Damning of Digital Devices in Legal Writing: Time to Remove Laptops from the Classroom

Date: Wednesday, June 18 from 2 – 2:45 pm ET/1 – 1:45 pm CT/12 – 12:45 pm MT/11 – 11:45 am PT

Section on Technology, Law and Legal Education

As writing professors, we must consider how to re-engage students to build the foundational skill of analytical reasoning using the legal writing. While acknowledging that AI can act as a steppingstone in legal research – and even legal drafting where allowed – we have to teach those skills without technology being involved. In-class writing assessments and citation exercises that do not use technology, for example, will allow professors to judge the skills of the student and not the skills of ChatGPT. There have been too many sanction cases against attorneys (and judges), who have over-relied on AI. By adopting strategies to reduce screentime and digital distraction in class, we may be able to reverse the trend and bring students back to legal writing class.

Panelists

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Kaitlyn Poirier, Assistant Professor of Law, Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School

Kaitlyn Poirier joined the SIU Simmons Law School faculty in fall 2024. Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Poirier was employed as a Trial Attorney at the United States Department of Justice for over eight years. During her time at the Department of Justice, she specialized in environmental and administrative law. Professor Poirier litigated in courts across the country on behalf of many federal agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Forest Service. Professor Poirier graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 2015. While in law school, she served as an Executive Editor of the Tennessee Law Review.

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Carly Toepke Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School

Dr. iur. Carly Toepke, J.D. joined the SIU faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2024. She started her teaching career at the University of Lucerne in Lucerne, Faculty of Law in 2014. In 2016, she completed a doctoral degree at the University of Lucerne, Faculty of Law, on the right to inclusive education for children with disabilities. Dr. Toepke taught at the University of Texas School of Law from 2015 to 2024, teaching Legal Research & Writing, Professional Responsibility, and Early Bar Prep for the Texas Law LL.M. Program. After a decade of teaching legal writing in the United States and abroad, her favorite punctuation mark is a well-placed colon.