[Invest&Law] Legal Tech Trend Sweeps Law Schools Too

Practical Courses Introduced
AI Service Development and Other Initiatives Implemented in Legal Education
Students Respond Positively

Interest in legal tech is also being reflected in the law school education field. Some law schools have officially established related courses or introduced legal tech education in various ways, such as participating in the development of legal artificial intelligence (AI) services in collaboration with engineering college laboratories. Hanyang University Law School opened a practical legal tech course starting in 2023. This class was offered as an elective practical course for first-year students, separate from the mandatory course ‘Legal Information Research.’ In 2023, 20 law students who took this course attended classes focused on AI-related legal and policy issues and wrote papers. The course covered legal issues such as personal data protection law problems that may arise in AI data utilization and learning, as well as data bias.

There is also a case where law students started developing AI services in collaboration with an engineering college laboratory. Law students belonging to the Sogang University Law School AI Law Society are participating in the Ministry of Science and ICT’s ‘Explainable AI Service’ development project in cooperation with the Sogang University Department of Computer Science laboratory. In the process of developing a legal AI service that reviews corporate articles of incorporation, they evaluate whether the provisions and precedents provided by the research model are appropriate and provide legal information sites that the model can refer to.

Legal tech education programs at the level of the Association of Law Schools are also being actively discussed. The Association of Law Schools signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) related to legal AI education with LBox and Law&Company in November 2024 and February 2025, respectively. LBox will provide education to 24 out of 25 law schools nationwide in 2025. Eight schools, including Sungkyunkwan University, Yonsei University, and Wonkwang University, have completed education by partially including legal tech content in their regular courses. Law&Company is also in discussions with the Association of Law Schools to plan new services for law schools and legal AI education courses starting from the first semester of 2025.

The response from law students is positive. Although they rarely use legal tech immediately at school, they see it as a competency that legal professionals should have. Professor Park Hye-jin (44, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 37) of Hanyang University Law School, who is in charge of the legal tech course, said, “In just two years, students’ attitudes toward technology have changed. Previously, the approach was more interest-based, but now there is a growing recognition of the need to understand technology and an atmosphere of accepting AI as a practical skill.” Professor Lee Jin-gi of Sungkyunkwan University Law School said, “The core when using AI services is the ‘quality and quantity’ of information, and ultimately, the legal knowledge of the person asking the questions is the most important.”

Seo Ha-yeon, Legal Times Reporter

※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.