At 10 a.m. on the 24th at the aT Center in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, the scene of the "Law School AI Challenge." As soon as the opening briefing ended, 148 teams composed of about 400 law school students immediately began tackling the problems. The USBs distributed to each team contained one of six case-type questions prepared by law firms, selected at random.
This is the first time in Korea that an AI competition has been held for law school students. The Korea Association of Law Schools, Law&Company, LBOX, and The Law Times co-hosted the event, with law firms including Kim & Chang, Gwangjang, Sejong, YulChon, Taepyungyang, HwaWoo, and DLG participating as sponsors. The organizers said they prepared the competition to evaluate both prospective legal professionals' ability to use AI and their legal reasoning, as AI technology is quickly being introduced across legal practice.
◇ Analyzing investigative records with AI… "Zero points if you copy as-is"
One of the tasks given to participants that day was to defend a client who caused a fatal traffic accident while driving a car equipped with an artificial intelligence (AI) autonomous driving system.
Participants used legal AIs such as Superlawyer, LBOX, and IREX to analyze investigative agency reports, expert opinions, and suspect interrogation records. Based on this, they had to identify the applicable charges for the client and draft a non-indictment opinion on the charge of causing death under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Settlement of Traffic Accidents.
They had three hours. Participants submitted an AI usage report along with their final answers.
In the AI usage report, participants had to describe problem analysis and procedures, actual usage by AI tool, and items for verifying AI responses. Submitting AI-generated results as-is without review would result in zero points in the AI utilization strategy section. Not only legal knowledge but also the ability to use and verify AI outputs was included in the evaluation.
The law school students who took part said they are already familiar with using AI in legal practice. One participant said, "I use AI to analyze precedents at school, so the competition format didn't feel unfamiliar." Another participant said, "Law school students these days are comfortable using AI, so completeness of the answers is a given, and which prompts were used was probably a key factor in the evaluation."
◇ From Autonomous Driving accidents to construction disputes… six major law firms wrote the problems
Another problem given to participants involved damages for defect repair under a construction subcontract. The first-instance judgment, a client interview recording, and the first-instance witness examination record were provided. As counsel for the contractor who was held liable for 1.872 billion won in damages, participants had to draft a statement of grounds for appeal. They had to analyze errors in fact-finding and application of law in the first-instance judgment and present arguments for reducing the damages amount.
The final-round problems that day were each written by one of the six sponsoring law firms. Lawyers from the firms that authored each problem will also handle the evaluation. It is said that higher scores go to answers that not only organize AI-extracted content but also accurately map the relationships among the issues.
◇ AI reshaping legal practice… prospective legal professionals also compete on "verification skills"
Recently, the legal community has noted that the competencies required of legal professionals are changing with the advent of AI. As AI is rapidly introduced into legal work such as contract review, case law searches, and drafting briefs, the ability to use and verify AI has become important for prospective legal professionals.
This trend dovetails with the growth of the legal AI market. Global market research firm CMI estimated last year's global legal tech market at $29.2 billion (about 4.4 trillion won).
Jang Il-jun, CEO of A2D2, developer of the legal AI Airex, said, "The accuracy of legal AI is becoming more sophisticated by the day," adding, "Many law firms are actively introducing AI into practice."
The Law School AI Challenge finals will be held on the 26th. Only 12 teams selected from the 148 teams in the main round that day will compete in the finals. A total of 31 million won in prize money will be awarded to one top team and three excellent teams.