Albany Law School will require every first-year law student to complete a yearlong course on artificial intelligence starting this fall. The mandate reflects both the technology's potential to close the justice gap and the serious risks that arise when lawyers rely on AI without proper scrutiny.
Ray Brescia, associate dean for research and intellectual life at Albany Law School, said AI could vastly increase the number of people who get legal advice instead of representing themselves. Many people go unrepresented in small claims, foreclosure, or job termination cases because lawyers are too expensive or too scarce. With AI, lawyers could take on more cases and potentially reduce costs, making representation possible for people who currently cannot afford it.
But the technology has already caused problems. Lawyers have submitted briefs citing imaginary cases that AI "hallucinated," in the most serious instances. Courts have thrown out cases as a result. Brescia stressed that lawyers must verify everything, including citations.
"You can't just take the product it generates and say, 'OK, great, now I've got a fully formed legal document,'" he said. "You still have to use professional judgment. You have to understand the law and assess the outputs. That's the art of law-developing that judgment, that ability to discern an effective argument from a weak one."
The new course aims to teach students both the efficiencies and the limitations. "We're teaching them both sides of that coin," Brescia said. Students will learn to apply legal judgment to AI outputs rather than accepting them at face value. The goal is to speed up their work, not make it worse.
Shifting job market for lawyers
Brescia said he has not seen a slowdown in hiring of new attorneys, but he expects the market to change. AI may reduce demand for some types of lawyers while increasing it for others. Public defenders and district attorneys' offices are being flooded with video evidence that must be reviewed. Wall Street firms might need fewer associates for document-heavy tasks, while other sectors could see growth.
He cautioned against using AI to review evidence without human oversight. "You wouldn't use it to assess a large body of evidence without reviewing that evidence yourself," he said. The risk of accidentally turning over privileged materials is too high. "If they miss something significant because the AI didn't pick up on something, it's not a defense to say, 'the AI made me do it.'"
Why this matters for legal professionals
The mandate at Albany Law signals that AI literacy is becoming foundational, not optional, for legal careers. Working attorneys who never received formal AI training are now expected to understand the tools, their limits, and the ethical duties they carry. As law schools adapt, many practicing lawyers are turning to structured courses to fill the gap. Programs tagged under AI for Legal cover practical skills like document review, prompt engineering, and risk management, helping attorneys meet the standard of care that Brescia described: applying professional judgment to every AI-assisted task.
Your membership also unlocks:
