University of Chicago Law School to Ban Laptops and Phones in First-Year Classes to Fortify Students Against AI

The University of Chicago Law School will prohibit electronic devices in all first-year core courses starting in the fall of 2026, part of a new strategy that seeks to preserve "essential human skills" as artificial intelligence reshapes legal practice. The move, detailed in an AI Strategy Statement titled "Rethinking Legal Education in the AI Era," makes one of the country's most prominent law schools an early and symbolic test case for how legal education should adapt to generative AI.