As generative AI transforms legal practice at an unprecedented pace, a timely new publication will help legal professionals harness this technology with confidence. The Legal Prompt Engineering Guide, authored by Dr Mitchell Adams, has been published today by the Centre for Legal Innovation at the College of Law.
Created as part of Dr Adams’ Distinguished Fellowship in Emerging Technologies, the Guide is tailored specifically for the legal profession. It demystifies the fast-evolving field of large language models (LLMs) and provides practical use cases for integrating generative AI into everyday legal work.
“Law is fundamentally about words, and so is AI,” says Dr Adams. “This Guide bridges the traditional legal skills with the emerging discipline of prompt engineering—giving lawyers the tools they need to work with generative AI effectively.”
Designed for law students, lawyers, allied legal professionals, and legal educators alike, the Guide covers:
- Core AI concepts and legal applications of LLMs
- The fundamentals of prompt design and engineering
- Use cases across legal research, drafting, and client communication
- Strategies for quality control, ethical oversight, and AI policy creation
The Guide covers all these in a format accessible to both AI beginners and experienced users.
Terri Mottershead, Executive Director of the Centre for Legal Innovation, welcomed the Guide, saying: “This is not just a technical how-to. It’s a practical blueprint for the future of legal practice—one that balances transformation with integrity.”
The Legal Prompt Engineering Guide is available now as a free download on the CLI website here.