As directors of Michigan Law clinics focused on social justice, Professors Bridgette Carr, ’02, and Vivek Sankaran, ’01, are aware of a sobering truth: A staggering number of low-income Americans (92 percent) do not have access to legal help for their civil needs.
Both have dedicated their careers to finding ways to make the justice system accessible to people who have been left behind. Now, they’re looking to artificial intelligence (AI) as an ally in the effort.
Carr, co-director of the Human Trafficking and Immigration Clinic, and Sankaran, director of the Child Advocacy Law Clinic and the Child Welfare Appellate Clinic, are leading a new initiative that brings AI to clinical education at Michigan Law. Their AI Law and Policy Clinic, launching in January, allows students to explore how they can leverage emerging technologies to expand the ability of low-income people to understand and vindicate their legal rights—without losing sight of the human element that underpins justice or diminishing the critical thinking skills that are vital to their work.
“Michigan Law students, with their training in the law and AI, can serve the needs of organizations that are overburdened and under-resourced,” says Carr. “For them to be able to leverage the efficiency gains and other benefits that AI is offering—that’s what I’m really excited about.”
Using AI to help access justice
The idea for the clinic began in early 2024, when Carr and Sankaran started conversations with AI innovators who believed the technology could not only transform how people adjudicate their rights but also make legal information affordable and actionable for those who need it most.
“In many ways, this is the natural extension of what clinics do, which is to commingle educating students while also serving some of the greatest legal needs that we have,” Carr says. “AI offers us a chance to scale up to actually meeting those needs.”
Clinic students will work in teams and collaborate with organizations such as courts, legal aid organizations, nonprofits, or even other Michigan Law clinics to produce a tangible solution for a client. For example, students could develop tools that help overburdened lawyers provide more efficient legal services or other tools that help self-represented litigants navigate a complex system. (A list of AI tools used in legal practice.)
Professor Vivek Sankaran, ’01I think that if folks view this technology as outsourcing all of those roles, because you don't have to check it anymore, they are gravely mistaken. And we will be educating our students about it.
The key through line is that the solution needs to be related to helping those in poverty access justice systems.
“I want us thinking about how tools we develop might positively or negatively affect certain populations,” says Carr. “I also think there are discussions that we’re not having right now; for example, will there be a point where, if you’re not using AI, you aren’t providing ethical representation? There’s going to be a lot of room for students to really engage in pressing ethical issues.”
Design thinking mindset
Both professors see use of AI as a foundational skill that should be taught early in law school—but also must be taught with care. If used poorly, they say, AI can have a harmful effect on a student’s learning abilities. In essence, it cannot be used as a replacement for learning but as a tool to deepen learning. The role of human judgment is irreplaceable.
“AI, at least in this moment, is great in the middle,” Carr says. “But you still need humans at the beginning and end to frame and conceptualize, and then to verify that something’s accurate.”
Professor Bridgette Carr, ’02For [students] to be able to leverage the efficiency gains and other benefits that AI is offering—that’s what I’m really excited about.
Sankaran adds that attorneys have an obligation to check everything that goes into every pleading, to examine their biases, to interrogate systems, and to make sure that they’re treating people fairly.
“And that has not changed,” he says. “I think that if folks view this technology as outsourcing all of those roles, because you don’t have to check it anymore, they are gravely mistaken. We will be educating our students about it.”
He adds that the clinic gives students space to experiment with AI tools as they learn. And the clinic’s focus will evolve alongside the rapidly changing technology. Carr and Sankaran say use of AI will foster what they call a “design thinking” mindset, where students prototype, test, and iterate solutions. The clinic, in other words, is as much about mindset as mechanics, and that spirit of experimentation requires comfort with ambiguity.
“A lot of the traditional skills that we used to value, like memorization and knowing case law, aren’t going to be as important,” Sankaran says. For example, basic AI tools can analyze a legal document in minutes rather than hours.
“With AI and other technologies,” says Sankaran, “there’s a completely different skill set of design thinking that students need to be taught. It’s an innovator’s mindset of spotting areas where AI can be useful, and then developing prototypes where we try something, and then learn to iterate and create more prototypes, and then get user feedback. Once you get the mindset, the tech part is easy.”
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