As AI continues to revolutionize aspects of the legal field, its potential to transform legal scholarship is immense. This presentation will explore how AI tools, including specialized products like Consensus, Litmaps, and Elicit, as well as PDF-analysis tools like Google NotebookLM and general-purpose chat systems like ChatGPT, can streamline and enhance legal academic research. We will demonstrate how AI can assist with conducting comprehensive literature reviews, generating citation formatting, and supporting general research tasks. Attendees will gain practical insights into effective AI tools and learn strategies for integrating these technologies into their scholarly workflows to boost efficiency and quality.
Rebecca Fordon is a law librarian at the Moritz Law Library, where she provides reference and research services to faculty, students, and the public. She also teaches Legal Analysis and Writing I.
Previously, Professor Fordon was Faculty Services Librarian at UCLA School of Law’s Hugh & Hazel Darling Law Library, where she also taught Advanced Legal Research. And prior to joining law librarianship, she was a partner at Brown Rudnick LLP in Boston where she counseled clients in bankruptcy and complex commercial litigation. While in Boston, she clerked at the Massachusetts Court of Appeals for the Honorable Andrew R. Grainger.
Professor Fordon received her BA magna cum laude in Zoology and Humanities from Ohio Wesleyan University. She also earned her JD magna cum laude from Boston University School of Law, and her MLIS from UCLA. She is a member of the American Association of Law Libraries and the Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries.
Sarah joined the library faculty in October 2005 as a reference librarian. Sarah obtained her M.L.I.S. degree from Kent State University while working at the customer support department of LexisNexis in Dayton, Ohio. Prior to her employment at LexisNexis, Sarah practiced domestic and consumer bankruptcy law in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sean A. Harrington, the Director of Technology and Innovation at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, combines a profound background in law and technology, rooted in a lifelong passion for computer science. Born and raised in Southern California, Sean pursued a diverse educational path, initially graduating with a BA in English Literature from UCLA. He then furthered his education with a JD from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, followed by a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Arizona, and a Master of Science in Data Analytics from Arizona State University. This foundational knowledge positioned him to be a frontrunner in incorporating technology within the legal sphere.
In recent years, Sean has focused on authoring works discussing the intersections of AI in legal research and its integration within law school curricula. Beyond his academic pursuits, Sean possesses a rich international experience, having spent a semester in Paris, France for studies, and extending his educational impact by teaching English as a foreign language in both Japan and China. These experiences have equipped him with a global perspective, significantly influencing his approach and contributions to the field of legal education and technology innovation.
