Leading the Future: Touro Law Emerges as a Pioneer in AI-Enhanced Legal Education

In an era where artificial intelligence is reshaping every aspect of professional practice, Touro Law Center has positioned itself at the vanguard of legal education innovation, embracing the technology as both a teaching tool and a critical competency for tomorrow's attorneys.

"We believe our students will graduate ready to enter the workforce as thoughtful, adaptable attorneys who can critically engage with emerging technologies," says Dean Elena Langan. "They'll be prepared not just to use AI tools, but to understand their implications for clients, the practice of law, and the justice system as a whole."

This vision drives a comprehensive approach to AI integration that extends far beyond simple awareness—it's about preparing students to be leaders in an AI-transformed legal landscape.

Building an AI-Forward Institution

Touro Law's commitment to AI excellence begins at the institutional level. The law school has established an AI Task Force, co-chaired by Professors Hal Abramson and Jorge Roig, to guide strategic implementation, while drawing support from Touro University's dedicated AI leadership team, including Jamie Sundvail, Assistant Provost of AI, and Shlomo Engelson Argamon, Associate Provost for AI.

The Task Force is launching a dynamic four-part series to spark fresh thinking and elevate AI fluency among faculty. Module 1 helps faculty build their own AI bot shaped by scholarship. Module 2 explores how AI is transforming law practice, with hands-on use of tools. Module 3 uncovers how students are using AI and how faculty can guide them and classroom activities. A smart, forward-looking series for the modern legal educator.

"We're at an inflection point in legal education that I have never seen before," explains Professor Abramson. "The question is not whether AI will be transforming legal practice and legal education—it already has. Our responsibility is to ensure our students and faculty are not just educated users of radidly evolving AI, but thoughtful stewards. At Touro Law, we're building a community of practices where faculty and students learn together, experiment together, and develop best practices together. This collaborative approach positions us to lead conversations about AI in legal education, because we're not imposing solutions from above—we're discovering them through genuine engagement with the technology and with each other."

Professor Roig adds, "What distinguishes our approach is the recognition that AI competency doesn't replace traditional legal skills—it amplifies them. Critical thinking, ethical reasoning, thorough analysis, and synthesis—these remain the bedrock of excellent lawyering. AI is a powerful tool, but tools require skilled hands and sound judgment for effective use. Our Task Force is focused on ensuring that every student and faculty member has the opportunity to develop genuine AI literacy—understanding not just how to use these tools, but when to use them, how to verify their outputs, and how to maintain the professional responsibility and human judgment that define our profession. We're preparing attorneys who will set the standard for responsible AI integration in practice."

The school has systematically integrated AI considerations into its academic framework, adding an AI Policy to syllabus templates and offering a dedicated "Law and AI" course for students.  

Perhaps most tellingly, six faculty members have received AI Innovation Grants from Touro University—a testament to both the institution's investment in AI advancement and the faculty's enthusiasm for exploring new pedagogical frontiers.

Faculty Innovation in Action

The real strength of Touro Law's AI initiative lies in how individual faculty members are pioneering creative applications across diverse legal disciplines.

Dr. Patricia Baia, Assistant Dean of Teaching Effectiveness, has exemplified the collaborative spirit at the heart of Touro Law's AI initiative through innovative faculty development programming. Recognizing that many faculty feel overwhelmed by rapid AI advancement, Dr. Baia launched a 28-day AI Challenge recently that made exploration accessible and manageable. Each day, participants spent just 15 minutes trying a different AI tool and rating it on a simple scale. By breaking learning into small, daily commitments, she created a low-stress pathway for faculty to build AI fluency while fostering community. At the challenge's conclusion, she compiled participants' experiences into a summary report, transforming individual experiments into collective knowledge. Her approach demonstrates that effective AI integration is built through consistent, supported experimentation that meets faculty where they are.

Dr. Baia leads dynamic workshops that spotlight AI’s evolving impact on law, pairing big-picture insight with hands-on practice. Her virtual brown-bag series has explored everything from AI in legal research and teaching, to course design, ethical AI literacy, and the future of AI in legal education. She has introduced faculty to tools like Studyfetch, Cicero, and Lexis Protégé+ GenAI, and her collaboration with the Touro University Graduate School of Technology on AI-powered bots for legal role-playing and simulations is both innovative and timely.

A respected voice in responsible innovation, Dr. Baia holds a Responsible AI in Higher Education certificate, grounding her work in critical thinking, integrity, and human judgment. She recently moderated the “Transforming the Student Experience with AI” panel at the Touro University AI Summit and developed the “AI at Touro Law” faculty resource module.

Professor Gabriel Weil developed the foundational "Law and AI" course, which takes students on a comprehensive journey from understanding AI's technical features to examining its profound implications for democracy, national security, and even human survival. The course concludes by exploring AI's potential role in future legal and governance systems, preparing students to navigate an AI-integrated professional landscape.

