Teaching Contracts: My Journey with Spellbook and AI Pedagogy

I am integrating Spellbook, an AI tool for contract drafting and review, into my first-year law school Contracts course in spring 2026. Although Spellbook is highly effective, its educational value hinges on the pedagogical framework structured around it, a framework typically not licensed along with AI tools. In-house instructional design expertise can provide this framework, and the professor-instructional designer partnership offers one model for successful AI integration. Strong tools paired with robust instructional design yield learning experiences in which AI augments, rather than supplants, the cultivation of legal judgment and critical thinking.

This collaborative approach among educators, instructional designers, and academic technologists represents the future of legal education, preparing students for an AI-transformed profession.