This issue of The Practice unpacks what “value” means in the legal profession, and how AI is reshaping that conception. In our lead story, “How Lawyers Can Add Value in the Age of AI,” Michele DeStefano, professor of law at the University of Miami, draws on 50 interviews with chief legal officers (CLOs), law firm partners, legal operations professionals, and non-lawyer corporate executives around the world, to figure out how some lawyers might create value-add in today’s world. For DeStefano, it comes down to character, client-centricity, and innovation. As DeStefano says, “AI is an answer machine of astonishing power. But the value of a lawyer was never only in the answer.” Instead, people go to lawyers for something human AI can never replicate.
In “Moving from Adoption to Responsible Impact,” we examine how should general counsel approach integrating AI into the legal department—beyond simply driving adoption—and what metrics should they use to define AI’s value? Based on a June 2026 Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession workshop, the story explores how everyone is integrating AI, while still figuring out to measure its use beyond broad input-based metrics. “The future is here. Now what are we going to do about it?” asked David B. Wilkins, faculty director of the HLS Center on the Legal Profession and Lester Kissel Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.
In “Value to a Degree,” we look at the cost-benefit analysis many 17 year olds have to make when they embark on higher education. As the American public grows disillusioned with the value of a college degree, many scholars still say the math works out in the graduates’ favor. Even if you choose a major with lower earning potential, it might be the general liberal arts education that means more. “You need your education to last you 40 to 50 to 60 years of working life,” says David Deming, Danoff Dean of Harvard College. “And so it needs to be the kind of thing that’s helpful to you, not just in today’s technological environment but [in] the revolution that’s coming and the one after that and the one after that.”
Finally, in “Leading Businesspeople with Law Degrees,” Mark Smolik, chief legal officer for DHL Supply Chain Americas, speaks with Michele DeStefano about how he is modernized the in-house legal department with robust data organization and knowledge management to bring value to the corporation, what traits are essential to cultivate in human lawyers, and how to set yourself up for success with AI. He says:
For me, AI is about augmenting the productivity of the team. Our business continues to grow quite significantly. But that growth does not mean our team will grow at the same pace. We have to continuously improve, finding new and creative ways to deliver services faster, better, and cheaper. Any organization seeking to extol the benefits of AI needs to first get their data organized. We are fortunate to have organized data that serves as the critical foundation of the AI initiatives we have underway.
