After becoming the first law school in the nation to require AI education for all first-year students last year, Case Western Reserve University School of Law has again raised the bar by requiring every 1L student to design and build a legal technology solution.

Through its mandatory Introduction to AI and the Law program developed in partnership with Wickard.ai, Case Western positioned AI literacy as a core professional competency, ensuring that every first-year student gained foundational exposure to AI tools, ethical considerations, regulatory developments, and the growing role of technology in modern legal practice.

“AI is already transforming how law is practiced, and legal education must evolve accordingly. Our goal is to ensure every Case Western Law graduate enters the profession with both the understanding and the practical experience needed to use these tools thoughtfully, ethically, and effectively,” said Paul Rose, Dean of Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

As the early leader in requiring legal AI education, Case Western helped catalyze a broader shift across legal education, with other schools introducing AI-focused courses or requirements over the past year, including programs at Suffolk Law School, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, Southwestern Law School, Mississippi College School of Law, Quinnipiac School of Law, and others.

This academic year, Case Western extended that foundation into hands-on application. Building on the required AI certification, the 1L curriculum now asks students not only to understand AI conceptually but to engage with it directly by designing practical solutions to real legal workflow challenges. The shift reflects a broader view that technological competence in law increasingly requires not just awareness, but informed and responsible use, according to Case Western Associate Professor Matthew Salerno and adjunct professor Oliver Roberts, who both spearheaded the program.

From Learning About AI to Building With It

Under the expanded program this year, every 1L student participated in the CWRU School of Law-Wickard 1L Vibe Coding Competition, which required students to design and prototype an AI-assisted tool aimed at addressing real problems faced by practicing lawyers.

Students used rapid, iterative development methods often referred to as “vibe coding,” identifying real-world legal tasks and building functional prototype solutions. Projects were expected to demonstrate relevance to actual legal practice and to rely only on hypothetical or publicly available information, reinforcing professional responsibility principles around confidentiality and data security.

“Dean Rose, Professor Salerno and Case Western continue to lead nationally in legal AI education. Incorporating hands-on vibe coding into the first-year curriculum is a meaningful innovation, and the student projects demonstrated impressive creativity, practical judgment, and real-world relevance,” said Roberts, who taught the Introduction to AI and the Law program.

The winning submission came from first-year student Jamie Werner, who developed a platform enabling lawyers to track local court rules and judges’ standing orders while also accessing background information on judges, including recent opinions and professional biographies. The system emphasized grounding information in authoritative sources such as official judicial websites and publicly verifiable materials.

Werner received the CWRU School of Law–Wickard Vibe Coding Champion award in recognition of the project.

“The vibe coding competition and AI course provided great firsthand insight into both the emerging benefits and the continuing limitations of AI applications in legal practice,” said Werner.

Another first-year student, Sophie Kwiatkowski, received an honorable mention for developing an Ohio AI Local Court Rules tracker, which addresses the difficulty of tracking local courts’ rules on AI usage.

Kwiatkowski said the AI training “will be beyond useful in practice because I have now been exposed to differing takes on working with AI, rather than against it, in the legal field. I think this training’s optimism on the future of AI, while taking into account the realities of AI’s effects…is much needed for law students like myself.”

Other notable student-developed solutions included timekeeping and billing automation tools, local court rules tracking platforms, citation checking and validation systems, AI-assisted jury selection tools, and judge analytics platforms.

Collectively, the submissions demonstrated how first-year law students, even early in their legal training, can meaningfully engage with technology to improve legal workflows.

A Broader Educational Strategy

The required vibe-coding component forms part of the school’s broader Introduction to AI and the Law curriculum, developed in partnership with Wickard.ai. The course introduces students to AI fundamentals, large language models, legal applications, ethical obligations, and emerging regulatory developments, while also exposing them to practical tools increasingly used across the profession.

This year’s program also incorporated significant engagement from leaders across the judiciary, legislature, and private practice.

Judge Joshua Deahl of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals addressed students on how courts are confronting AI in litigation and judicial writing, including a discussion of his use of an AI chatbot in drafting his dissenting opinion in Ross v. United States. The session provided a rare window into how members of the judiciary are evaluating the role of AI in adjudication.

Students also heard from New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey, who discussed her bill SB-8706A addressing AI-related mass layoffs. Her remarks offered students firsthand insight into how lawmakers are approaching AI governance, including the evolving relationship between state initiatives and potential federal preemption in regulating artificial intelligence.

In addition, Evan Shenkman, Chief Innovation Officer at Fisher Phillips, spoke about how major law firms are integrating AI into legal workflows and how law students can position themselves for an increasingly technology-driven profession.

The Emerging Model for Legal Education

Taken together, Case Western’s approach reflects a notable shift in legal education toward treating technological competence as a core professional skill. Historically, exposure to AI in law school has often been limited to optional seminars or specialized programs. Case Western’s model instead embeds AI literacy and practical engagement directly into the required first-year curriculum. By first mandating AI education and now mandating AI-assisted solution development, the school is moving toward a framework in which understanding and responsibly using technology is viewed as essential to competent lawyering.

The expansion also reflects broader changes in the legal marketplace. Courts are increasingly addressing AI-related issues, legislatures are considering regulatory frameworks, and law firms are adopting AI-powered tools across research, drafting, compliance, and litigation workflows.

“As the legal profession rapidly integrates AI into everyday practice, legal education must move beyond exposure to ensure genuine proficiency. By requiring students to learn about AI and to apply it in practice-focused projects from the start of law school, we are aligning legal training with the realities of modern practice,” said Professor Salerno.

As these developments accelerate, law schools face growing pressure to ensure graduates are prepared not only to understand AI, but to use it responsibly and effectively. Case Western’s program suggests one possible model for meeting that challenge: combining foundational instruction, ethical and regulatory context, practical tool exposure, and hands-on creation of technology solutions within the first year of legal education.

Whether other institutions will follow remains to be seen. But with its continued expansion of required AI training and its new requirement that every 1L build a legal tech solution, Case Western has positioned itself at the forefront of integrating AI into the core of legal education.