Bloomberg Law has released its Winter 2026 Path to Practice report, which includes survey responses from 1558 practicing lawyers, 264 law students, and 79 law school faculty (collected in fall 2025).

The report’s headline topic: the implications of generative artificial intelligence for legal practice, ethics, and employment, now and in the future. As a bonus, the report also indulges in some revealing reputational rankings. More below the fold.

The Path to Practice Report’s press release is here, and the full pdf is available here (with download form).

Nestled among perennial concerns (such as whether graduating law students are “practice-ready”) are compelling data about the changing landscapes of legal education and practice—as well as what lawyers think about law schools and the graduates they produce.

• Legal research and writing are strengths, with at least 85% of 2Ls and 3Ls reporting at least some proficiency in these areas. About four in ten law students, however, self-reported at least some proficiency with generative AI—which was a bit greater than the percentage that reported at least some proficiency with client counseling and interviewing.
• Approximately 60% of both law students and practicing lawyers felt they could use AI responsibly for some legal tasks. What AI-related skill should new attorneys have, coming out of law school? By a mile, cite-checking sources identified by AI for accuracy and hallucinations—a task for which journal and RA work may provide premium experience.
• More faculty reported their institutions offered introductory and advanced courses on AI (43% and 33%, respectively) than reported that no “AI-focused courses” were offered (28%). Although the survey’s sample size is small, these data suggest an ongoing reorientation of legal education to account for generative AI.
• Harvard Law School virtually swept the prestige metrics, such as they are. From all three groups, people who didn’t go to Harvard would have preferred to go to Harvard. (Second place: Georgetown. Not in the top 20 for that question: Yale.) Moreover, respondents rated Harvard as producing the best litigators, transactional attorneys, legal writers, and in-house corporate attorneys. (Most technologically savvy attorneys: Stanford.)

Law school faculty quoted in the report: Matthew Asbell (adjunct at Fordham and Cardozo) and Tim Holbrook (Denver).