---
id: "action-partner-with-academia"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["¶8"]
tags: ["partnerships", "r-and-d"]
related: ["entity-aioi-nissay-dowa", "entity-university-of-alberta", "concept-ai-workflow-redesign"]
action: "Engage with legal start-ups or academic institutions to test new workflows and increase staff technical acumen."
outcome: "Access to cutting-edge research, new workflow testing, and enhanced technical skills for employees without building from scratch."
speakers: ["Atta Tarki", "Joseph Raczynski"]
sources: ["reskilling"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-reskilling"
originDay: 10
articleStem: "hbr-edu-45-consulting-firms-hire-talent"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/10/how-ai-is-upending-how-consulting-firms-hire-talent"
sourceTitle: "How AI Is Upending How Consulting Firms Hire Talent"
---
# Partner with Universities and Start-ups

**Action:** Engage with legal start-ups or academic institutions to test new workflows and increase staff technical acumen.

**Expected outcome:** Access to cutting-edge research, new workflow testing, and enhanced technical skills for employees without building from scratch.

If redesigning workflows internally is too overwhelming, firms should partner externally. This can range from funding dedicated R&D labs with universities (like [[entity-aioi-nissay-dowa]] with Oxford) to participating in broader knowledge-transfer programs (like those offered by the [[entity-university-of-alberta]] and the [[entity-alberta-machine-intelligence-institute]]) to expose lawyers and consultants to start-up methodologies. This is the external route to [[concept-ai-workflow-redesign]].