Heidi Brown

In this episode, Ted sits down with Professor Heidi K. Brown, Associate Dean for Upper Level Writing at New York Law School, to discuss the impact of AI on legal education and practice. From understanding AI hallucinations in legal cases to exploring best practices for integrating AI into legal research and writing, Heidi shares her expertise in legal education and technology. She emphasizes the importance of critical thinking, structured writing techniques, and ethical responsibilities when using AI. This conversation highlights how lawyers and law students can effectively navigate these advancements while maintaining strong research and writing fundamentals.

In this episode, Professor Brown shares insights on how to:

• Identify and mitigate AI hallucinations in legal writing
• Balance AI-generated content with traditional legal research methods
• Use structured writing techniques to enhance legal documents
• Develop effective AI prompting strategies for better legal outcomes
• Understand the ethical responsibilities of lawyers using AI

Key takeaways:

• AI can be a powerful tool, but it requires oversight to prevent inaccuracies in legal documents.
• Lawyers and law students must maintain strong research and writing skills to critically assess AI-generated content.
• AI hallucinations have already led to legal consequences, emphasizing the need for validation of AI outputs.
• Effective prompt engineering can improve AI responses but does not replace the need for legal reasoning.
• The legal profession must adapt to AI while ensuring ethical standards and best practices remain a priority.

About the guest, Professor Heidi K. Brown

Professor Heidi K. Brown is the Associate Dean for Upper Level Writing at New York Law School and a former construction litigator with over 30 years of experience in legal practice and academia. A passionate advocate for well-being in the legal profession, she has authored multiple books on lawyering and performance, including The Introverted Lawyer and The Flourishing Lawyer. Heidi also specializes in AI literacy and ethical AI integration in legal writing, designing courses and workshops to help lawyers and law students navigate emerging technologies responsibly.

As of today, we cannot solely rely on AI legal research and just be done with it and say, ‘oh, look how efficient we are.’ That’s not responsible. We need to check it against traditional legal research methods.”

Connect with Professor Brown

• Website: https://www.nyls.edu/faculty/heidi-k-brown/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theintrovertedlawyerbook/
• The Flourishing Lawyer: https://www.theflourishinglawyer.org/ 
• The Introverted Lawyer: https://www.theintrovertedlawyer.com/