How I Became a Law Professor (and Why I’m Giving Away My Generative AI Textbook for Free)
Where I share my journey from legal tech entrepreneur to law professor and how you can take part in a legal education revolution
As some of you may know, I’ve spent the past several months immersed in one of the most exciting experiments of my career, teaching generative AI to law students in Boston. Picture a classroom buzzing with the energy of future attorneys drafting prompts, building prototypes, and debating the ethical implications of AI. Now fast-forward to me huddled over a stack of final Capstone projects where these students are literally engineering their own AI implementation plans for hypothetical law firms. It’s equal parts exhilarating and surreal: witnessing tomorrow’s lawyers grapple with technology that many practicing attorneys still find mysterious.
If you’re curious about how this all came together, what we covered, how the students tackled real-world legal-tech scenarios, and what it means for the future of the profession, then buckle up.
But this story isn’t theirs alone. I want you to join us, to step into the world of generative AI, where legal education is reimagined, skepticism gives way to curiosity, and a whole generation of lawyers trains for a revolution that’s already underway.
This substack, LawDroid Manifesto, is here to keep you in the loop about the intersection of AI and the law. Please share this article with your friends and colleagues and remember to tell me what you think in the comments below.
Few experiences have shaped my life as profoundly as my time in university and law school. Along the way, I’ve been fortunate to learn from incredible professors who pushed me to see the world in new ways and inspired me to believe in what’s possible. My parents always instilled in me a sense that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to, and one of my long-held dreams was to become a university professor, to stand in front of a class and spark that same sense of curiosity and drive I’d once felt in my own seat.
This past spring, that dream came to life: I joined Suffolk University Law School as an adjunct professor, teaching a course on Generative AI and the Delivery of Legal Services. In many ways, it felt like a leap of faith. Generative AI is evolving at breakneck speed, just about every day, there’s another headline about large language models, legal implications of AI output, or new applications that challenge our usual ways of practicing law. When Suffolk’s dean gave me the green light to design a course around these issues, I sat down at my computer, stared at a blinking cursor, and asked myself: Where do I even begin?
Joining a Thriving Academic Community
I’m incredibly grateful to have joined a faculty full of forward-looking educators and legal-tech pioneers I admire, and think of as the “Avengers of Legal Tech,” including Dyane O'Leary, Gabriel Teninbaum, Andrew Perlman, Marc Lauritsen, Quinten Steenhuis, David Colarusso, Sam Glover, Kelli Proia, and Jared Correia.
The opportunity to learn from, and with, these talented people has been both humbling and energizing. It’s one thing to read about innovations in legal education; it’s another to see them in action and be part of the conversation shaping the future of our profession.
My Very First Semester as a Law Professor
By the time I wrapped up my very first semester teaching, we had completed fourteen classes. Fourteen weeks’ worth of lecture slides, in-class exercises, guest speakers, video demos, and late-night email exchanges that usually began with, “What if AI could…?” The students kept me on my toes with their questions, and I’ll admit: sometimes I didn’t have all the answers. But that was the beauty of the course, we were exploring, learning, and building together.
Here’s a glimpse of what we created:
A Living Toolkit: From day one, I started writing a textbook and workbook tailored to the course that lives online. The idea was to capture everything we were learning, concepts, case studies, practical labs, and give it a home that could be updated on the fly.
Mini-Lecture Videos & AI-Generated Podcasts: I tried to make the material as accessible as possible by breaking it down into short video segments and even AI-assisted podcast episodes, so students could brush up on key points whenever they needed a refresher.
24/7 Chatbot Tutor: I created a chatbot that answered questions, taught concepts, and gave quizzes, around the clock. This way, students who were cramming for a midterm at midnight (or simply following their curiosity) could get some guidance without waiting for office hours.
Auto-Summaries & Video Recordings: Every class was recorded and summarized to keep everyone on track. Law school can be hectic, so having a way to quickly revisit a lesson or catch up on one they missed was essential.
It was a sprint, to be sure, writing the course content, revising it week-to-week, responding to the constant evolution of AI news. But when I finally handed out “Certificates of Completion” on the last day (yes, I wore a tie and yes, it felt a little silly), the sense of accomplishment in the room was palpable. We had gone from zero to AI-fluent in a single semester.
A Moment of Reflection
Standing there in front of my students, I realized how much they had taught me. Their questions challenged my assumptions. Their enthusiasm reminded me why curiosity is such a powerful force in any professional field. Most of all, they showed me that tomorrow’s lawyers aren’t content to sit back and let technology shape their practice—they want to steer the ship.
Before they left, I shared three pieces of advice:
Timeless Principles + Constant Adaptation = Your Superpower. Understand the unchanging foundations of law, then keep learning as the technology evolves.
Stay Curious. News headlines will shift faster than you can say “GPT,” but if you embrace a mindset of ongoing discovery, you’ll stay ahead.
Arbitrage the Knowledge Gap. Most firms are still figuring out how to integrate AI. You already speak the language of AI-driven legal services, use it to differentiate yourselves and make a real impact.
