The Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association (ABA) recently honored Matthew Preston, ’21, as a 2025 On the Rise – Top 40 Young Lawyers awardee. Recipients are selected for their leadership, innovation, and example in upholding the law.
“Being selected for this award forced me to pause and think about everything I’ve done since the Army. I’m grateful for that, and I’m honored to be placed in the same category as so many incredible legal professionals,” Preston says.
Finding a path to the law
Preston spent eight years in the Army before an experience on his base in Colorado set him on the path to law school. After he returned from a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan, the conduct of a newly assigned platoon sergeant raised concerns. Navigating the formal complaint process was a pivotal moment.
“That experience was my first insight into the law, and it motivated me to use the GI Bill to pursue my education,” he says.
In just two years, Preston earned his undergraduate degree from the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts, then worked as a policy analyst intern at the Indiana State Senate before matriculating at Michigan Law.
At Michigan, his campus involvement included serving as the president of the Michigan Law School Veterans Society, a senior editor on the Michigan Law Review, and a student-attorney in the Workers' Rights Clinic (now the 1L Advocacy Clinic).
Matthew Preston, ’21I’m honored to be placed in the same category as so many incredible legal professionals.
Pursuing innovation
After graduation, Preston served in four yearlong clerkships with four different judges. During that time, he began to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) tools might help with standard clerkship tasks. This interest led to his involvement with the Legal Accountability Project (LAP) and Learned Hand Inc.
LAP is a nonprofit organization that designed a database to match law clerks with judges based on a range of preferences and interests; Preston now serves as its chief financial officer. Learned Hand Inc., where Preston is an equity adviser, is a legal technology company that provides an AI-powered platform to assist courts and judges with legal analysis.
His service to both organizations has helped inform his understanding of how AI and the judiciary intersect. Coming full circle from his own clerkship days, Preston has begun teaching his findings to law clerks and judges at venues such as the National Judicial Conference and the Judicial Education Institute.
“When using ChatGPT, you can get really granular,” he says. “For example, you can say, ‘Find me a case where the district court granted a motion to dismiss because the plaintiff made allegations against defendants but didn’t say specifically who did what.’ Essentially, you can input an abstract thought, and it will find you cases that match.”
Preston cautions, however, that technology has limits. “No matter how well versed you are with the technology, I never advise blanketly trusting in what you see. I always check citations—you can even ask it to provide you with record citations. The time you save in your research should be used to triple-check the technology’s work.”
Earlier this year, Preston joined Jones Day as an associate in their Detroit office. He still maintains his involvement with the Legal Accountability Project and Learned Hand Inc., and he also serves on the Michigan Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights.
“Between those commitments—and a one-year-old at home—it’s fair to say I’m balancing roughly three-and-a-half full-time jobs,” he says, crediting his wife, Francy, with giving him the support and confidence to pursue his passions.
At Jones Day, Preston has been working in business and tort litigation, “taking a generalist’s approach and immersing myself in as many matters as I can,” he says. That includes seeing how a Big Law firm is approaching artificial intelligence. “Working on both sides of the bench has given me a clearer view of how AI can serve the law. Judges are already reaping its benefits; the challenge now is to identify ways to make the tools just as powerful—and responsible—for the advocates who appear before them.”
