Teaching Law in the Age of Generative AI

Abstract

With the rise of large language models capable of passing law school exams and the Uniform Bar Exam, how should legal educators prepare their students for an age of transformative technological change? As text-generating AI is being integrated in legal research platforms and word processing software, which automate the drafting of legal documents based on human prompts, lawyers are increasingly adopting this technology as a standard tool of legal research and writing. This Article explores the implications of these developments for legal education, focusing on pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment.

 

The Article draws from four key perspectives relevant to the use of generative AI in legal education: a survey of law students who participated in an AI-integrated course; a national survey of law faculty; an overview of the current state and projected future of AI in the legal profession; and a summary of lessons from the global literature exploring the use of ChatGPT in different teaching contexts. These perspectives tend to support the development of an AI-integrated legal education. Yet, most surveyed law faculty, even those who strongly agreed that students should be prepared to use and critically evaluate generative AI, emphasized that they were uninformed about this technology and unsure how to proceed.

 

This Article provides guidance, recommending that legal educators begin teaching with emerging AI tools, while exploring how implementation might vary across the legal curriculum. These recommendations are based on an analysis of how AI-integrated teaching may affect emerging technological competencies, traditional learning goals, academic integrity, and equity among students. The Article concludes by providing practical suggestions for AI-integrated assignments, exercises, and course policies. This includes detailed examples of exercises where students learn to collaborate with generative AI, evaluate AI-produced research and writing, create their own AI tutors and debate partners, role-play with chatbots in classroom simulations, and reflect on the responsible use of generative AI in the legal profession.

Keywords: legal education, artificial intelligence, generative AI