Foundations of Legal AI Communication

This unit introduces legal professionals to core AI concepts, common misconceptions, and practical prompt techniques tailored to legal tasks. Students will build a working vocabulary, analyze AI’s impact on legal roles, and prepare to apply ethical, technical, and workflow skills in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze foundational AI concepts and distinguish between common myths and realities by summarizing model capabilities, limitations, and typical legal applications
• Apply prompt-engineering principles to design, test, and iteratively refine at least three legal-context prompts that meet specified client-communication or research objectives
• Demonstrate understanding of AI’s potential impacts on legal job roles and ethics by evaluating three workplace scenarios and identifying risk mitigation or upskilling strategies
• Evaluate AI terminology and resources by constructing a concise legal-AI glossary and recommending appropriate tools or communication strategies informed by expert insights and class notes