(31) Legal AI Live, June 2026, Part 1

1. AI models keep leaping forward and lawyers need to keep up. The Claude Fable drop and OpenAI’s forthcoming model underscore that the tools are improving rapidly. The question isn’t whether to use them, but how to use them well.

2. Hallucinations aren’t an AI problem, its a competency problem. Cat Moon and Cat Casey both pushed back on the “lawyers screwing up with AI” narrative: human hallucinations predate ChatGPT. The real issue is a long-standing failure to hold lawyers accountable for competency, and AI is finally forcing that reckoning.

3. Discernment is the critical skill, not tool fluency. Cat Moon’s upcoming AI competency framework centers discernment, the lawyerly judgment to critically evaluate AI output, above AI literacy or tool use. You can’t outsource judgment; it has to be formed through doing the actual work.

4. Banning AI in law schools is the wrong move but using it uncritically is worse. The panel agreed that banning AI (as Berkeley attempted) does students a disservice, especially those with learning differences. But the goal should be teaching lawyers to use AI in context, verifying citations and checking reasoning, not just accepting polished output.

5. OpenAI’s Codex for law and Big Law’s $500M AI bets are a wake-up call. The former Ironclad CEO moving to OpenAI to build a law-specific model, alongside Kirkland & Ellis spending $500M on AI, signals a foundational shift. AI-native law firms and private equity in legal are happening fast, and anyone not paying attention risks being left behind.