Law Student Builds AI Tool to Help Self-Represented Litigants Ask Better Questions
John Tavares, a third-year law student at UC Law San Francisco, spent his final semester building an AI tool designed to help people without lawyers navigate legal problems. He graduates already fluent in technology that many practicing attorneys are still learning to use.
Tavares created PromptCounsel during the school's AI-Enabled Lawyers Bootcamp, a new eight-session course that moves students beyond theory into hands-on work with AI tools. The capstone project asks users to answer targeted follow-up questions about their legal situation, then generates both a structured summary and an optimized prompt to feed into AI systems.
The tool addresses a practical problem: non-lawyers often miss key facts when asking AI for legal guidance, which produces less accurate results. PromptCounsel surfaces those missing details before the user submits their question to an AI system, improving the quality of answers they receive.
How the Bootcamp Works
The AI-Enabled Lawyers Bootcamp is part of LexLab, UC Law SF's technology law and lawyering center. Instructors Luis Villa and Zoe Dolan-both practicing attorneys with experience integrating technology into legal work-teach students to apply AI to core lawyering tasks: research, drafting, discovery, and document analysis.
Students also grapple with the ethical and professional responsibility issues that come with AI use, including questions around privilege, conflicts of interest, and client confidentiality.
Tavares said the most valuable lesson was understanding how heavily output quality depends on input quality. "The quality, accuracy, and reliability of outputs depend heavily on how you structure inputs," he said. He also noted that AI capabilities are evolving fast-sometimes noticeably between class sessions.
What Tavares Learned About Using AI Responsibly
Before the bootcamp, Tavares had no real programming experience. He used AI tools to build websites and applications, skills he plans to apply to his legal work and a real estate business he runs.
The program taught him to think critically about when and how to use AI in client-facing work. "This experience has already improved my efficiency and competence in real-world work," Tavares said, "and it will continue to be a major advantage as I begin practicing."
He emphasized the importance of instructor mentorship. Drew Amerson, director of applied innovation at the law school, encouraged Tavares to develop projects like PromptCounsel and shaped how he approaches technology in legal practice.
Why This Matters for Attorneys
Many practicing lawyers are still figuring out how to use AI responsibly. Tavares enters the profession with hands-on experience using these tools-and understanding their limits.
Self-represented litigants are already using AI to research legal problems and draft documents. Tools like PromptCounsel could help them extract better information from those systems, though they remain no substitute for legal advice from an attorney.
For more on using AI effectively in your work, explore resources on prompt engineering and AI for legal applications.
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