Clinical Assistant Professor of Law
AI for Lawyers: Obstacles and Opportunities
What You'll Learn
- How to identify the strengths and limits of various AI tools
- How to use AI to enhance your written and visual advocacy
- How to avoid common pitfalls when engaging AI as a thought partner
- How to evaluate the perspectives of AI critics and AI champions
2 Modules
4 Hours
2 hrs per module (approx.)
Rating
About AI for Lawyers: Obstacles and Opportunities
Explore the different obstacles and opportunities that artificial intelligence poses for lawyers and other advocates. What are the pitfalls to avoid? What are the advantages to leverage?
This initial course in the four-part series “AI for Lawyers and Other Advocates” is designed to help you become more comfortable with AI, more creative with AI, and better able to evaluate its various strengths and weaknesses.
Skills You'll Gain
- AI Agents
- AI-Based Legal Compliance
- AI Innovation
- Communication Strategies
- Creativity
- Critical Thinking
- Ethical AI
- Generative AI Agents
- Responsible AI
What You'll Earn
- Certificate of Completion:
- Certificates of completion acknowledge knowledge acquired upon completion of a non-credit course or program.
Welcome Message
Welcome to AI for Lawyers: Obstacles and Opportunities, a course in the AI for Lawyers and Other Advocates series. This course helps learners develop practical, skills-based fluency with artificial intelligence in legal and advocacy contexts. You will evaluate which AI tools add real value, learn how to ask better questions, and explore how professionals can remain indispensable while navigating ethical, creative, and technological change.
This abbreviated syllabus description was created with the help of AI tools and reviewed by staff. The full syllabus is available to those who enroll in the course.
Course Schedule
Module 1: Conspicuously Good
- Video: Conspicuously Good
- Video: Unprepared for What Has Already Happened
- Reading: AI Experimentation: Real-World Examples
- Reading: Meet Professor Barry
- Reading: Help Us Learn About You!
- Reading: Course Syllabus
- Video: Mechanical Sympathy
- Video: Title Search
- Reading: Title Search: Instructions and Examples
- Discussion Prompt: "Title Search"
- Video: AI Interns
- Reading: AI Power Users: Habits and Strategies
- Reading: (Optional Materials) Digital Lawyering: Advocacy in the Age of AI
- Ungraded Plugin: Check for Your Understanding
- Reading: (Optional Materials): A Coder, an Economist, and an AI Pioneer
- Reading: Edit Our Edits
- Reading: (Optional Podcast and Video): How Large Language Models Work
Module 2: AI Experimentation
- Video: Picture This
- Reading: "Picture This" Exercise: Instructions
- Discussion Prompt: Share Your Picture This Experience
- Video: Comedians and Critiques
- Reading: "Comedy and Critiques" Exercise
- Discussion Prompt: (Optional) Comedians and Critiques: Resource Share
- Reading: (Optional) AI Litigation
- Video: Lawyers Still Roam the Earth
- Ungraded Plugin: Check for Your Understanding
- Reading: (Optional Materials) AI Bias, AI Lawsuits, and AI Parrots
- Reading: Post-Course Survey
- Graded: Course Test
Grading Policy
Course materials and assessments are self-paced and remain open throughout the course. To pass and earn a certificate, learners must achieve an overall score of 80% or higher. The final grade is based entirely on the Course Test, which accounts for 100% of the course grade. “Check for Your Knowledge” activities are ungraded and included for practice and skill development.
Course content developed by U-M faculty and managed by the university. Faculty titles and affiliations are updated periodically.
Beginner Level
No prior experience required
