UF Law’s Innovation Clinic Prepares Students for AI-Driven Legal Practice

Isabel Bequer

Before law school, UF third-year student Benjamin Milrot had no coding experience. After working in the Levin College of Law’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Clinic, he was able to build his own app.

“I wasn’t really a tech guy, but I’ve always been entrepreneurial,” Milrot said. “I just never had the opportunity to work on that impulse.”

That was, until he found the law clinic, which launched in the fall of 2024. The experience introduces students like Milrot to the practice of technology law by allowing them to represent inventors, researchers, entrepreneurs, startups and technologists in matters related to intellectual property, technology licensing and AI. 

Students represent pro bono clients under the supervision of experienced attorneys in registering copyrights, trademarks and patents. They help clients navigate contract law and venture capital, and they provide legal advice on topical issues like AI and data collection.

But students in the clinic are learning about more than just the legal process; they are also preparing for work in AI-based fields by completing a weeklong course in the programming software Python. For Milrot, this experience helped him build an app called BidBud, based around his passion for classic cars. The app uses data to make predictions about the bidding process in car auctions, which can help laypeople who do not have access to the same information as car dealerships.

“It didn’t feel like learning in the typical aspect,” Milrot said. “It felt like personal growth.”

The clinic, which is one of several offered by the law school, is now in its fourth semester and has a cohort of eight students.

“There’s been quite a dramatic rise in the interest level of AI from the client side,” said the clinic’s director, Thinh Nguyen, J.D., who has spent more than 25 years representing entrepreneurs and technology companies. 

The clinic currently provides services to a range of clients throughout Florida, including new companies that are navigating patents and setting up business structures. There are also clients within the UF community, such as students in the Heavener School of Business or professors who need assistance with specialized issues like data use and collection. Students in the clinic help these businesses start LLCs, file patents and draft contracts. Law students are involved in every step of the legal process, including client selection. 

“We pretty much take on any client that’s interesting,” Nguyen said. “As long as there’s something to teach.”

The legal and technical skills learned through the clinic are often interwoven. In order to build the app, for example, Nguyen told Milrot he needed to get his own data. Milrot had previously been working with the data he obtained from a small business, using nondisclosure agreements and negotiation tactics discussed in the clinic.

By obtaining his own data, Milrot was able to learn about legal topics, including web scraping and copyright issues in AI training. This led him to write a paper about big tech companies that obtain data for large language models from web scraping. 

The skills learned in the clinic will be useful for students as they enter the job market, Nguyen said. Students with knowledge and experience in AI tend to be in high demand in any industry, including the legal field.

“Learning about AI is a great way to future-proof your career,” Nguyen said.