AI Now

Abstract

Legal scholars have made important explorations into the opportunities and challenges of generative artificial intelligence within legal education and the practice of law. This Article adds to this literature by directly addressing members of the legal academy. As a collective, law professors, who are responsible for cultivating the knowledge and skills of the next generation of lawyers, are too often adopting a laissez faire posture towards the advent of generative artificial intelligence.  In stark contrast to law practitioners and law students, law professors generally have displayed a lack of urgency in responding to the repercussions of this increasingly pervasive technology.

This Article contends that all law professors have an inescapable duty to understand generative artificial intelligence. This obligation stems from the pivotal role faculty play on three distinct but interconnected dimensions: pedagogy, scholarship, and governance. No law faculty are exempt from this mandate. All are entrusted with responsibilities that intersect with at least one, if not all three dimensions, whether they are teaching, research, clinical, or administrative faculty. It is also not dependent on whether professors are inclined, or disinclined, to integrate artificial intelligence into their own courses or scholarship. The urgency of the mandate derives from the critical and complex role law professors have in the development of lawyers and architecture of the legal field.

Keywords: generative artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence, AI, legal education, legal tech, emerging tech, law faculty, law school

JEL Classification: K1, K10, K3, K30, K29, K39