Business Law professor Robert Bird has been selected as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar and will spend three months studying human-centered legal strategy and design in Finland next semester.

“I’m excited about this opportunity to collaborate with my peers in Finland, who are doing some interesting work on strategic legal design,’’ he said. “I believe this research will add value to organizations, make complex contracts easier to understand, and benefit my students as well.’’

The Fulbright is a prestigious award granted to faculty based on their previous leadership and contributions to society. The program was created to increase mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and other countries, and is the world’s largest international educational exchange program. UConn typically has four or five Fulbright professors each year.

Bird will be based at the University of Vaasa, a seaside campus, approximately a four-hour train ride north of Helsinki. The university is ranked as the top college in Finland for business administration, and recently underwent extensive renovations to enhance sustainability. The Fulbright award is co-sponsored by the Fulbright Finland Foundation and the University of Vaasa.

The goal of the project is to develop innovative contracts and other legal tools to make the documents easier for people to understand, minimize disputes, and add more valuable for organizations.

For example, sustainable supply chain contracts and codes of conduct are typically filled with complex language and legal jargon, Bird said. By using design methods to transform them into visually appealing and accessible documents, the professor and his colleagues believe they can foster greater participation, enhance trust-building, and maximize collaboration.

In addition to his work in Finland, Bird plans to complete some guest lectures at other universities in Europe, as part of his sabbatical.

When he returns to UConn for the spring 2026 semester, Bird will host a Legal Strategy Summit at UConn which will include a discussion of new legal designs based on his Fulbright experience.

“I’m looking forward to being an ambassador for UConn, for Husky values, and for the United States,’’ he said. “I’m looking forward to working with outstanding Finish colleagues. European scholars often think about things differently than we do and I hope to bring that back to UConn and to the United States.’’