The University of Chicago Law School has released a new AI Strategy Statement, Rethinking Legal Education in the AI Era, signalling a significant shift in how legal education should respond to artificial intelligence. Rather than treating AI as either a threat or a substitute for legal reasoning, the Law School positions AI as a permanent feature of legal practice to be integrated thoughtfully into legal training.
The strategy relies on three core principles:
- Develop AI-resilient education by designing teaching and assessment methods that ensure students genuinely learn foundational legal concepts rather than relying on AI to complete intellectual work.
- Strengthen essential human skills, including critical thinking, legal judgment, ethical reasoning, communication, creativity and empathy—qualities that distinguish excellent lawyers from capable AI systems.
- Teach responsible AI use by ensuring graduates understand not only how to use AI effectively, but also how to supervise, verify and critically evaluate its outputs.
A key theme is the distinction between learning law and practising law. While AI can improve efficiency in legal practice, those same efficiencies can undermine education if students use AI to bypass the cognitive effort required to develop legal reasoning. To address this, first-year classes are device-free, require oral discussion of major research papers, and continue to assess students in ways that require independent analysis.
At the same time, the strategy actively embraces AI where it enhances learning. Students will continue to use AI in clinical programs and practical legal work, supported by structured instruction that teaches them to question, supervise, and validate AI-generated work rather than simply accept it.
The strategy also reflects extensive consultation with alumni, law firms, technology companies and legal practitioners. One consistent message emerged: AI should enhance legal education without replacing the rigorous intellectual development that produces sound legal judgment.
What this means for legal education
The University of Chicago’s approach reflects an emerging consensus that legal education is no longer about deciding whether to use AI. Instead, it is about determining where AI belongs in the learning process and where human reasoning must remain primary.
The law school has shifted the emphasis from teaching students to avoid AI to teaching them to become effective supervisors of AI—developing the judgment to recognise errors, challenge assumptions and defend legal conclusions.
Perhaps the most important message is that the profession is redefining legal expertise.
Establishing Competitive advantage is not about employing AI faster than everyone else; it is about using AI:
more responsibly,
more transparently,
and with stronger professional judgment.
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