From the Dean—AI @ CLS: The Law School’s Artificial Intelligence Initiative

Dear members of the Columbia Law School community,

Artificial Intelligence is widely considered to be the most consequential technological development since the turn of the 21st century. It has rapidly transformed so many facets of our lives, and the challenges and opportunities it presents have unique and far-reaching implications for legal education and practice. 

Over the past year, Columbia Law School has been squarely focused on meeting this moment—staying true to our enduring foundational academic values while preparing for an AI-enabled future. This effort began with the work of our AI Task Force last fall and has started to come to life in recent months. Since July, for example, we have welcomed Associate Professor Neel Guha, created a thoughtful academic policy to guide students’ use of AI in the classroom, devised a new AI orientation session for students, and offered several new AI-focused courses and seminars. 

But these steps are only the beginning. Today, I am proud to announce the launch of AI @ CLS, the Law School’s broad-ranging and ambitious new AI initiative. AI @ CLS will serve as an animating force and organizational clearinghouse for our AI-related efforts, which encompass three interconnected areas: 

• Innovating With Purpose: New courses, curricular modules, hands-on training sessions, and cocurricular programs for students to gain AI skills, develop critical judgment, and assume intellectual responsibility for their work. 

• Expanding Knowledge: Bolstered faculty expertise and an ever-growing breadth of scholarship at the intersection of AI and law, fostering exploration of AI’s applications, responsible development, and regulation. 

• Tackling Big Questions: A commitment to understanding AI’s broader implications, including for democracy, institutions, economic opportunity, civil rights, creativity, labor, access to justice, and the environment.

This innovative and important work is supported in part by a five-year commitment from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, the Law School’s lead firm partner for AI @ CLS. The partnership will support new curricular and co-curricular offerings; bolster faculty research and expertise in AI; and bring together scholars, practitioners, judges, policymakers, and industry leaders to navigate novel legal and regulatory questions.

One thing that distinguishes Columbia Law School is our commitment not only to teach students how to think deeply, but also to prepare them for the legal profession of the future. AI presents an extraordinary opportunity to bridge our proud tradition of rigorous, theoretical education with the realities of modern legal practice across sectors—to create an environment where students can explore these new tools while developing the judgment, critical thinking, and sense of responsibility to use them well. As a law school, we aspire to not simply adapt to a world defined by AI, but to help shape it. 

Best,

Daniel Abebe
Dean and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law

Watch the video: Legal Education and Practice in the Age of AI