NyayAssist, an AI-powered legal technology platform built for the Indian legal ecosystem, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dharmashastra National Law University (DNLU), Jabalpur, with a vision to enable the responsible adoption of legal AI among the next generation of legal professionals.
Under the collaboration, students and faculty at DNLU will receive access to NyayAssist across academic levels, from first-year students to PhD scholars. The initiative will provide the University community with practical exposure to legal AI and enable students to explore how technology can support legal research, academic work and everyday productivity.
The collaboration comes at a time when AI is becoming increasingly relevant to the way legal professionals conduct research, analyse information and approach their day-to-day work. With students likely to encounter AI-assisted workflows early in their professional careers, the partnership seeks to encourage a more informed and responsible approach to using these technologies.
The focus of the collaboration extends beyond simply providing students with access to an AI platform. NyayAssist is built around a human-in-the-loop approach, where AI assists the user while the user remains responsible for reviewing, evaluating and ultimately relying on the information provided.
The platform also incorporates an in-built verification layer, allowing users to examine the basis of information generated by the AI rather than treating an AI response as an unquestionable answer. The objective is to make verification a natural part of the research process thereby encouraging students to understand what they are receiving from AI, examine its reliability and then make an informed decision about whether they can rely on the output.
This approach is intended to help students develop the right habits early: using AI to improve productivity while retaining curiosity, verification and independent legal judgment.
Commenting on the collaboration, Yash Rane, CEO & Co-founder, NyayAssist, said,
“We are very grateful to DNLU Jabalpur for being open to the idea of introducing students and faculty to legal AI in a practical and responsible manner. For us, responsible adoption is not about asking students to simply trust what an AI system gives them. With a human-in-the-loop approach and an in-built verification layer, we want students to develop the habit of looking at what they are receiving from AI, understanding where it comes from, verifying it and then deciding whether they can rely on it. We believe these are important habits to build early. I would especially like to thank Dr. Praveen Tripathi and Prof. Shashank Pathak for their support and for helping us make this collaboration possible.”
As part of the MoU, students and faculty will have access to 12+ AI-powered features available on the NyayAssist platform, covering different aspects of legal research and productivity.
The range of capabilities allows users at different stages of their academic journey to engage with AI based on their individual requirements - whether they are beginning their legal studies, working on assignments and academic research, preparing for moots, conducting detailed legal research or pursuing doctoral-level scholarship.
By making these capabilities available from the first year through PhD-level research, the collaboration gives students across different stages and backgrounds of legal education an opportunity to develop familiarity with legal AI through practical use.
From a technology perspective, Gaurav Nagotanekar, CTO & Co-founder, NyayAssist, said,
“From a technology standpoint, we believe the real value of legal AI lies in augmenting the way lawyers think and work, rather than replacing it. That becomes particularly important when introducing AI to students. If they begin using these tools with a verification layer and remain actively involved in evaluating the output, they develop a much healthier relationship with the technology. They learn that AI can significantly improve the speed and productivity of their work, but the responsibility of understanding, validating and ultimately relying on an answer still rests with them.”
The MoU extends access to NyayAssist across DNLU’s student and faculty community, creating an opportunity for users at different stages of legal education and research to engage with AI-assisted legal workflows.
For NyayAssist, the collaboration represents a step towards making reliable legal AI more accessible within India’s legal education ecosystem, while encouraging its adoption in a manner that keeps human judgment, verification and responsible use at the centre of the experience.