The event brought together students, practicing lawyers, and legal innovators for a day of onboarding sessions and panel discussions about how AI is shaping the legal industry, and what that means for the people entering it.

A profession in motion

The legal market is changing faster than legal education has traditionally moved. Nathalia Schomerus, Legal Innovation Lead at Legora, explained: "I think students are not being prepared well enough for the age of AI. The way legal work is shifting means that the way we educate future lawyers has to shift as well."

Florian Skupin, Executive Director of Legal Technology at Bucerius, agreed: "Legal education will need to adapt more to market realities. It's quite important that our students have AI experience during their studies."

From the courtroom to the classroom

The day featured practitioners who use Legora in their daily work, giving students a direct line to what AI-assisted legal practice actually looks like.

Stefan Papastefanou, Associate at White & Case, made the point that law firms and their clients are already recalibrating expectations around efficiency: "Clients are starting to require you to showcase how much time you've saved." His message to students was to engage with these tools now, build a genuine understanding of what they can do, and come into the profession ready.

Jonathan Cholewa, Partnerships and Digital Development at Otto Schmidt, brought a publisher's perspective. As a leading legal content provider, Otto Schmidt's goal is simple: to be present wherever legal research is happening next, and increasingly, that means AI platforms like Legora. It's a reminder that the shift extends beyond law firms and law schools. The entire legal information ecosystem is orienting around where AI-driven research happens.

The next generation of lawyers

If the practitioners were enthusiastic, the students matched them. "I'm using it on an everyday basis," one student said, when asked about Legora. "I have all of the material from the professors in there. I keep asking it questions and it's helping me so much."

Another student added, "AI is becoming really important in the future, and I want to be on top of it."

"I see a lot of opportunities," said another. "I want to work with it."

That mindset is exactly what firms are looking for. Vadym Kuzmenko, Legal Engineer at Legora, pointed to the practical advantage students gain from starting early: "Coming in already with knowledge of how to use these tools is great for the law firms and the companies because you are quicker to be onboarded. You are quicker to actually deliver value."

More than a license

What distinguishes this partnership is the intent behind it. As Nathalia put it: "We're not just giving them licenses and then letting them run. I want to make sure that the lawyers we have in the future are the best lawyers."

That means preparing students who don't just know how to use a tool, but understand when and why to use it, and how to critically evaluate what it produces.

Legora AI Day at Bucerius was a starting point. The campus license means students will be working with Legora throughout their studies, building the kind of fluency that only comes from sustained, real-world use. The partnership signals a commitment by both Legora and Bucerius to raise the standard of legal work, and to equip the future generation of lawyers with the knowledge and skills to do so.