Resources¶
A curated collection of resources for law faculty working with AI. We focus on tools, guidance, and scholarship that are directly relevant to legal education, legal practice, and the responsible use of AI in professional settings.
Legal AI Ethics and Guidance¶
Professional responsibility is the first concern for any lawyer using AI. These resources cover the evolving regulatory landscape.
| Resource | What it covers |
|---|---|
| ABA Formal Opinion 512 (2024) | The ABA's guidance on lawyers' obligations when using generative AI -- competence, confidentiality, supervision, and communication with clients |
| ABA Task Force on Law and AI | The ABA's initiative examining AI's impact on law practice, ethical implications, and strategies for responsible use |
| State Bar AI Ethics Opinions | A growing collection from California, Florida, New York, Texas, and other state bars -- each interpreting how existing rules of professional conduct apply to AI tools |
| Model Rule 1.6 -- Confidentiality | The text of Model Rule 1.6 and its comments -- essential reading before using any AI tool with client information |
| Model Rule 1.1 -- Competence | Competence now includes understanding the benefits and risks of technology relevant to your practice |
AI Tools for Legal Professionals¶
These are the major AI platforms designed for or commonly used in legal work. We do not endorse any specific product -- this is a reference for understanding the landscape.
Legal-Specific AI Tools¶
| Tool | What it does | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CoCounsel (Thomson Reuters) | AI legal assistant integrated with Westlaw -- case research, document review, deposition preparation | Enterprise pricing; over 1 million users |
| Lexis+ AI | AI assistant integrated with LexisNexis research platform | Includes citation verification and hallucination checks |
| Harvey AI | General-purpose legal AI platform for drafting, analysis, and research | Used by major law firms; enterprise-only |
| Westlaw AI-Assisted Research | AI features within the Westlaw research platform | Available to existing Westlaw subscribers |
| vLex / Vincent AI | AI-powered legal research across jurisdictions | Strong international law coverage |
General AI Platforms We Use in This Guide¶
| Tool | What we use it for | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Claude (Anthropic) | Primary AI for this guide -- browser chatbot and Claude Code | claude.ai |
| ChatGPT (OpenAI) | Deep Research for literature reviews, web search, broad knowledge tasks | chatgpt.com |
| Perplexity | Citation-heavy factual lookups with sourced answers | perplexity.ai |
| Gemini (Google) | Google Workspace integration, long-document analysis | gemini.google.com |
Academics Using Coding Agents¶
A growing number of researchers are documenting how they use coding agents in their academic work. These are not theoretical — they are working researchers describing real workflows.
| Resource | Who and what |
|---|---|
| Straus & Hall -- Claude Code Replication Audit (2026) | Andy Hall (Stanford GSB) and Graham Straus (UCLA) independently audited Claude Code's replication and extension of a published PNAS paper. The best empirical evidence of what coding agents can and cannot do in research. |
| Mollick -- "A Guide to Which AI to Use in the Agentic Era" (2026) | Ethan Mollick (Wharton) on the models/apps/harnesses framework for understanding AI tools. The clearest explanation of why the same AI feels different in different contexts — and how to choose the right tool for different tasks. |
| Messing & Tucker -- "The Train Has Left the Station" (Brookings, 2026) | Solomon Messing and Joshua Tucker (NYU) argue coding agents are transforming social science. Examples from their own work: an R package built in a day, a 20-page empirical analysis produced in under an hour. |
| Mollick -- "Claude Code and What Comes Next" (2025) | Ethan Mollick (Wharton) gave Claude Code an economics paper with replication data. It read the paper, converted Stata to Python, and reproduced the findings. His broader argument: academics not using agentic tools will get left behind. |
| Mollick -- "Speaking Things Into Existence" (2025) | Mollick on the shift from typing prompts to describing outcomes — and what that means for how professionals work. Accessible and non-technical. |
| Sant'Anna -- Claude Code Academic Workflow (2026) | Pedro Sant'Anna (Emory, Economics) published a detailed Claude Code workflow for LaTeX, Quarto, and R-based research with 14 specialized agents. Adopted by 15+ research groups across economics, political science, and engineering. |
| Cunningham -- "Claude Code Changed How I Work" (2026) | Scott Cunningham (Baylor, Economics), author of Causal Inference: The Mixtape, documents his switch to Claude Code for empirical econometrics and why he says he is never going back. |
| Blattman -- Claude for Professionals Who Don't Code | Chris Blattman (U Chicago, Political Economy) built an open-source AI workflow system for academic research management — writing, research, course design. The project this site was originally adapted from. |
Claude Code Resources¶
These are the technical resources for the coding agent tool we use in this guide.
| Resource | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Claude Code Documentation | Official setup, configuration, and usage guide -- start here if you are installing Claude Code |
| Claude Code Best Practices | Anthropic's guide to context management, CLAUDE.md conventions, and common patterns |
| Anthropic Prompt Engineering Guide | How to write effective prompts -- more technical than our Prompt Engineering page, but excellent for going deeper |
| Anthropic Cookbook | Code examples and recipes for working with Claude's API and tools |
| MCP (Model Context Protocol) | The protocol that lets Claude Code connect to external services like Gmail, Google Calendar, and databases |
General AI Literacy¶
Resources for understanding AI more broadly -- useful for faculty who want to develop their own informed perspective on the technology.
| Resource | Why it is worth reading |
|---|---|
| Anthropic Prompt Engineering Guide | The best single guide to writing effective prompts, from the company that makes Claude |
| OpenAI Documentation | Comprehensive documentation for ChatGPT and the OpenAI API -- useful even if you primarily use Claude |
| Simon Willison's Blog | The most technically literate and honest AI blog. Willison builds tools and explains what works without hype. |
| Chloe Keywell -- Claude Cowork Guide | The most thorough public guide to Claude Cowork — the desktop, non-terminal counterpart to Claude Code. The basis for our Cowork page. |
| r/ClaudeAI | Active community for Claude users -- good for troubleshooting and discovering new patterns |
| Stanford HAI (Human-Centered AI) | Academic research on AI policy, governance, and societal impact |
| AI Snake Oil (Arvind Narayanan) | A clear-eyed, critical perspective on AI hype versus reality -- essential reading for anyone who wants to separate marketing from substance |
Contributing¶
Found a resource that should be here? Have a correction? Open an issue on GitHub or contact the Vanderbilt AI Law Lab.
Questions or feedback? Open an issue on GitHub or contact the Vanderbilt AI Law Lab.