Strategic planning processes are by now familiar in many Universities and law faculties. Most often these operate at the highest level of generality and are aimed at articulating an institution’s overall strengths, direction and priorities for growth or improvement. The tools of strategic planning can also be deployed to focus attention on a specific dimension of a law school’s profile such as its research mission. This short paper will describe the effort to develop a strategic research plan at Osgoode Hall Law School, and will share experience about the challenges and potential benefits of such an enterprise.