Legal AI: Design and Development (LAWS90286)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
About this subject
Contact information
September
Teaching staff:
Jack Stoneman (Subject Coordinator)
For current student enquiries, contact the Law School Academic Support Office
Overview
| Availability(Quotas apply) | September |
|---|---|
| Fees | Look up fees |
Generative AI has rapidly emerged across society, with much speculation about the opportunities and threats it poses.
As a technology that fundamentally accepts natural language instruction, has an ability to reason on that language, and provides natural language output, there are parallels with the work performed by legal practitioners— who receive client instructions, apply legal expertise with the intent to achieve some outcome, and ordinarily provide a written output in the form of a contract, an advice or a submission.
Advancements in tools that abstract away a lot of the underlying complexity mean that you no longer need to be a "software developer" to develop powerful, practical programs. Increasingly the focus is on having the domain expertise and imagination, rather than the technical skill.
To best make use of the current capabilities of this technology, and to form a view on where it might lead, there is no substitute for lifting the hood and using the core components to build practical outputs. This provides a depth of understanding that cannot be obtained by theoretical study alone.
Society will require legal practitioners who are able to understand, build, and critique the machinations of programs that use artificial intelligence (in particular, Generative AI). Accordingly, this timely and hands-on subject provides a much-needed set of tools for those engaged with law and technology: it steps through how to build Generative AI based programs for legal solutions, giving students an opportunity to put that learning into practice and become leaders in AI within their chosen career area.
Indicative list of principle topics:
- Overview of Large Language Models
- Programmatic Access to Large Language Models
- Information Architecture
- Developing Applications
- Measuring and Improving Performance
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- Explain the fundamental mechanisms by which a Language Model (LLM) stores information, reasons, and generates content.
- Develop a basic web-based interface that enables users to effectively interact with an LLM-based application to solve legal problems.
- Specify and implement the necessary code logic for an LLM to execute legal tasks and integrate it with a web-based user interface.
- Analyse legal documents and sources as data structures from the perspective of an LLM and demonstrate proficiency in making this data accessible for an LLM.
- Analyse the performance of an LLM-based application in solving legal problems, and enhance its performance through prompt engineering and context augmentation resulting in improved outcomes and usability.
- Hypothesise the ways in which LLM-based technology might affect the legal industry in the short-, medium- and long-term.
Generic skills
- Ability to investigate, evaluate, synthesise and apply knowledge in LLMbased AI to legal scenarios, with creativity and initiative.
- Capacity to manage competing demands on time and ability to work with a high level of autonomy and accountability.
- Capacity to value and participate in teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Capacity to engage with issues in contemporary society.
- Advanced working skills in the design, deployment and evaluation of new technology with a focus on AI applications.
- Capacity for self-directed learning, organisation and time management.
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
Corequisites
Non-allowed subjects
Recommended background knowledge
Applicants without legal qualifications should note that subjects are taught at an advanced graduate level and requires a thorough background in common law. While efforts are made to meet the needs of students trained in other fields, teaching and assessment activities are designed to give an advanced and integrated understanding of the discipline of law for legal practitioners, learners and researchers.
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Assessment
| Description | Timing | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
Build and deliver a single-document Q&A chatbot.
| 4 Weeks after the end of teaching | 20% |
Build and deliver a legal workflow solution.
| 4 Weeks after the end of teaching | 50% |
Legal workflow solution review: Write a report critiquing the performance of solution created in Assessment item 2, suggesting potential enhancements
| 4 Weeks after the end of teaching | 30% |
Attendance Hurdle requirement: A minimum of 75% attendance is required. | Throughout the teaching period | N/A |
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Quotas apply to this subject
Dates & times
- September
Principal coordinator Jack Stoneman Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours This subject runs over five days in block mode Total time commitment 150 hours Pre teaching start date 25 August 2025 Pre teaching requirements Please refer to the Reading Guide on the LMS subject page for confirmation of which resources need to be read and what other preparation is required before the teaching period commences. Teaching period 22 September 2025 to 10 October 2025 Last self-enrol date 29 August 2025 Census date 3 October 2025 Last date to withdraw without fail 7 November 2025 Assessment period ends 12 December 2025 September contact information
Teaching staff:
Jack Stoneman (Subject Coordinator)
For current student enquiries, contact the Law School Academic Support Office
What do these dates mean
Visit this webpage to find out about these key dates, including how they impact on:
- Your tuition fees, academic transcript and statements.
- And for Commonwealth Supported students, your:
- Student Learning Entitlement. This applies to all students enrolled in a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP).
Subjects withdrawn after the census date (including up to the 'last day to withdraw without fail') count toward the Student Learning Entitlement.
Additional delivery details
Please refer to the Melbourne Law Masters enrolment webpage for further information about re-enrolment, subject quotas and waitlists.
Melbourne Law School may reserve places in a subject for incoming international cohorts or where a subject is core to a specialisation with limited alternate options.
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Further information
- Texts
- Subject notes
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Course Specialist Certificate in Law (Digital Law and Technological Innovation) Course Master of Laws Course Graduate Diploma in Laws - Links to additional information
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Please note Single Subject Studies via Community Access Program is not available to student visa holders or applicants
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
Additional information for this subject
If subject coordinator approval is required, or for further information about Community Access Program study, please contact us
(enquiries for current students | enquiries for prospective students).
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
Last updated: 4 March 2025