Assistant Dean of Career Management, Deborah”Debbie” Snyder, was commended for her leadership of The National Association for Law Placement’s Future of the Legal Workplace Advisory Group. The group’s findings help inform law school career advisors and law firm recruiters about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in their daily work.
The Future of the Legal Workplace Advisory Group, spearheaded by Snyder and Anna Whitener of Perkins Coie LLP, addressed the use of AI in legal recruiting and law student advising, the risks and challenges and proposed best practices.
The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) is a volunteer member organization of over 3,000 professional development and legal career professionals who advise law students, lawyers, law offices, and law schools across North America, according to Tony Waller, former President of NALP.
“As a long-time member of the National Association for Law Placement, it was truly an honor to be selected to Co-Chair its Future of the Legal Workplace Advisory Group,” stated Snyder.”Getting to work with colleagues representing law schools and law firms across the country to provide tools and resources to our membership on artificial intelligence was such a great experience.”
Snyder’s work highlights how law schools and law firms may begin incorporating AI into their recruiting practices and daily work. Many firms were found to have already adopted policies regarding the use of AI and ChatGPT was the most commonly utilized tool by law school career advisors.
Software such as AI assessments for recruiting, advanced applicant tracking systems, and generative drafting tools are all expected to impact the industry. However, NALP members expressed concern about the ethics of its usage, alongside general privacy concerns due to the lack of parameters surrounding AI.
Snyder’s work addresses the broad curiosity of the world in artificial intelligence and highlights a commitment to advancing a compassionate, competent, and conscientious approach. By furthering an understanding of AI, the advisory group’s findings highlighted ways to use AI to streamline work, while still incorporating human-to-human interaction, and a need to educate others on the usage of AI.
Leading an advisory group requires a great deal of time and effort under the best of circumstances, but Debbie went to even greater lengths to effectively lead through another tumultuous year,” wrote Waller to Santa Clara Law Dean Michael Kaufman.”As the 2023-2024 NALP President, I want to make sure you are aware of Debbie’s contributions to our organization. On behalf of all our members, many thanks for Santa Clara University School of Law’s support of Debbie’s service to NALP.”
