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AI Essentials for Law Faculty

These are the habits and tools that will change how you work with AI -- whether you never touch a terminal or eventually build full coding-agent workflows.

Some very basic advice before you dive in

Get a paid subscription to Claude or ChatGPT (or both). Always use the strongest model available -- the quality gap is large. Give the AI context about who you are and what you need before diving into a request. The Chatbots Done Right page covers the fundamentals; the Prompt Engineering page formalizes the full framework.

What's Here

  • Chatbots Done Right Start here

    The techniques that separate casual chatbot use from genuinely useful legal work. Models, context, prompts, conversations.

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  • Prompt Engineering

    Prompt writing as a structured skill. The bridge between casual use and building real workflows for legal research and writing.

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  • Teaching AI Your Voice

    AI has a house style. The fix is a voice file: one document that captures how you actually write memos, briefs, and scholarship. Load it once; every conversation starts with your patterns, not the AI's defaults.

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  • AI Project Folders

    Build a reusable planning system for any recurring task -- case research, client intake, regulatory compliance, course prep.

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  • Stress-Test Any Plan

    Paste a plan into a fresh AI chat with an adversarial prompt and get structured critique. One prompt, 10 minutes, any tool.

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  • ChatGPT vs Claude

    An honest comparison from a team that uses both daily. When each one wins for legal work.

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  • The Cost Reality

    What this actually costs. ROI analysis at different budget levels. What's worth it and what isn't -- including what your law school may already cover.

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The Stack

A recommended toolkit for law faculty getting started with AI:

Tool What It Does Cost Essential?
Claude (Pro or Max) Primary chatbot + Claude Code $20-100/mo Yes
ChatGPT (Plus or Pro) Deep research, web search, image generation $20-100/mo Recommended
Built-in Dictation Voice-to-text on Mac, iPhone, or Windows Free Useful for drafting

You do not need all of these. Start with one chatbot subscription and add tools as you see the value. The Cost Reality page breaks this down in detail.

Different platform or tools? Ask AI to help you adapt

This site documents workflows that work on both Mac and Windows. If your office uses Slack, Teams, or another platform, the concepts and techniques still transfer but some setup steps will differ. Try asking Claude or ChatGPT: "I use [your platform and tools]. How would I adapt this system for my setup?" That's more useful than reading around steps that don't apply. And for any tool recommendation on this site, AI chatbots can help you find the right alternative for your workflow -- just verify pricing and availability on the tool's own website.