What are the specific AI skills and competencies that you look for in law graduates wanting to enter the legal profession? What are some challenges you foresee them facing?

So, top of mind, prompt engineering, critical thinking, and the ability to explain your work. You can almost call these the new legal drafting skills. GenAI tools like ChatGPT demand precise well-structured instructions. If you cannot give clear prompts, you are starting at a disadvantage. When using GenAI tools, effective targeted prompt stands out. Simple direct language beats convoluted, vague instructions every time. For instance, people often claim they can detect when someone has used AI to generate their work. What they are really saying is that they can detect the vague and overexaggerated language style that often doesn’t have a lot of substance. If you have a keen eye for identifying output quality, you’ll be a far more effective AI user. The ability to pick up vague, generic, or off-tone AI responses allows you to refine prompts and elevate the quality of AI’s work. If the quality is not what you want, then the skill is in knowing how to give feedback. Iterate. This is how AI tools perform at their best. The more attuned you are to the output quality, the more you are able to get value from your interactions with AI. Another key skill is critical thinking. This means rigorously scrutinizing every output. Always challenge the result. Is the information relevant, accurate, and logically sound? Do not let AI’s confident tone lure you into a false sense of complacency. Fact check every key detail and verify your source before you commit to any result. As AI becomes more advanced, your own legal knowledge and judgement will matter more, not less. You need to be able to justify and explain the rationality behind your own work. Ownership of AI work always rests with the lawyer, not the machine. If the result is incorrect, “AI told me so,” is never a defense. Accountability is non-negotiable. Generative AI is very good at piling up facts and humans are needed for their wisdom to simplify the output. That is where human lawyers remain essential. Therefore, combining effective communication, precise prompt engineering and sharp critical thinking are highly valued skills in law graduates entering the profession today.