Becoming a Lawyer in the Age of Generative AI - AALS/West Academic AI in Legal Education Series

Legal tech, including generative AI, is changing how law is practiced. This panel looks past the technical skills students need at graduation and asks a harder question: what does it mean to be a lawyer now? As routine tasks increasingly shift to machines, other competencies matter more for our students, including skepticism, discernment, judgment, emotional intelligence, resilience, and the practical wisdom that comes from experience. Those qualities are harder to teach and assess than technical skills. Professional identity formation gives law schools an organizing theme for that work, one faculty can use across every law school course. This panel brings together experts from different backgrounds to examine hard questions facing legal education and the practice of law. What competencies will students need to navigate an uncertain legal services landscape? What instincts and habits of mind will help them more effectively do the work of junior attorneys as legal tech evolves? And how do those of us in legal education draw on the perspectives and experience of practicing attorneys to close the distance between what school teaches and what practice demands? The panel will offer concrete ideas for the classroom, from what to teach to how to assess it. It will also press on a bigger question behind that work: how to equip students with a mindset committed to continuous professional development and flexibility after graduation, one that will serve them long after any particular tool becomes outdated. Attendees will leave with practical tools and a sharper sense of how we can all better navigate what’s ahead. Session Held on October 23, 2026 Moderator Aric Short Texas A&M University School of Law Speakers Kirsten K. Davis Stetson University College of Law David S. Kemp Ropes & Gray LLP Jerry Organ University of St. Thomas School of Law