How legal education is adapting to Al era

Premier law schools, including NLSIU Bengaluru, NLU Tripura, Jindal Global Law School and BITS have established AI centres to prepare students for tech-driven legal practice

- By Sheena Sachdeva

India has over 950 legal tech companies, and this number is steadily rising. From law firms, general counsel (GC) offices, litigation chambers, and legal aid cells to courts, every stakeholder is increasingly adopting legal tech,” said Sidharth Chauhan, associate professor and associate dean, Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) and director, Cyril Shroff Centre for AI, Law, and Regulation.

As AI-enabled systems increasingly influence courts, markets, and access to justice, the country's premier law schools are scrambling to close a critical gap - most students and faculty cannot effectively use generative AI beyond ChatGPT. The solution specialised centres at NLSIU Bangalore, NLU Tripura, Jindal Global and BITS launched since 2024 to make AI literacy as fundamental as constitutional law.

In 2025 alone, three major law schools established dedicated AI hubs. National Law University (NLU) Tripura established its Centre of Excellence (CoE) in AI and Data Governance; JGLS set up the Cyril Shroff Centre for AI, Law and Regulation in collaboration with Cyril Shroff, managing partner of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, a corporate law firm; and BITS Law School launched its Professional Advancement in Law through Executive Training and Technical Education (PALETTE) centre. A year earlier, National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bengaluru established the JSW Centre for the Future of Law in collaboration with JSW Foundation.

Urgency behind AI push

The initiative reveals a stark reality – law schools are not keeping pace with the profession they are training students to enter. “It is logical that law school education evolves simultaneously,” said Chauhan. “These can be reduced with introducing certain AI-led technologies and techniques. Currently, every student going into the legal industry is facing the issue of hallucinations of AI where they are marred with issues of incorrect information and plagiarism”