the publication title.
• Click "Search within this publication", which will lead you to the search interface.
• In a blank search box below the one that lists HBR , search for "case study" in quotes and change the "Select a field (optional)" to "TI Title" for that line of boxes only.
• Click search to browse the full text HBS cases available in the HBR .

For more information on the availability of case studies, and for the access to the library's main Harvard Business Cases database, visit the Case Studies tab on the Business Library  website.

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The Case Study Handbook, Revised Edition: A Student's Guide

By: William Ellet

If you're enrolled in an MBA or executive education program, you've probably encountered a powerful learning tool: the business case. But if you're like many people, you may find interpreting and…

• Length: 272 page(s)
• Publication Date: Sep 18, 2018
• Discipline: Teaching & the Case Method
• Product #: 10208-PDF-ENG

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• Educator Copy

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• Student Registration
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• Included Materials

If you're enrolled in an MBA or executive education program, you've probably encountered a powerful learning tool: the business case. But if you're like many people, you may find interpreting and writing about cases mystifying and time-consuming. In "The Case Study Handbook, Revised Edition," William Ellet presents a potent new approach for efficiently analyzing, discussing, and writing about cases. Early chapters show how to classify cases according to the analytical task they require (making a decision, performing an evaluation, or diagnosing a problem) and quickly establish a base of knowledge about a case. Strategies and templates, in addition to several sample Harvard Business School cases, help you apply the author's framework. Later in the book, Ellet shows how to write persuasive case-analytical essays based on the process laid out earlier. Examples of effective writing further reinforce the methods. The book also includes a chapter on how to talk about cases more effectively in class. Any current or prospective MBA or executive education student needs this guide.

Sep 18, 2018

Discipline:

Teaching & the Case Method

Industries:

Higher education, Professional training services

Harvard Business Press Books

10208-PDF-ENG

272 page(s)

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Harvard Law School Digitization Project Publishes Nearly 7 Million Court Cases Online

The Caselaw Access Project published nearly seven million cases from the Harvard Law School’s collections online on March 8, concluding a nine-year process to digitize the HLS Library’s archive of court cases.

The Caselaw Access Project, also known as CAP, aimed “to make all published U.S. court decisions freely available to the public online in a consistent format, digitized from the collection of the Harvard Law School Library,” according to the project’s website.

The recent release of cases has culminated in “360 years of United States caselaw” accessible to the public, according to the project’s website. This includes all “official, book-published state and federal United States caselaw through 2020,” with the first case dating back to 1658.

Jack Cushman, the project’s director, said that the impetus behind the effort was a desire to make caselaw more accessible to the public. In the past, few people beyond lawyers had access to expensive caselaw databases and could view important legal decisions.

This project, according to Cushman, sought to level the playing field.

Cushman said he believed it was important “for everyone to have access to the law of the land.”

CAP launched in 2015 through a partnership with Ravel Law, a legal research and analytics startup company. Per the terms of the partnership, CAP received financial support in exchange for Ravel obtaining eight years of exclusivity with the caselaw documents, according to Harvard Law Today, a school-run publication.

This project falls under the initiatives of the Law School’s Library Innovation Lab, “a forward-looking group of thinkers and doers working at the intersection of libraries, technology, and law,” according to the organization's website. The LIL facilitated the delicate process of digitizing case files for the project.

As part of the process, 40,000 books containing case files were retrieved from Harvard Law School’s collection in the HLS Library and a repository in Southborough, Mass. The CAP team then used a variety of tools to de-bind the books, effectively scan case files at a rate of 500,000 pages per week, and wrap the books in plastic to be sent to a limestone mine in Kentucky for preservation.

The scanned files were then translated into machine-readable documents and uploaded to the Ravel website. Ravel’s website made sifting through documents easier with their “data science, machine learning, and visualization” systems, according to Harvard Law Today.

Cushman said it was essential to not rush the process, as CAP was dealing with delicate documents that were both culturally and historically important.

“I think one lesson is just, it’s okay if it takes a long time,” he said. “For cultural preservation and cultural heritage — we’re in this for the long run.”

Now that the case files have been digitized, CAP aims to further improve search functionality to make the platform “practically usable,” furthering their mission to increase caselaw accessibility for all. With this forward-looking approach to law accessibility, CAP’s next goal is to strengthen its institutional collaborations with AI model makers interested in high quality datasets.

Cushman said that the digital archive could be useful for “Harvard students who are looking for projects or ways to make their mark with civic technology and big datasets.”

“We’ve only scratched the surface of what you can do with it,” Cushman added.

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