Generative AI in Legal Practice: Capabilities, Limits, and Risks

This lesson introduces generative AI as a practical tool for lawyers and legal professionals, with a focus on what systems like ChatGPT can and cannot reliably do in legal work. Students learn how large language models generate responses, why they can appear authoritative while still being wrong, and how to think about AI as an assistant rather than a legal authority.

The lesson also frames the major risk categories that will recur throughout the course: confidentiality, hallucinated authority, bias, privilege, supervision, unauthorized practice concerns, cybersecurity, and professional responsibility. Later lessons will go deeper into research, drafting, client communication, workflows, and compliance; this foundation helps students use those later workflows with appropriate judgment.