Key Takeaways
- Some of the top law schools in the U.S. are prohibiting AI in the classroom.
- The University of Chicago Law School recently announced that it will ban laptops, phones and tablets in the classroom for first-year law students starting this fall.
- Other law schools, like the University of California, Berkeley, have announced similar bans on technology.
The legal field is on the verge of major change, with AI startups like Harvey, Crosby and Soxton automating tasks. Even though AI is changing how lawyers think about their work, some of the top law schools in the U.S. are prohibiting its use. The goal is to equip tomorrow’s lawyers with the critical thinking skills that are essential to the profession.
For example, the University of Chicago Law School announced earlier this month that it will ban laptops, phones and tablets in the classroom for first-year law students starting this fall. The ban is one part of the university’s bigger initiative to prevent AI from encroaching on the Socratic method in legal education. Professors use the method to ask students questions about legal theories rather than lecture them.
“We think that that kind of exchange should happen without it being intermediated by machines,” Adam Chilton, dean of the University of Chicago Law School, told Inside Higher Ed. “There were already arguments about whether or not laptops made sense in classrooms, because they can both distract the student using them and the students around them, but those concerns are only amplified in the era of AI.”
Chilton added that the law school doesn’t want students to simply put the case name into Claude or ChatGPT, ask it for a summary and the questions their professor is likely to ask and then just read those answers when the professor calls on them.
No robots in court
The University of Chicago Law School isn’t just banning electronics in class. It’s also adding an in-person oral exam, on top of the research paper students already have to complete to earn their law degrees.
“It’s exactly the kind of skill [lawyers] need in a high-pressure meeting with a client, a negotiation, hearing or a trial,” Chilton said.
The one AI-proof skill that lawyers need to have is the ability to engage in debate and discourse without the help of AI, per Inside Higher Ed.
“I don’t think we’re going to have robots arguing in court for us,” Chilton said. “It’s still going to be humans that stand in front of a judge and stand in front of a jury and make oral arguments.”
Additional law schools follow suit
Other law schools have announced similar bans on technology. In May, the University of California, Berkeley, announced that starting in the summer, the law school will prohibit the use of AI in “conceptualizing, outlining, drafting, revising, translating, or editing any work submitted for credit.” The move ensures “the best legal education possible for our students,” the university asserted.
To add to the data points, in June, the dean of the law school at the University of Texas at Austin tasked faculty with using classroom time “to engage students in sustained and rigorous dialogue.” Professors should ensure that students are “not distracted by (let alone relying upon) whatever might be taking place on their screen at that time,” the dean stated.
Key Takeaways
- Some of the top law schools in the U.S. are prohibiting AI in the classroom.
- The University of Chicago Law School recently announced that it will ban laptops, phones and tablets in the classroom for first-year law students starting this fall.
- Other law schools, like the University of California, Berkeley, have announced similar bans on technology.
The legal field is on the verge of major change, with AI startups like Harvey, Crosby and Soxton automating tasks. Even though AI is changing how lawyers think about their work, some of the top law schools in the U.S. are prohibiting its use. The goal is to equip tomorrow’s lawyers with the critical thinking skills that are essential to the profession.
For example, the University of Chicago Law School announced earlier this month that it will ban laptops, phones and tablets in the classroom for first-year law students starting this fall. The ban is one part of the university’s bigger initiative to prevent AI from encroaching on the Socratic method in legal education. Professors use the method to ask students questions about legal theories rather than lecture them.
“We think that that kind of exchange should happen without it being intermediated by machines,” Adam Chilton, dean of the University of Chicago Law School, told Inside Higher Ed. “There were already arguments about whether or not laptops made sense in classrooms, because they can both distract the student using them and the students around them, but those concerns are only amplified in the era of AI.”
