Brussels, 16 July 2026 â The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the legal tech company Nexa Legal are joining forces to prepare law students for a legal profession in which AI is playing an increasingly significant role. This makes the VUB the first Belgian university to collaborate on a structural basis with a legal AI developer. More than 100 law firms in Belgium and the Netherlands are already using Nexa Legalâs AI software. From the coming academic year, law students will gain access to this platform as part of their degree programme, whilst both partners collaborate on research and the further development of legal AI.
Artificial intelligence is radically transforming the legal world. The technology is increasingly supporting legal research, case file analysis, strategy development and even the drafting of legal documents. To this end, Nexa Legal has developed an intelligent AI platform that acts as an assistant in the processing of legal cases. It supports lawyers and legal professionals in complex legal analysis, research, strategy and drafting, without taking over the role of the legal professional. Nexa challenges lawyers and legal professionals to refine their strategy, thereby enhancing the provision of legal services.
The VUB aims to prepare students for this changing legal landscape. The university has deliberately chosen a partner specialising in AI for Belgian legal practice and committed to the âattorney-in-the-loopâ approach, whereby AI supports legal professionals rather than replacing them. Nexa also guides users in the responsible and smart use of AI, and thanks to its interaction with over 100 law firms, the technology is continuously tested against legal practice.
âArtificial intelligence is already an important tool in legal practice today. It is our task as a university to teach our students what AI is capable of, when they can trust AI and when they cannot, how to critically assess its output, and how the entire ecosystem surrounding legal practice is changing. These skills go beyond any individual tool. That is why we are integrating AI into the curriculum: in an academic context, with scope for experimentation and critical analysis,â explains Vincent Ginis, AI lecturer at the VUB.
For Nexa Legal, the collaboration aligns with its ambition to help shape the next generation of legal AI for Europe from Belgium. The company is currently working on innovative research projects relating to legal AI and sees the collaboration with the VUB as an important step towards bringing technology and academic expertise closer together.
âThe collaboration with the VUB is a significant milestone for us. We are deliberately investing in education and research, because tomorrowâs lawyers will help determine how artificial intelligence will be used in our legal system. Bringing together academic expertise and legal practice enables our tool to evolve. We are anticipating how future lawyers will reason, use AI and tackle complex legal issues. These insights help us to tailor our technology even more effectively to the methodologies and day-to-day practice of solicitors and lawyers. In this way, we strengthen one another and work together to build better AI and better-prepared legal professionals,â says Jasper DâHooghe, CEO and co-founder of Nexa Legal.
In practical terms, the anonymised questions and feedback from students will serve as valuable evaluation and research data to further refine the AI solution. Based on the interactions of around a thousand users within the faculty, Nexa Legal will compile representative evaluation sets to systematically test and improve the AIâs performance. As legal files often contain sensitive information, Nexa Legal does not use client data for this purpose. This academic collaboration thus creates a unique, privacy-friendly research environment in which AI systems can be further developed for the legal professionals of tomorrow.
The collaboration therefore goes beyond the mere use of software. As part of their degree programme, students will have access to a professional AI platform that supports them in legal analysis, research and the preparation of assignments and masterâs theses. At the same time, the VUB and Nexa Legal are working together on research and innovation concerning the role of artificial intelligence in legal education and legal practice. The insights gained from this collaboration will contribute to the further development of legal AI, ensuring that the technology and the training of future lawyers continue to reinforce one another.
Contact:
VUB: Michel Maus
Nexa Legal: Jasper DâHooghe