Artificial Intelligence: The New Paralegal? Training legal professionals in the challenging context of AI

This article was presented at the 14th Conference on Legal Education, organized by the Center for Faculty Development, held on October 17 and 18, 2024. -- This article presents a reflection on the current state of legal education at both the secondary and university levels. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and the evolution of information and communication technologies (ICT), legal educators are confronted with the question of whether we should reform the curricula and teaching methods we currently employ. Should we train professionals who will have to "compete" against AI, which could potentially replace them? Or should we, conversely, adopt the (perhaps somewhat presumptuous) stance that the legal field is one of the few areas that "resists" the encroachment of AI, as it cannot replicate the unique human praxis characteristic of legal assistants, lawyers, and educators? Without intending to resolve the issue with a definitive answer, we cannot overlook the fact that AI is already part of our professional (and even personal) lives and represents an intriguing tool that we can leverage to our advantage.