Blogs

Please enjoy this blog post authored by Elaine Dick, Lead Practice Innovation Attorney, Baker & Hostetler LLP.

I graduated from law school 10 years ago this May, a mere sliver of time in the long history of the profession. The Class of 2026, however, will be stepping into a legal profession that couldn't be more different than the one that those of us in the Class of 2016 joined. Where I had professors that still required us to only use physical books and handwrite our notes in class, the students I teach at Georgia State University School of Law are able to use Generative AI (GenAI) to create transcripts from their client interviews, paired with GenAI-enabled diagramming tools to map out case workflows. Contrary to what many say, they are not better off than those who came before them; they simply have it differently. Law schools, law firms, vendors, and the ABA each play a role in ensuring that lawyers at every stage of their career are successful in this new, different way of practicing.

Law School: Early AI Exposure

Many law schools are rapidly adapting their curriculum to prepare their law students for the new version of the tech-enabled practice of law. In February 2025, Case Western Reserve University School of Law became the first American law school to require all first-year law students to obtain a certification in legal AI when it launched its mandatory "Introduction to AI and the Law" program. As of spring 2026, Mississippi College School of Law has become the second law school to do this, also requiring certifications for all first-year law students. Both law schools implemented these certification programs in partnership with Wickard.ai, whose website highlights their “Practical and effective AI education, training, and advisory services designed for legal and public institutions.” Other law schools are creating GenAI bots that students use to get practical experience in simulated situations, including Stanford Law's M&A Negotiation Simulator, developed by the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, and Suffolk University Law School's agents Moot a Case, Go Socrates, and Distill & Question, all three developed by their Legal Innovation and Technology Lab. Some law schools have focused on adding AI-related classes to their course catalogues. Georgetown University Law Center offers eight AI-related classes, while North Carolina Central University School of Law offers a course on AI Governance for its students. In a shift from teaching only the bar exam and various practice areas, many law schools have recognized the need to educate their students on AI, with the hope of preparing them for this increasingly tech-enabled legal profession.

Law Firms: Training While the Practice Evolves

Law firms cannot, and should not, rely on law schools to provide new lawyers with all the training needed to responsibly and ethically utilize tools equipped with GenAI. K&L Gates, Dechert, and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe are just a few of the many law firms that begin training on skills like utilizing chatbot tools available at the firm before they are even barred lawyers, choosing to start when they are at the firm as summer associates. Latham & Watkins is one of many firms that also have mandatory AI training for their first-year associates. Their 2025 class of fall associates attended a mandatory two-day “AI Academy,” the second time the firm has hosted it. This multi-day training taught new lawyers which tools the firm uses and how to use them, emphasizing the firm's stance that using AI is not optional; it's their standard operating procedure. Many law firms, including K&L Gates and Orrick, have also worked with vendors like AltaClaro to provide GenAI training for their summer associates, associates, and partners, helping them upskill their full range of legal professionals. K&L Gates specifically worked with AltaClaro to co-develop a program to train their partners to supervise AI and supervise junior lawyers using AI. Other firms have since piloted and implemented this program as well, recognizing that while all lawyers need to be trained on AI use, the specific skills needed depend on their role and tenure. Firms like those mentioned above are leaning into what many have been saying: AI is not going to replace lawyers, but lawyers, and law firms, who know how to use it to their advantage will.

Vendors: Filling the Gaps

Like how Wickard.ai has partnered with law schools, and AltaClaro has partnered with law firms, there are many other vendor organizations offering programs for both law students and lawyers upskilling to supplement law schools and law firms' in-house options. Law School 2.0 has created various offerings, including “Legal Service Innovation,” an online course in partnership with BARBRI. This course allows its users to learn a Problem Identification > Solution Creation > Solution Adoption mindset through either a self-paced or sprint-paced format. The Strategic Knowledge & Innovation Legal Leaders' Summit (SKILLS) is developing the Up.SKILLS certification aimed to equip professionals with the legal context, operational knowledge, mindset, skills, and tools needed to thrive in AI, Data, KM, innovation, operations, and transformation roles across law firms, legal departments, and legal-tech vendors. As law schools and law firms are assessing their own resources to see what they can develop in-house, these are two more examples of how many vendors are stepping in to provide the legal community with options for how to provide the much-needed upskilling to practice and work in the rapidly changing tech-enabled legal landscape.

ABA: Guiding the Profession

In 2023, the ABA formed the ABA Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence (“AI Task Force”), solidifying its role in guiding the legal profession on the implementation of AI into practice. Since its formation, they have produced many insights about and for the profession, including their annual Report on the Impact of AI on the Practice of Law. Then, in 2024, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, through Formal Opinion 512, formalized its model rules on lawyers' responsible use of AI tools. This 15-page opinion reinforces that lawyers must consider their applicable ethical obligations, including Competence (Model Rule 1.1), Confidentiality of Information (Model Rule 1.6), Communications (Model Rule 1.4), and Supervisory Responsibilities (Model Rule 5.1 and 5.3). None of these are new responsibilities for lawyers, but the proliferation of GenAI has created new applications for these rules. This guidance from the ABA highlights the need for effective training on these tools so the lawyers can appropriately apply their existing responsibilities to this new technology.

Legal Professionals: New Titles for New Needs

While law firms help their lawyers navigate the changes GenAI is causing, they are also shifting who at the firm is responsible for owning related tasks and what those people's titles should be. We're seeing new roles being created in law firms to address this shift from having innovation projects to institutionalizing their commitment to innovation and new technologies. Some firms have added C-suite positions such as Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO) at firms including Cooley, Ropes & Gray, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, and Borden Ladner Gervais. We're seeing law firms hire Practice Innovation Attorneys, or change existing Knowledge Management Attorney titles to that, Knowledge Management and Innovation Attorney, or even just Innovation Attorney.  Some firms are even hiring people for roles unheard of in law such as Reed Smith hiring an anthropologist to lead their Innovation Lab, a virtual space for discovering, incubating and accelerating creative ideas at the firm and alongside clients’. These shifting titles and new ones underscore the need for law firms to have internal staff who can help them and their lawyers navigate this new wave of technology and the changes that come with it. 

Whether preparing law students to practice using GenAI, training young lawyers on the job on how to best incorporate it, or partners on how to supervise those who use it, there are many openings for law schools, law firms, vendors, and the ABA to pitch in. They all have the opportunity to ensure that GenAI has a positive impact on the legal profession and that lawyers are set up for success to capitalize on it. While the risks of overreliance on bad sources or representing work product as complete when it contains material mistakes have always existed, the misuse of GenAI tools seems to have increased that risk, which is one of the many reasons why it is so important that, from first-year law students to senior partners, all legal professionals are trained on how to use these tools responsibly. Our industry is shifting, and all facets are rising to the occasion to make sure our legal professionals are well-equipped to make it a positive one. 

Related Insight:
The Mythical Innovation Attorney