Teaching with AI
Playbooks, materials, and workflows for preparing students for AI-enabled professional excellence.
My approach to teaching is grounded in a simple premise: students should graduate prepared to thrive in the professional world they are entering. Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming an important component of professional excellence in the practice of law and in international affairs. Graduates who know how to use these tools thoughtfully and responsibly will enter the profession with an important advantage. I believe helping students develop that fluency is now an essential part of preparing them for professional success.
On this page, I share AI agent playbooks, teaching materials, and practical workflows that I and my students have developed. I hope these resources are useful to others exploring how AI can enhance teaching, learning, and professional preparation.
Frameworks for Teaching AI
Two documents provide the intellectual framework for our approach to AI. The first is a short guide to the habits of mind that support effective AI use; the second is a practical playbook students use to put those habits into practice.
AI as a Thought Partner
Framing AI as a thought partner rather than an answer machine. It sets out the guiding principles: read deeply, simulate seriously, use AI thoughtfully, and exercise judgment always, and shows students how to prepare with AI while keeping full ownership of their analysis, drafting, and final work product. It introduces the habits that hold the approach together: the "read four books" principle, the AI Supervision Note, and the human capacities no tool can supply.
Read the GuideTigger-Level Thinking
A living, practical playbook written by Lawyering Peace Senior Research Associates for approaching AI with curiosity and discipline, the Tigger rather than the Eeyore. It moves from mindset to mechanics: working in Projects, prompting effectively, running deep research, drafting and translating, building custom agents, and handling confidentiality, memory, and security. It is built to be adapted to your own role and workflow.
Read the GuideStudent Playbooks
Each playbook is the complete blueprint for a custom AI agent that my students and I have developed: what the agent does, how to set it up, and the full set of instructions that drives it. With a playbook, anyone can build the agent as a project in their preferred AI tool, without needing to become an expert prompt writer. Together, the agents help students practice professional skills, prepare for career opportunities, strengthen written work, and learn how to supervise AI-assisted work.
They are also a teaching tool in their own right. Reading a playbook shows students how a well-designed agent is structured: a defined role, a clear scope, a step-by-step process, firm prohibitions, and quality checks. Adapt them freely to your own course, clinic, or career office.
- Read what it doesEach playbook opens with a short description of the agent's purpose and what it will and will not do.
- Set it upCreate a new project in your preferred AI tool and paste the instructions into its instructions field, adding any knowledge files the playbook calls for.
- Make it yoursAdjust the scope, examples, and output format to fit your students, your course, or your own professional goals.
Professional Development Playbooks
Agents that support students and young professionals as they develop their professional identity, prepare for career opportunities, and strengthen the skills and judgment that contribute to professional success.
What's Your WOW?
The full build for the agent that surfaces a user's most compelling professional differentiators and turns them into language they can use with confidence.
Read the Playbook PlaybookElevator Speech
Instructions for the agent that builds polished 30-second and 60-second professional introductions for networking, interviews, and career opportunities.
Read the Playbook PlaybookMock Interview
Instructions for the interview-practice agent: realistic questions followed by strategic feedback on answers, delivery, presence, and professional storytelling.
Read the Playbook PlaybookProfessional Brand Architect
The office-hours-style advisor that drills into passion, skills, and distinguishing experience to produce a brand that is coherent, credible, and portable across sectors.
Read the PlaybookWritten Work Product Review Playbooks
Agents that check citations and review memoranda. Each provides a first-pass review to support, rather than replace, the user’s own judgment.
Cite Checker
Instructions for the agent that checks whether the sources cited in a piece of written work are authentic.
Read the Playbook PlaybookCite Checker + Bluebook
Instructions for the agent that pairs the authenticity check with a review of Bluebook compliance.
Read the Playbook PlaybookZero Draft Memorandum Review
Instructions for the agent that provides a first-pass analysis of a Zero Draft memorandum before the author's own revision.
Read the PlaybookPodcast
Two conversations on how AI is changing legal practice and how the next generation of professionals is learning to work with it.
My AI Walked Into the Podcast
Prof. Paul Williams explores the role of AI in the legal profession, joined by his ChatGPT "Crazy Monkey" for a candid exchange on how young lawyers should think about AI as an evolving tool: using it responsibly, avoiding pitfalls like hallucination, holding on to authenticity, and future-proofing a legal career.
Listen Tea with PILPGThe Rise of AI in Law
How law students are adapting and thriving as AI moves into legal education and practice. A look at the shift from the students' point of view: what changes, what stays the same, and how to build the judgment that makes these tools worth using.
ListenThese materials are shared in the spirit of common exploration. Please feel free to use, adapt, or build on them to the extent you find them useful.