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Welcome to this week's edition of The Legal Wire!
This week, we saw the impact of legal AI on the daily discipline of legal work. U.S. law schools are setting clearer boundaries around how students can use AI, with some banning it for brainstorming or grammar fixes, others allowing it for argument testing, and at least 36 now mandating AI instruction. Employers are delineating requirements, too: future lawyers need to understand the tools, but they also need to know the professional limitations.
Courts have similarly shown their discontent with irresponsible AI use. In the UK, a deputy High Court judge warned litigants that they remain personally responsible for AI-generated filings after a 300-page ChatGPT-drafted skeleton argument was filed. In Florida, an appeals court called out “AI slop” in legal filings, making clear that real citations are insufficient if the reasoning underneath them collapses.
Husch Blackwell launched an AI-based platform for complex torts defence, while OpenAI introduced Astra for Law, a legal version of GPT-6 Astra with a dedicated search index, partner plugins, and access routes into Am Law 200 firms. Alma, meanwhile, raised $17 million to scale its AI-native immigration law firm.
Our feature this week centres on human judgment. Colin Levy’s new book, Code Switched, argues that AI works best when lawyers learn to use it as another professional register: useful, powerful, and still very much dependent on the person running the room.
This week’s highlights:
Industry news and updates
Colin Levy, Code Switched, and the (unfashionable) idea that AI works best when a human still runs the room
AI regulation tracker
AI tools to supercharge your productivity
Legal prompt of the week
Latest AI incidents & legal tech map
Headlines from The Legal Industry You Shouldn't Miss
➡️ US Law Schools Grapple With AI Through Laptop Bans And New Courses | Reported by Reuters At least 12 US law schools rolled out new AI policies this summer, ranging from restrictive to permissive. UC Berkeley bars students from using AI to brainstorm, summarise legal rules, or fix grammar, while the University of Chicago Law School banned laptops and phones in first-year classes. Columbia allows AI for testing arguments; Michigan permits brainstorming but not drafting. According to a Suffolk University database, at least 36 law schools now mandate AI instruction, reflecting employer expectations that graduates arrive AI-fluent.
Sept 21, 2026, Source: Thomson Reuters
➡️ UK Judge Warns Litigants In Person Over AI Use After 300-Page Skeleton | A UK deputy High Court judge sitting in the Employment Appeal Tribunal warned litigants in person that, like lawyers, they must take personal responsibility for AI-generated court documents. Marcus Pilgerstorfer KC made the comments on 17 Sept, after a litigant filed a 300-page, 132,000-word ChatGPT-drafted skeleton argument, telling respondents to flag inaccuracies within a day. Judicial enquiries and sanctions are likely where checks are inadequate, he said, citing Ayinde and judicial guidance.
Sept 18, 2026, Source: Legal Futures
➡️ Husch Blackwell Launches AI-Based CXT Platform For Complex Torts Defense | Husch Blackwell has launched CXT (Complex Torts), an AI-focused platform designed to manage and defend complex litigation such as mass torts. Led by partner J.Y. Miller, CXT offers a "concierge support model" providing shared infrastructure to over 1,000 lawyers, including market intelligence, pricing tools, and AI agents that can simulate opposing counsel using past deposition transcripts. The firm spent 1% of gross revenue on AI investments last year. CXT builds on Husch Blackwell's transformation office and its Link virtual office.
Sept, 18, 2026, Source: Law.com
➡️ OpenAI Launches Astra For Law, Targeting Am Law 200 Firms | OpenAI has launched Astra for Law, a version of GPT-6 Astra configured for legal work with a dedicated Legal Search Index covering over 230 million URLs across US case law, statutes, and regulations, drawn from Free Law Project's CourtListener. It will be available via API to Harvey, Legora, and others, and through a new Trusted Access programme for Am Law 200 firms featuring zero data retention. Twenty-six partner plugins and ChatGPT for Word also launched.
Sept 17, 2026, Source: LawSites
➡️ AI-Native Immigration Law Firm Alma Raises $17M Series A | Alma, a self-described "AI-native" immigration law firm, has raised $17 million in a Series A round led by Bling Capital, with Forerunner, MVP Ventures, Interplay VC, and GSBackers participating. Founded in 2024 by former Cooley associate Aizada Marat, former Uber engineering manager Shuo Chen, and former Step product manager Assel Tuleubayeva, Alma streamlines employment visa distribution and international hiring. The funding will support hiring and product development.
