Scribes—The American Society of Legal Writers celebrated its 75th anniversary on July 31, 2026, with a timely look at one of the most consequential issues facing legal writers today: how to harness artificial intelligence without surrendering the judgment, creativity, and accountability that define excellent lawyering. Held at UIC Law in Chicago, “The Future of Legal Writing: Balancing AI and Human Judgment” brought together experts from the judiciary, private practice, alternative dispute resolution, and legal education for a wide-ranging conversation about how generative AI is changing legal research, writing, advocacy, and professional training. Scribes President Michele M. Jochner opened the Diamond Anniversary program by reflecting on Scribes’ history and its 75-year commitment to excellence, clarity, integrity, and purpose in legal writing. She also framed the challenge ahead: technology can be an important addition to a lawyer’s toolbox, but it cannot replace the human work of interpreting precedent, developing persuasive arguments, exercising professional judgment, and maintaining credibility. Professor Kirsten K. Davis of Stetson University College of Law moderated a panel featuring Professor Patrick Barry of the University of Michigan Law School; Gretchen H. Sperry of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani; Todd C. Toral of Jenner & Block; Kelly Turner of the American Arbitration Association; and the Honorable Rena Van Tine of the Illinois Appellate Court. The discussion moved well beyond the familiar problem of AI hallucinations. Panelists explored confidentiality and client consent, judicial expectations, ethical billing, AI-assisted arbitration, self-represented litigants, law-school pedagogy, mentoring, and even whether AI-generated prose has a recognizable style. A consistent theme emerged: AI can assist professional judgment, but it cannot replace it. Toral memorably compared AI to “a very good first-year associate”—potentially useful, but not someone whose work a senior lawyer would simply submit to a court without careful review. Justice Van Tine similarly distinguished between using technology to organize or locate information and asking it to decide which party has the stronger argument. The implications for the next generation of lawyers received particular attention. Barry urged law schools to develop “skilled skeptics”—lawyers who understand both what AI tools can do and where they fail. He cautioned that AI may reward expertise while amplifying the problems created when users lack the knowledge necessary to recognize a bad answer. Davis and other panelists emphasized that legal education must continue developing critical thinking, independent analysis, and the ability to challenge apparently authoritative text. And because this was a Scribes program, the conversation ultimately returned to the writing itself. Panelists questioned whether technically polished AI prose can replicate the concision, voice, empathy, creativity, and judgment found in exceptional human writing. Their discussion reinforced a point central to Scribes’ mission: new tools may change how lawyers work, but they make excellence in legal writing—and the human judgment behind it—more important, not less. Scribes thanks Schiller DuCanto & Fleck LLP, the American Arbitration Association, UIC Law, New York Law School, and Southwestern Law School for supporting the Diamond Anniversary program. Watch the full program below and join Scribes as we continue writing the next chapter of our story.

Scribes—The American Society of Legal Writers will mark its 75th anniversary by examining the future of legal writing. On Friday, July 31, 2026, Scribes will convene a 90-minute CLE program in Chicago titled “The Future of Legal Writing: Balancing AI and Human Judgment.” The program will be held at UIC Law’s Goldberg Courtroom, 300 S. State Street, from 3:00 to 5:30 p.m.; the CLE panel will run from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m., followed by a reception. Generative AI has evolved quickly from a curiosity to a work tool to systems that can plan, draft, revise, summarize, check, and recommend. AI can help lawyers test structure, identify gaps, accelerate research, and produce a draft when the blank page refuses to cooperate. But the profession’s core duties have not been altered. Lawyers still owe clients duties of competence, candor, supervision, confidentiality, and judgment. Those duties are nondelegable and cannot outsourceable to a chatbot. The program will explore myriad relevant questions. What happens to judicial writing when judges and law clerks have access to AI tools? Are courts beginning to read attorney submissions with greater skepticism? How should appellate advocates preserve voice, creativity, and credibility when technology can produce plausible but unreliable prose at remarkable speed? What policies, training models, and proprietary tools are law firms adopting to ensure that newer lawyers learn the fundamentals rather than simply learn the shortcut? And what do clients expect from outside counsel in terms of disclosure, guardrails, cost, and accountability? The panel’s design reflects that legal writing is an ecosystem. A judicial opinion, an appellate brief, a client memorandum, a motion, a contract provision, and a student assignment carry different audiences, constraints, risks, and norms. Yet all depend on the same foundation: a writer who understands the law, the facts, the purpose, the audience, and the consequences of being wrong. Professor Kirsten K. Davis of Stetson University College of Law, a recognized expert in AI, legal education, and the legal profession, will moderate a panel with members from the legal academy, appellate practice, litigation, corporate legal departments, alternative dispute resolution, and the judiciary. Participants include Professor Patrick Barry, Director of Digital Academic Initiatives at the University of Michigan Law School; Gretchen H. Sperry, Appellate Chair at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani; Todd C. Toral, Co-Chair of Jenner & Block’s Financial Litigation Practice; Kelly Turner, General Counsel and Vice President of the American Arbitration Association; and the Honorable Rena Van Tine of the Illinois Appellate Court. The program will close with a forward-looking discussion of agentic AI and emerging systems. That topic matters because the profession is moving beyond tools that merely respond to a prompt. Newer systems increasingly appear capable of taking assigned goals, selecting intermediate steps, and interacting with other tools. For legal writing, the question will not be whether AI can generate a better sentence. It will be whether the lawyer can explain, verify, supervise, and stand behind the work product that emerges from a more complex technological chain. For 75 years, Scribes has championed clear, precise, ethical legal writing. The AI era does not make that mission obsolete; instead, it makes it urgent. As the Scribes mission statement explains: Scribes champions excellence in legal writing. Since 1951, we have promoted clear, succinct, and persuasive legal style and argument. We advance these goals through our publications, awards, outreach, and educational programs. As legal writing continues to evolve, we embrace innovation guided by human judgment and accountability. Scribes is grateful that Schiller DuCanto & Fleck LLP is the organization’s 75th anniversary sponsor and that the American Arbitration Association, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, is a program sponsor. We hope you will join us for this Diamond Anniversary Celebration and spread the word. Registration is open: Scribes 75th Anniversary CLE Tickets, Friday, July 31  •  3 PM – 5:30 PM | Eventbrite Sponsors: