For more than two years, lawyers have been told that success with generative AI depended on writing better prompts and a search for the perfect “magic wand” prompting formula. That was the wrong lesson. The real change in 2026 is not found in the model itself, but in the professional posture required to use it.
Prompting or Negotiating? A Systems Design Lesson for Legal AI
I had a long session recently with a public genAI tool that taught me something more important than the topic I started with.
The lesson was not about whether the model was “smart enough.” It was about control. At a certain point, I realized I was no longer simply prompting an LLM. I was negotiating
HyperCard: Illustrating My AI Prompting Approach
I’ve been working on organizing and optimizing my AI prompts and prompting methodologies. I noticed that I have two major categories of approaches.
The first I call “complex, structured prompting.”
Google Gemini describes that, and I think accurately, as “a systematic, engineered way to interact with AI. It’s about building a personalized ‘cognitive operating system’
How Can Law Professors Effectively Teach AI Literacy to Law Students? LegalRnD AI Studio
How Can Law Professors Effectively Teach AI Literacy to Law Students?
Last spring at the Michigan State University College of Law and the MSU Center for Law, Technology & Innovation we introduced the “LegalRnD AI Studio,” a groundbreaking mini-course series designed to elevate law students’ AI literacy, focusing on practical skills in generative AI. I
Handout from my AI Prompting Workshop at the Great Lakes Legal Conference
I had a great time presenting about AI at the 2024 State Bar of Michigan’s Great Lakes Legal Conference last week. It was cool to have four Michigan Supreme Court Justices in one of the sessions.
As part of my ongoing effort to help make the Michigan legal community leaders in AI and law, I