Forget hiding your ChatGPT use — law schools want to see it.
Top programs across the US are now encouraging applicants to harness AI in their essays, flipping the script on traditional admissions and signaling a new era where legal fluency includes prompt engineering.
It’s a striking shift for a profession built on precedent. It also demonstrates how deeply AI is already reshaping legal education.
The requirement reflects mounting pressure on the legal field, following high-profile cases in which lawyers submitted briefs with fake citations generated by AI tools. Future attorneys will need to check their own materials and their clients’ for such errors.
Despite those risks, schools say the technology’s potential outweighs its flaws. AI can help speed up drafting legal documents, reviewing contracts, and researching statutes, filings, and other case materials, ultimately saving firms and clients money.
Law school applicants must craft prompts and steer AI to write a good essay
To ensure students are prepared for technology’s role in law, the University of Miami and the University of Michigan have added optional essay questions that require applicants to engage with AI, Reuters reported.
At the University of Miami, one essay prompt asks applicants to design a chatbot query that produces a “comprehensive analysis” of how well their law school choices may suit them. Applicants must also provide follow-up questions to push the AI for details..
Katrin Hussmann Schroll, the University of Miami’s associate dean of enrollment management, told Reuters that their responses would reveal their motivation for studying law, maturity, ability to interpret a question, and “whether they’re coming in with the AI skills that are needed as we are expanding AI in the classrooms.” Currently, 45% of applicants choose to answer this question.
At Michigan Law, a new essay asks applicants how often they currently rely on generative AI, how much they anticipate using it by the time they graduate, and why.
Sarah Zearfoss, Michigan Law’s senior assistant dean, told Reuters that, like Schroll, the question intends to help the recruitment team gauge AI competency. While many of the resulting essays have proven interesting to read, there are also “many that are, as you would expect, bland or dull,” she said.
The University of Michigan warns applicants not to use AI for personal statements or to answer other essay questions. The policy aligns with research indicating that young people increasingly rely on AI for college applications, just as job seekers do with résumés and cover letters.
Defining how students should use it in an educational setting, rather than banning it outright, could help reduce instances of cheating and cognitive offloading, ultimately improving learning outcomes.
Check out eWEEK’s list of the best AI tools for lawyers for tasks like reviewing documents and drafting contracts.