Law Schools Confront the Profession’s AI-Enabled Future

Law Schools Confront the Profession’s AI-Enabled Future

For nearly two decades, law schools have rested on their laurels, ignoring the steady march of change. Even as technology impacted all aspects of our lives—from how we worked and communicated to how we purchased goods and obtained information—most law schools remained stagnant, teaching the same old classes and shepherding students off to BigLaw.

I’ve seen this resistance firsthand. Years ago, I joined panels at law schools warning about the ‘perils’ of technology, from social media to the cloud. During one of those panels, I deviated from the planned course of discussion to advocate for strategic participation on social networking sites, only to see the school's dean sitting in the front row with her mouth agape, seemingly aghast at the very suggestion.

A few years after that, I was part of a traveling panel that spoke at law firm classrooms across Upstate New York. Our focus was to provide an overview of emerging technologies and their impact on the practice of law. The classes were sparsely attended, and students didn’t seem particularly convinced that technology would play any role in their future careers.

Fast-forward to 2025, and despite AI's ubiquity, not much has changed. Hundreds of AI legal tech startups have launched, and funding rounds exceeding $100 million are now common. AI use by legal professionals is doubling year over year, and large firms are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into AI software.

Even so, most law schools have only recently begun offering students options for AI-focused classes. As Bob Ambrogi noted on his LawSites blog in August 2024, only one-third of law schools offered classes on AI. This complacency has forced students to take matters into their own hands. Across the country, student-led organizations focused on issues surrounding AI and the legal profession are springing up. 

For example, at the University of Miami Law School, students recently formed the Artificial Intelligence and Law Society, which hosted a panel on the practical and ethical implications of AI for the practice of law. Sixteen other schools, including Harvard Law and the UCLA School of Law, have similar student-led groups, nearly all of which were launched within the last two years.

The good news is that some schools are changing their tune: Fordham, Arizona State University, Case Western, Suffolk, Stetson, and Quinnipiac have begun to require mandatory AI training for first years. And, earlier this month, the University of North Carolina took the unusual step of holding a mock trial with a jury composed of three AI chatbots: ChatGPT, Grok, and Anthropic. The goal was to determine whether AI could reduce bias in the criminal justice system. 

Eric Muller, a UNC professor of law in jurisprudence and ethics who watched the trial, explained that the experiment, while well-intended, was not well-received: “Intense criticism came from members of a post-trial panel, including a law professor and a philosopher with legal training. I suspect most in the audience came away believing that trial-by-bot is not a good idea.”

The innovative UNC experiment showed how fast technology is testing the limits of law, underscoring how unprepared the majority of schools remain. While a few professors are experimenting and forward-thinking students are pushing for progress, most schools are still watching from the sidelines. Meanwhile, AI is revamping how lawyers conduct legal research, manage their law firms, advise clients, and argue cases. 

Law schools need to stop studying the problem and start preparing students for an AI-first world. Teach them how these tools work, where they fail, and how to use them responsibly. AI is already part of legal work. Schools that adapt will serve their students well. The ones that don’t will graduate lawyers trained for a world that no longer exists.

Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney, author, journalist, and Principal Legal Insight Strategist at 8am, the team behind 8am MyCase, LawPay, CasePeer, and DocketWise.She is the nationally-recognized author of "Cloud Computing for Lawyers" (2012) and co-authors "Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier" (2010), both published by the American Bar Association. She also co-authors "Criminal Law in New York," a Thomson Reuters treatise. She writes regular columns for Above the Law, ABA Journal, and The Daily Record, has authored hundreds of articles for other publications, and regularly speaks at conferences regarding the intersection of law and emerging technologies. She is an ABA Legal Rebel, and is listed on the Fastcase 50 and ABA LTRC Women in Legal Tech. She can be contacted at niki.black@mycase.com.