The legal profession is undergoing profound transformation driven by technological innovation. AI tools are reshaping how lawyers research, draft, negotiate, and advocate—automating routine tasks, generating strategic insights, and surfacing ethical dilemmas. This research pillar examines how AI is redefining legal work, with a dual focus on professional ethics and legal education. As legaltech becomes integrated in law practice, we study the evolving nature of legal work and its implications for competence standards, confidentiality, professional responsibility, and access to justice. Additionally, we investigate how AI is reshaping the work of judges, from automated legal research and case management to AI-supported decision drafting, and assess the consequences for judicial independence, reasoning, and institutional legitimacy.

In parallel, this pillar also focuses on preparing law students, as future legal professionals, to engage critically and responsibly with AI. We design and evaluate pedagogical frameworks for teaching students how to work with legal AI tools such as generative models and legal analytics platforms in ways that uphold legal values, ethical norms, and human oversight. Our work includes the development of interdisciplinary curricula that combine law, data science, AI and ethics; experiential learning environments that simulate tech-enabled legal practice; and executive education programs for judges, lawyers, and public officials.