As the academic year draws to a close, you may be considering which optional modules to choose for your next year at university. If you are doing a qualifying law degree, you will have several compulsory modules (namely contract, tort, criminal, land, EU, trusts and some form of public law). As always, my advice here is just based on my personal experiences, and the way that you – or your university – may choose to approach this might be different.

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Can investment in renewable energy help drive economic growth in Africa?

It is unsurprising that some of the country's strongest agricultural law practices are to be found in rural regions.

AI Act: what are the legislative and political challenges that could arise?

The AI Act (the act) was first proposed by the European Commission in 2021 due to the risk posed by the technology. Although the act hasn’t yet come into force in Europe, it’s likely to do so sometime within the coming months.

How might AI affect the energy transition? 

How might generative AI (eg, ChatGPT) impact the future of the legal industry?

Some 20% of current legal roles are likely to be lost to the progress of automation and artificial intelligence over the next 20 years, the Law Society’s research unit has predicted. 

While I've already discussed how AI is being used by legal professionals and how it may be used in the future, there’s also a rise of individuals using AI imagery to create anything they can conjure. This creates a real legal grey area when it comes to potential ‘evidence’ of a crime, or the creation of nonconsensual indecent images.

Professors Jonathan Choi and Daniel Schwarcz conducted a study using GPT-4 to examine the effect of using AI on student’s work. The study found that the results of low performing students improved by 45% when using AI, while higher performing students were affected negatively by the use of AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been more prevalent in our lives than ever before - self-driving cars, automated clinical diagnosis and credit card application approval all incorporate a significant degree of AI.

What role does AI play in facilitating corporate fraud?

AI in law is a curious concept. Take a sector that’s, rightly or wrongly, greatly impacted by human perception and feelings, strip it of everything that’s subjective and you have the legal system under AI in the perhaps not-so-distant future.

Legal technology company Lawhive has put its new AI paralegal, Lawrence, to the test, posing 90 sample questions from the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) SQE1 assessment. Having answered 67 out of 90 questions correct, Lawrence’s total mark was 74%. 

In what ways will AI impact the legal profession? For many years, there have been growing concerns that the increasing use and development of AI technology would eventually turf out and replace human lawyers. 

The AIRE (Advice on Individual Rights in Europe) Centre is a London-based charity set up to uphold the rights of marginalised individuals in the field of European human rights law and European Union law.

Find out how you can ace your Akin vacation scheme application with advice from the firm’s graduate recruitment manager Amy McCarthy.