Pre-Law: Computer Literacy
The practice of law, like most professions, is now largely dependent on computer technology. As a law student, you will use technology to organize information, conduct legal research, prepare written assignments and manage your time. As a lawyer, you will do all this in addition to keeping track of your time for billing and case management, investigating facts and reviewing discovering, using predictive technology for case assessment, using a variety of social networking and web technologies to market yourself and your practice, and more. And, of course, artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting all of these areas in myriad and quickly evolving ways. Indeed, the American Bar Association has made clear in its Model Rules of Professional Responsibility that attorneys must keep up with all relevant technology, and the overwhelming majority of state bars (including Massachusetts) have adopted similar expectations.
While it’s nearly impossible to predict exactly how tech in general and AI in particular will impact your future legal career, it should be clear that the more comfortable you are with technology when you start law school, the easier it will be for you to learn and adapt in your study and practice of law. It is well worth your while to take the time now to learn as much as you can about using computers. Law School Toolbox offers a number of specific tech tips for law students that you would be well advised to review now, before you get to law school.
Through LinkedIn Learning (free for UMass students), you have access to a wide range of technology training modules, including on the most popular word processing, database, spread sheet, and web development programs, as well as many others.
The law reference page at DuBois Library at UMass offers a number of resources to help you learn about legal research before you start law school.
As of summer 2026, law schools are racing to adopt a very wide range of approaches to teaching about the uses of AI in the legal profession. It’s impossible to predict exactly which approach you’ll encounter in law school, but it will definitely be a topic you’ll be grappling with.
