Track Three

Abstract

As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal profession, law schools face a critical imperative to evolve their pedagogical approaches. This presentation offers a comprehensive framework for integrating AI across three fundamental domains of legal education: research methodologies, learning experiences, and assessment practices, with special attention to next-generation bar examination preparation.

In 2024 my colleagues at LII and I embarked on a daunting mission - migrating our Content Management System from Drupal version 7 to version 10. We needed to move tens of thousands of pages of content across dozens of collections, with many active user accounts, custom modules, and more while keeping our ability to generate static HTML content from our CMS. To a great extent we succeeded (with a few hiccups, to be sure!), with much help from our friends who developed the Migrate module from Drupal.

As new agentic tools like Manus, Cursor, and Windsurf emerge (as of the end of March), we will explore the next generation of those tools at CALI 2025.  This will be a hands-on demo with active debate/disagreement about what vibe coding, lawyering, librarianship, etc means and whether there is a there there.
We will likely touch on strengths and limitations of state-of-the-art tools as well as how vibe coding relates to deep coding. The real program cannot be described in March 2025 because we don't know what will exist in June 2025.

This presentation session will explore how we teaching librarians at Elon Law incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) into our Basic Legal Research class. At my institution, all first-year students are required to take a one-credit Basic Legal Research class in their fall trimester. Last fall, we condensed our federal and state administrative law sessions into one class. This created space and time in our schedule to teach AI. Then we decided the structure of the AI class: a brief Powerpoint lecture followed by an exercise.

The foundation of an open and accessible legal system rests on the ability of courts, researchers, and the public to freely access and reference the law. Yet, legal citation remains controlled by commercial publishers, PACER fees create financial barriers to court records, and proprietary legal research tools restrict public access. Open-source technology, neutral citations, and PACER reform offer a path toward a more equitable system.

Generative AI (GenAI) can be a very helpful tool for instructors and students of law. This session focuses on specific applications of GenAI in legal education. These include:

* **Classroom use** — GenAI tools can be used in the classroom to help engage students and enhance learning. Examples include using ChatGPT to generate role-playing scripts to be used during discussions, or having students use a GenAI program to help them write short answer responses or exam papers.