Chicago Law Mandates Laptop-Free 1L Classes, Expands AI Training Amid Cheating Fears
Updated
Updated · Business Insider · Jul 11
Chicago Law Mandates Laptop-Free 1L Classes, Expands AI Training Amid Cheating Fears
3 articles · Updated · Business Insider · Jul 11
Summary
First-year students at the University of Chicago Law School must keep laptops closed in class this fall as the school overhauls teaching to preserve independent reasoning.
The shift responds to rising AI-assisted cheating concerns and to law firms' growing expectation that graduates can use legal AI tools rather than avoid them.
Chicago Law's new model pairs in-person proctored exams and oral defenses for major papers with expanded AI instruction in legal writing and added AI-focused courses.
Brown recently disciplined dozens of students in an AI-cheating case, and Chicago's dean said similar reports at Brown, Harvard and elsewhere showed students could advance without building rigorous thinking skills.
The school is framing the change as a two-track approach: teach students to think without AI first, then train them to use tools such as Harvey and Legora ethically.