Professor Lynne Kramer has transformed her experiential learning approach by incorporating AI into her law firm simulation course. Students working in groups to establish virtual law firms now use AI to develop marketing plans—a real-world application that mirrors how practicing attorneys increasingly rely on AI tools. "Most students were very inexperienced in the use of AI," Professor Kramer notes. "I was very surprised to see how much more I use it than they do." This insight has led her to focus on developing students' prompting skills and AI literacy as core competencies.

Professor Patricia Salkin is pioneering AI applications in land use law, having students draft local ordinances using AI tools before critically analyzing them for legal compliance and comprehensiveness. Her scholarship in this area, including co-authored work with students David Looney '25 and Harrison Stern '25, positions Touro Law at the forefront of AI applications in municipal law. Professor Salkin's upcoming presentations at the New York State Bar Association and Pace Law School's Annual Land Use Institute will further establish Touro Law's thought leadership in this emerging field.

Professor Samuel Levine has created perhaps one of the most sophisticated AI assessment tools in legal education. His AI Innovation Grant project requires students to complete practice assessments, then compare their work with AI-generated responses, evaluating AI explanations and verifying cited cases for accuracy and relevance. This approach teaches critical AI literacy—helping students understand both AI's capabilities and limitations, including the crucial ability to identify AI "hallucinations."

Professor Ann Nowak has revolutionized student support services through AI integration, creating an interactive 24/7 writing support system for the Writing Center. Her innovation has resulted in a significant increase in student participation, demonstrating how AI can enhance rather than replace human-centered educational support. She has also been a leader in helping students and faculty learn to use AI effectively. In late 2024, Professor Nowak created an educational video about basic prompt engineering skills. The video was shared with faculty school-wide.  

Professor Hal Abramson embodies the collaborative spirit of Touro Law's AI initiative. Recognizing that "students are learning in new ways and already embracing AI," he approaches AI integration as a joint venture with his students. His focus on teaching responsible AI use while continuously adapting his own teaching methods reflects the dynamic, responsive approach that characterizes Touro Law's AI program.

Professor Abramson is focusing on building a program to train law faculty on the opportunities offered by AI to improve pedagogies. He also is finishing an article on what is the value-added of law faculty in an AI world where much of what faculty traditionally do can now be done by an AI bot.  He is building bots for use in his courses on contracts and negotiations as he figures out what law professors can do that bots cannot do. And he thinks there is still much that human teachers can offer.

Adjunct Professor Howard Leib brings industry perspective to AI education through his work in entertainment and music law, covering AI types, societal implications, legal challenges, and emerging regulatory frameworks—essential knowledge for students entering creative industries increasingly shaped by AI.

Mauricio Norona, Director of the Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, has developed two particularly innovative AI applications that bridge theory and practice. In his client counseling simulation, he programs AI to act as a client facing a critical decision—whether to accept a withholding offer or proceed to trial on asylum. The AI engages students orally, playing the client according to Professor Norona's detailed instructions. Students record these interactions and use class time to analyze their performance, developing essential client counseling skills in a safe, repeatable environment. His second innovation focuses on developing critical review skills: he has AI generate legal documents from prompts, then challenges students to identify what's missing or incorrect and revise accordingly. This exercise delivers a crucial lesson—while AI can produce work quickly, it often misses essential issues, reinforcing that students must develop thoroughness and attention to detail in their own practice.

Even faculty not directly using AI in instruction contribute to the school's leadership position. Professor Rebecca Feinberg, Director of the Health Law Institute, is organizing a major conference on "Artificial Intelligence and Health Law," bringing together experts in healthcare law, technology, bioethics, and policy to explore AI's transformative potential and regulatory challenges in healthcare.

Preparing Practice-Ready Graduates

What sets Touro Law apart is its recognition that AI competency isn't just about understanding the technology—it's about developing the critical thinking skills necessary to use AI effectively and ethically. From Professor Michael Lewyn's assignment requiring students to draft deeds using AI to the comprehensive prompting skills development across multiple courses, students learn to harness AI as a professional tool while maintaining the analytical rigor that defines excellent legal practice.

Alumni Impact

The program's real-world relevance is validated by graduates like Dana Ortiz Tulla, who leveraged her AI knowledge to secure a position with the Director of the New Jersey Judiciary, where she now uses artificial intelligence to enhance efficiency, fairness, and accessibility within the judicial system. Her trajectory from Touro Law student to AI implementation leader in government demonstrates the practical value of the school's forward-thinking approach.

Setting the Standard

As legal practice continues its rapid transformation, Touro Law Center stands as a model for how legal education can evolve to meet emerging challenges. By combining institutional support, faculty innovation, practical application, and ethical considerations, the school has created a comprehensive AI program that prepares students not just to use AI tools, but to lead in their implementation and governance.

In a profession where adaptability and technological fluency are becoming as important as legal knowledge itself, Touro Law's pioneering approach ensures its graduates will be among the attorneys shaping the future of legal practice—not merely adapting to changes others create.

The message is clear: at Touro Law, the future of legal education isn't coming—it's already here.