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Key highlights:

• • • Build on internal momentum rather than top-down mandates 鈥� Dean Kalb backed faculty who were already experimenting with AI, embedding shared learning outcomes into the legal writing program first before expanding to other courses.

    • Empower students to shape the school’s AI policy 鈥� Dean Kalb formed a 15-person student advisory group that surveyed one-third of the student body and produced AI principles that directly influenced school policy.

    • Create opportunities to get students collaborating with faculty 鈥� Efforts by Dean Kalb uncovered shared concerns of faculty and students, underscoring that students often know AI tools better than faculty and creating a co-learning opportunity in the classroom.

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In her first six months as dean at the University of San Francisco (USF) School of Law, Johanna Kalb heard the same message from alumni across sectors: Those students entering law school today would step into a profession that looks meaningfully different from the one that exists now.

So, in her first move to translate that urgency into institutional change, Dean Kalb got behind those faculty members who had already started building toward that future.

Start with what is already in motion and invite others in

Dean Kalb started with the efforts that Profs. Nicole Phillips and Megan Hutchinson had already been doing by conducting their own experiments in their classrooms and building their own tools.

Dean Kalb鈥檚 first step mattered as a strategic choice. Rather than convening a task force or commissioning a study, she identified the faculty who had credibility with their peers and gave them resources and institutional backing. In this way, USF was able to embed shared AI learning outcomes across its legal research, writing, and analysis program in the second semester of the 2024-鈥�25 academic year.

The decision to focus on this program was deliberate because it built upon existing internal momentum and fit into the course鈥檚 existing goals. The structure of the legal research and writing program 鈥� with faculty having autonomy while supporting each other 鈥� also made the integration work by providing natural support.

Expand through optional workshops before adding mandates

Over the following summer in 2025, Profs. Phillips and Hutchinson ran optional hands-on workshops for the broader faculty. “Faculty learn from other faculty,” explains Dean Kalb. 鈥淭hey don’t want a vendor to come in and sell them. They’re not interested in having somebody from central administration try to tell them how they can teach better. But listening to a colleague who really understands the work that they do is very helpful.”

Indeed, some faculty showed up, were excited by the possibilities, and began integrating AI learning outcomes into their elective courses. This voluntary uptake created a visible proof of concept before any additional requirements or mandates were introduced.

Alongside the workshops, Dean Kalb also expanded AI learning outcomes into two required courses on evidence and professional responsibility. The professional responsibility inclusion was straightforward given the ethical dimensions of AI use in legal practice. One colleague, Prof. Tiffany Li, had already been building those outcomes into her section and was willing to share her approach with other faculty members who were teaching the same course.

Give students a formal role in shaping the direction

When USF rolled out access to the AI platform Claude across students and faculty, the response was more complicated than Dean Kalb anticipated. Feedback from students at USF 鈥� a Catholic Jesuit institution with a strong social justice identity 鈥� raised questions about AI鈥檚 social, environmental, and democratic impacts.

Dean Kalb intentionally chose to use the students鈥� feedback to involve them. With the help of another alum, who has deep experience in evaluating and implementing emerging technologies, Dean Kalb convened a student group to develop a set of draft principles for AI use at USF Law. The students conducted structured interviews with faculty, staff, and students, resulting in the creation of a survey in which approximately one-third of the student body participated. The student group drew on these results to draft a series of AI principles and presented them to faculty, staff, and other students. Ultimately, the principles were adopted by the faculty.

What came out of that process has already begun to shape the law school鈥檚 AI practices in concrete ways. For example, a faculty technology advisory committee with student representation has been formed to implement the principles to ensure transparency and ongoing oversight. The school also has begun exploring ways to engage with AI that reflect and enhance its social justice mission.

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We now have a shared sense of where the community is and what our concerns are. That allows us to speak in a common language as we talk about why and how we’re doing this.

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The more significant outcome, Dean Kalb says, was the discovery of shared concerns among faculty and students that AI would erode critical thinking rather than develop it. “That was probably the most helpful part of the whole process,” she says. “We now have a shared sense of where the community is and what our concerns are. That allows us to speak in a common language as we talk about why and how we’re doing this.”

Commit to sharing in the learning

Dean Kalb鈥檚 suggestion for her peers and faculty is to integrate AI tools into their own lives, which would allow them to better 聽聽聽聽聽keep pace with technology that is moving faster than any curriculum committee can match. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to regulate and teach these tools in the abstract,鈥� she explains. 鈥淚鈥檝e found that playing around with them in my personal life 鈥� where the stakes are low 鈥� has helped me come up with ideas for their use at work, and that in turn, means that I notice their evolution.鈥�

For a profession built on expertise and the authority that comes with it, this mindset requires a particular kind of intellectual honesty. Some students are beginning to arrive at law school with more familiarity with AI tools than their professors, Dean Kalb adds, and this may offer an opportunity to shift the classroom dynamic toward co-creation, in which faculty and students are building knowledge together rather than transmitting it in one direction.

This change in perspective can, turn the stress of 鈥渒eeping up鈥� into the more enjoyable experience of collaboration, she says.

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You can find out more about the impact of AI on legal education here