JURIST is an online legal news service hosted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, powered by a staff of more than 60 law students working in Pittsburgh and other US locations under the direction of founding Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Professor Bernard Hibbitts, Acting Executive Director Andrew Morgan, Research Director Jaclyn Belczyk, Technical Director Jeremiah Lee, Managing Editor Alex Ferraro, Chief of Staff Kimberly Bennett and Editorial Coordinator Arjun Mishra. It features continuously updated US and international legal news and expert commentary. JURIST is dedicated to advancing civic education, supporting sound decision-making and promoting the rule of law by objectively reporting, documenting and analyzing important legal developments as they happen. JURIST seeks to encourage teaching, learning, and scholarship within the legal community and in the general community.

A jurist (a word coming from medieval Latin), also known as legal scholar or legal theorist, is someone who researches and studies jurisprudence (theory of law). Such a person can work as an academic, legal writer or law lecturer. In the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and in many other Commonwealth countries, the word jurist is sometimes used to refer to an illustrious barrister, whereas in the United States of America and Canada, to refer to an eminent judge. Thus a jurist, someone who studies, analyses and comments on law, stands in contrast with a lawyer, someone who applies law on behalf of clients and thinks about it in practical terms.