Why I’m Self-Publishing My Textbook (and Making It Free)
As the semester drew to a close, I realized there was no good reason to keep this material behind a paywall or locked in a proprietary format. Generative AI is moving too fast for traditional publishing cycles. Law professors need resources now, not two years from now when the text is already outdated.
I also firmly believe that every law school should be teaching students about generative AI because it is part of the new reality of law practice and proficiency in it is critical to their professional success. By offering my textbook for free, I want to eliminate any barrier to law school’s adopting generative AI as part of their curriculum.
So, I’m self-publishing Generative AI and the Delivery of Legal Services as a free, online textbook and workbook for any law school, law professor and law student who wants it. Here’s what sets it apart:
Turnkey Adoption: You get ready-to-use modules, lecture slides, discussion prompts, and practical workbook assignments, no massive prep time required.
Practice-First Approach: Real client scenarios, drafting exercises, and prompt-engineering labs so students can roll up their sleeves and actually use AI.
Reinforcement Learning: Each lesson is enhanced by am interactive chatbot tutor, video minilectures, podcasts, and more.
Always Current: Because it’s cloud-hosted, I will update chapters with new technology, case law or AI regulations at any moment. A newsletter will also deliver timely articles and interviews straight to your inbox.
100% Free and Open: No licensing headaches. Share it with all your students, and let them share it with whomever they like.
The AI-Native Generation of Law Students
Make no mistake: law firms are already demanding that new associates come in with a baseline understanding of AI tools. The legal profession might be tradition-bound, but it’s adapting to AI technologies faster than many realize. By equipping students with these skills before they graduate, we’re ensuring that they have a competitive edge in the job market, and that they can shape ethical, responsible AI practices from the inside. And, given the response to my announcement (see below), many agree.
Overwhelming Support for the Gen AI Law Textbook and the Teach Gen AI Law Initiative
“Tom is a main character in the evolving story of AI and law. He is clear, knowledgeable, and engaging.”
— Professor Richard Susskind CBE KC (Hon), author of How to Think About AI
“Tom’s textbook offers a clear and insightful exploration of how generative AI is reshaping legal services. It’s a valuable read for students preparing to enter a rapidly evolving legal landscape. Tom’s dedication to advancing legal innovation and education is evident throughout his work, making this textbook a valuable resource for aspiring legal professionals.”
— Gabriel H. Teninbaum, Assistant Dean of Innovation, Strategic Initiatives & Distance Education & Prof. of Legal Writing at Suffolk University Law School
"No one has been focused on leveraging AI to improve the work of lawyers and accessibility to legal help longer than Tom Martin. His expertise is borne of the kind of in-the-trenches work that yields the highest value, and his textbook 'Generative AI and the Delivery of Legal Services' showcases both the breadth and depth of Tom’s expertise and experience."
— Cat Moon, Founding Co-Director of Vanderbilt AI Law Lab (VAILL), Co-Director of Program on Law & Innovation (PoLI), Professor of the Practice at Vanderbilt Law School
“Tom has been a lodestar in legal tech through all its fits and starts. I’m grateful Tom is now tackling the frontier of AI and legal services. I’ll be tapping into Tom’s writings as a guide in my teaching and legal activities, and I hope my students and enterprising grads will too.”
— Jonathan Askin, Professor of Clinical Law and Director of the Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy (BLIP) Clinic at Brooklyn Law School; Founder of Legal Hackers
“As someone who stands at the intersection of law, technology, and legal education, I can confidently say that Tom Martin’s Generative AI and the Delivery of Legal Services is not only timely, but a much-needed resource for advancing legal education as it grapples with how to teach the intersection of generative AI and the practice of law. Tom has created an essential guide for understanding how generative AI is reshaping the legal landscape in a modern and innovative format, all with the clarity, insight, and deep understanding that Tom imparts through his own experiences as a practitioner, educator, legal technology founder and leader. In this work, Tom distills complex concepts into actionable knowledge for law students to become the next great generation of legal professional.”
— Kenton S. Brice, J.D., M.L.S., Director of the Law Library and Associate Professor of Law at University of Oklahom
Join the Gen AI Legal Education Revolution!
If you’re a law professor (or a future law professor, or a curious legal tech enthusiast) and you’d like access to the textbook, simply click on the button below.
(Given the high demand, and given that it’s just me at the moment, I am doing my best to onboard new registrants within a week.)
I’m proud of what we built at Suffolk this semester, and I can’t wait to see where all of you take it. Teaching generative AI in law school has been one of the most rewarding adventures of my life so far, and I owe much of that to the inspiring students and colleagues I’ve met along the way.
Here’s to shaping the future of legal education, one AI prompt at a time.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for supporting this project!
Professor Martin
P.S. If you know anyone else who might benefit from a no-cost, up-to-date AI-law curriculum, feel free to share this article or forward it to them. The more minds we have on this, the better prepared the next generation of lawyers will be.
By the way, did you know that I now offer a daily AI news update? You get 5 🆕 news items and my take on what it all means, delivered to your inbox, every weekday.
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