The ‘other’ LLM: large language models and the future of legal education

Abstract

Legal education will be one of the primary areas affected by the advent of large language models (“LLMs”). And both law students and law teachers will feel the inevitable attraction of LLMs. Got an essay on negligence due tomorrow? No problem – get ChatGPT to draft a general outline, add in some case references, and voilà – an essay. Similarly, during a busy marking season, teachers may be tempted to ask an LLM to review student essays and then allocate marks based on those reviews. The responses to inappropriate LLM usage will vary across law schools. Some will undoubtedly stick their collective heads in the sand by banning ChatGPT. They may even be tempted to revert to handwritten examinations, mooting, and in-class essays as the only assessment forms. I argue that such responses are misguided. After all, the challenge presented by LLMs is a challenge that other faculties have faced before – most notably, the mathematics department with the invention of the calculator. Could LLMs have the same positive impact on legal education that calculators have had on mathematics education? I argue that they can, but that learners must be guided toward appropriate rather than inappropriate LLM usage. How can legal education learners be guided toward appropriate rather than inappropriate LLM usage? I posit that the most effective method to guide learners toward appropriate usage is to make legal education such a joyful, meaningful, and engaging enterprise that learners will want to do it themselves – rather than let computers have all the fun.