Sept 17, 2026, Source: Dealroom
➡️ Florida Appeals Court Slams "AI Slop" In Legal Filings | Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal has denied a writ petition in Lisandrillo v. Palozzi and used the opinion to call out what it described as "AI slop" in counsel's filings. Judge Gross wrote that the citations and cases were real, but the analytical reasoning suggested the arguments were assembled by an AI tool rather than a trained advocate. The court flagged red flags including improper emergency requests, review of eight rulings in one petition, and AI-hallucinated procedural arguments.
Sept 16, 2026, Source: Florida Courts Media
Will this be the Next Big Thing in A.I?
Legal Technology
Colin Levy, Code Switched, and the (unfashionable) idea that AI works best when a human still runs the room
If you’ve spent any time in the legal tech corner of LinkedIn over the past several years, you’ll already know Colin Levy. Which in itself is a pretty impressive thing to be able to say about a GC, given that GC’s aren’t usually the most public members of a team.
But Colin, in fairness, is not really the average GC. In the course of a normal week, Colin acts as GC at Malbek, an author, a professor teaching the next generation of lawyers how a working AI stack can function in practice, an advisor to legal tech companies, and a curator of voices in the ongoing industry conversation about where all of this is heading (see his website).
His new book, Code Switched, comes out on 6 October (click here to pre-order). The title is a small joke: legal work has always required lawyers to switch between registers (client mode, court mode, drafting mode, even the specific mode where you explain to your parents what you do for a living), and Colin argues that AI is now one more register lawyers need to code-switch into. His central argument, expanded across the book but repeated across our conversation, is not that AI will replace lawyers. It’s that AI, used properly, amplifies exactly the things that make a lawyer irreplaceable in the first place. Judgment. Resourcefulness. The client relationship. The strategic instinct that no model has yet learned to fake.
This week, The Legal Wire sat down with Colin for a conversation that started with the book and ended with the helpful acknowledgment that even someone with several different roles in the legal tech space doesn’t always know what’s going on, because things are constantly changing.
1,000+ Claude Prompts Top Professionals Actually Use at Work
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The AI Regulation Tracker offers a searchable overview that gives you instant snapshots of how each country is handling AI laws.
AI Tools that will supercharge your productivity
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The weekly ChatGPT prompt that will boost your productivity
Why it helps: Turns complex legal risk into clear client advice, helping to communicate faster, reduce confusion, and move clients toward informed decisions.
I need to explain a legal risk in a way the client can understand and act on.
Legal issue or clause: [paste text or describe issue]
Client type: [individual / business owner / general counsel / board / executive team]
Jurisdiction: [insert jurisdiction]
Client objective: [what the client wants to achieve]
Risk level: [low / medium / high]
Turn this into a concise client-facing explanation that includes:
1. What the risk means in plain English.
2. Why it matters legally and commercially.
3. What could happen if the risk is ignored.
4. The practical options available to the client.
5. A recommended next step, clearly framed and not overstated.
Keep it professional, clear, and written in full sentences. Use appropriate legal terminology, but explain it naturally. Do not invent facts or give absolute guarantees.
Collecting Data to make Artificial Intelligence Safer
The Responsible AI Collaborative is a not‑for‑profit organization working to present real‑world AI harms through its Artificial Intelligence Incident Database.
View the latest reported incidents below:
⚠️ 2026-09-10 | Anthropic-Designated GTG-87001 Weapons Cell in Northern Yemen Reportedly Used Claude Code to Develop Missile Guidance Software | View Incident
⚠️ 2025-08-12 | D.C. Court of Appeals Struck Deutsche Bank National Trust Company Brief After Attorney Used Google Generative AI Search Tool and Filed Four Nonexistent Case Citations | View Incident
⚠️ 2025-08-01 | xAI Reportedly Operated Unpermitted Gas Turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, to Power Colossus 2 AI Data Center, Producing Air Pollution and Noise | View Incident
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