7 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Already Changing Law School and Legal Careers

Updated: June 17, 2026

The Colleges of Law instructor Thomas Officer says right now is “the best time to be an entrepreneur in the legal technology space.”

SUMMARY

• AI technology has led to major innovations in law and a sea change for everyone in the legal industry, not just lawyers.
• Law school students are learning how to combine expert legal knowledge with artificial intelligence—and how to do it responsibly.
• The Colleges of Law prepares its graduates to use AI as lawyers or to bring together law and technology for entrepreneurship.

Artificial intelligence won’t make lawyers obsolete, but it will make lawyers who don’t use AI obsolete. AI has already changed how law is practiced and, consequently, what students are learning in law schools. How AI will affect the legal field, from day-to-day legal research to entirely new career paths in legal technology, is now a central question shaping what law schools teach and how firms hire. The goal is to acclimate students to emerging AI technology so they’ll feel comfortable using it in their practice or profession.

The Colleges of Law instructor Thomas Officer, LLM, is helping train lawyers to apply AI tools to the practice of law as well as to bring together law and technology for entrepreneurship. “There’s no better tool for change than AI,” Officer says. “Combining AI with your legal expertise means you’re in the best position to introduce this change.”

Whether you’re pursuing a Juris Doctor degree or a Hybrid J.D., here’s how The Colleges of Law can put you on the cutting edge of AI in law and the legal industry.

1. How AI in Legal Education Is Changing What Law Students Learn

AI offers intelligence but not knowledge. Law students must learn to use their expert knowledge to help AI produce accurate answers to legal questions.

Officer says AI chatbots such as ChatGPT are particularly useful for lawyers. In fact, he teaches a class at The Colleges of Law called Building Legal AI Chatbots. In the class, Officer emphasizes the difference between knowledge and intelligence. “AI has a lot of intelligence, but not a lot of knowledge,” he says. “It might be super eloquent in its response to [a legal question], but it might just be wrong.”

Courses like this are part of what makes the J.D. program at The Colleges of Law different. Students don’t just study the law, they build the tools that are changing how it’s practiced.

Officer teaches his students to combine their expert knowledge with AI to create useful legal tools.

“You can restrict the large language model to producing answers based on a document you give [the chatbot], which creates this relationship where you are the expert,” he explains. “If everything in this document is correct, then the response of the chatbot provides, if they’re based on that document, will also be correct.”

2. Law School Students Are Learning How to Use AI Responsibly

It’s critical for law students to learn the ethics of applying AI in a legal setting. “You have to use AI responsibly,” Officer says.

Questions abound about the ethical application of AI technology in all fields, especially the legal industry. AI in criminal law presents some of the most complex cases, from algorithmic risk assessment to facial recognition evidence

The legal education instilled in The Colleges of Law students allows them to use AI responsibly. “You have to be very careful in representing what these chatbots are allowed to do,” Officer says. “This is where legal expertise or legal knowledge will come in.”

Officer says the ethical use of AI is always top of mind for him. “It would be very irresponsible of you to present to someone, ‘This chatbot can help you get legal answers,’” he says. “There’s a particular way in which you can go about doing that where it’s OK, but there are many more ways where it’s a violation of your ethical responsibility to not do the unauthorized practice of law.”

Both the J.D. and Hybrid J.D. programs at The Colleges of Law build this ethical framework into the curriculum from the first semester.

3. AI Can Solve Problems Already Affecting the Legal Industry

There’s no time to waste in using AI to solve immediate problems such as people’s lack of access to legal services.

AI technology is still emerging, and its ethical implications are still evolving, but its applications for solving pressing issues in law are important right now. For example, Officer emphasizes the widespread lack of access to legal services as a “house on fire” that AI can help resolve. This access gap is part of a broader shift in how law schools and the legal services market are evolving to reach underserved communities.

Says Officer, “If we were in a situation where everyone had access to all the legal services they need, it would be fair to ask, ‘Why are you entertaining using this tool that’s so fraught?’ We should be propelled because of how bad the status quo is to try as much as possible to use the positive attributes of this technology.”

4. AI Is Already Affecting Everyone in Law, Not Just Lawyers

The Colleges of Law students learn to use AI in law practice or in other legal careers such as tech entrepreneurship for legal degree holders.

The legal industry includes many kinds of legal experts, not just lawyers, and AI is already affecting every corner of the field. Officer says his How to Build an AI Chatbot class includes “students who hope to have a legal license one day to be attorneys, and also students who, they’re not going to be attorneys, they’re going to help people get legal information, not advice.”

Understanding how AI will affect the legal field is now a baseline expectation for anyone entering law, regardless of the role they’re heading into. The J.D. and Hybrid J.D. programs at The Colleges of Law are built around this reality.

Students graduate with both the legal foundation and the technical fluency to work alongside AI tools, evaluate their outputs critically, and apply them responsibly in practice.

For working professionals who need flexibility, the Hybrid J.D. delivers the same curriculum and faculty access in a format designed around existing career and family commitments.

5. Law School Students Are Designing AI Products for the Legal Industry

Officer teaches students not just how to use AI chatbots but how to build them, asking critical design questions that address legal pain points.

To master AI tools of the legal trade, The Colleges of Law students in Officer’s class don’t just learn how to use AI chatbots; they design and build their own. Knowing what’s under the hood allows these students to ensure the accuracy and integrity of AI applications.

For students earlier in that process, what law school students need to know about legal tech covers the foundational knowledge before building begins.

Officer explains, “Now you know how this technology works. What do you make? This is the product design question. What is the real pain point you’re trying to solve? Then, in the workshop, we all get together and show off what we’ve built, present it to each other, critique it, do a kind of show and tell.”

6. Will AI Make Lawyers Obsolete? Why the Answer Depends on Your Skills

Law firms are “completely enamored with AI,” so those with a good understanding of it will be tomorrow’s legal industry leaders.

According to Officer, in whatever area of the legal industry you choose to work, “you’re going to be interacting with AI.” Thus, earning a degree that demonstrates your expertise on the application of AI in legal spaces offers tremendous career advantages.

For a broader look at the skills needed to be a lawyer in the current market, AI proficiency ranks consistently among the most in-demand competencies.

“Law firms have become completely enamored with AI,” Officer says. “It’s taken the world by storm but law in particular. If you can arm yourself with a good understanding about that difference between knowledge and intelligence, you’re instantly going to find yourself at the vanguard of this industry.”

7. AI and the Future of Law: Why Now Is the Time to Build Legal Tech Expertise

Whether you’re launching a new career in law or fortifying an existing law career in tech, the time is ripe to earn a law degree.

“I think it’s the best time for someone to be an entrepreneur in the legal technology space,” Officer says. “if you can arm yourself with an understanding of how AI works, you can present yourself to your future employer and say, ‘I’ve seen firsthand how you can use AI in expert hands to produce excellent results.’”

There’s never been a better time to embark on an exciting new career as an expert in the legal industry or to enhance your existing law career in tech with a law degree on the cutting edge. For context on how legal trends have been reshaping law school over the past decade, the shift toward AI is the steepest curve yet. Earn your J.D. and Hybrid J.D. at The Colleges of Law and graduate ready to work at the intersection of law and technology.

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