Legal Cheek Careers sits down with ULaw’s Callum Gee
“Every day teaching has been a privilege,” says Callum Gee, a graduate teaching assistant at The University of Law (ULaw). The line neatly captures both his enthusiasm for legal education and the unusual route that brought him there, a route that began not in a seminar room, but in legal tech.
While studying at ULaw, Callum started a business designing websites for solicitors and law firms after noticing, while applying for training contracts in 2020, that many firms’ sites felt dated and disconnected. That early venture became full-time work after graduation, before developing into broader legal tech consultancy. But, the practical side was only part of the appeal: “I found myself more interested in the theory side of it. The actual application side always came second to learning about things and the different updates.” When an opening came up at his old university for its first cohort of graduate teaching assistants, the move made sense. It has been a successful one too, with Callum recently becoming the first GTA to be awarded ULaw’s lecturer of the year award.
The role itself spans teaching, support, and, as Callum jokes, “a whole lot of marking”. He mainly teaches undergraduates, often on modules he himself enjoyed as a student, including criminal law and, increasingly, legal tech. That combination of subjects seems to suit him well. Criminal law remains popular in the classroom, but teaching legal tech has particular resonance given his current master’s studies in legal innovation.
Callum is also thoughtful about what younger teachers can offer modern students. In his view, universities should not lose the value of experienced academics, but there is something important about students seeing recent graduates in teaching roles too. He suggests that, for a generation trying to make sense of long-term careers in an “increasingly noisy and opaque online world”, that visibility can be powerful. Younger staff, he argues, “can help bridge a gap and show that these career paths are still possible.”
That perspective feeds directly into his approach to legal tech teaching. Callum is clear that the aim should not be to train students on whichever product happens to be fashionable today. Specific platforms change too quickly for that. Instead, students need foundations: how to assess tools critically, how to adapt, and what makes a good legal tech product in the first place. “You can’t just say this is a new product, it’s really good,” he says. “No, that’s not the case for anything.” The more durable skill, in his view, is judgement. Students need to be “evaluative” and “critical” so that, when they do encounter new systems in practice, they know how to use them properly rather than simply trusting the output.
When I ask about misconceptions students have around AI, Callum slightly reframes the question. For him, the bigger issue is not misconception so much as missing knowledge. One point comes immediately: “Don’t put personal information into ChatGPT!” He is also keen for students to think more seriously about AI’s environmental impact, an issue he believes has grown sharply in importance. These are the kinds of current debates he thinks should be discussed openly in class, alongside developments in the legal market and students’ own experiences on placement and work experience.
So what does all of this mean for aspiring lawyers? Callum’s answer is nuanced. He does think AI will reduce some of the drafting and background research that junior lawyers have traditionally done. But he is equally clear that other tasks will become more important. Proofreading will increase. So will checking authorities and making sure cases are accurate. “AI knows the theories,” he says, but not always the cases, at least not reliably. Any generated legal output therefore needs careful scrutiny. That, in turn, raises the value of human judgement.
And then there is the human side of legal practice, which Callum thinks will only become more important. “We are in the business of humanity,” he says. Whatever advances are made in automation, clients are still people — or businesses represented by people — and that means communication, trust and empathy are not going away. If anything, those qualities may become more valuable as firms look for future lawyers who can do more than simply process information. Standing out, he suggests, increasingly means being a distinctive and confident human being: presenting well, arguing persuasively and showing that you can connect with others.
His advice to students trying to build AI literacy is pragmatic. “For the record, I’m not a fan of LinkedIn,” he says, “but it’s part of playing the game in the modern world.” In other words, if candidates are going to claim they understand AI, they need to show it. That might mean posting about the topic, taking external courses, or gaining certificates that demonstrate real engagement. Just as important, he adds, is understanding its ethical use as well as its effective use.
When it comes to vacation schemes and training contracts, however, Callum’s strongest advice is refreshingly straightforward: stop treating applications like a numbers game. Too many students, he suggests, apply to everything at once and end up submitting weaker applications, sometimes with ill-judged AI assistance mixed in. A better approach is to slow down and be deliberate. Research the firm properly. Look at its website, social media, recent work and the systems it uses. Then tailor your application accordingly. “It’s not about why you’re good,” Callum says. “It’s about why you’re good for them.”
That line perhaps best sums up the wider message running through the conversation. For students entering a profession being reshaped by technology, the answer is not panic, nor blind enthusiasm for the latest tool. It is to build foundations, stay curious, sharpen judgement, and remember the value of being human. And, if application season starts to feel overwhelming? Callum has a final reminder drawn from personal experience: take a step back, breathe, and focus on doing fewer applications better.
Callum Gee will be speaking at this afternoon’s virtual student event, ‘AI and the law — with A&O Shearman, Macfarlanes, Osborne Clarke and ULaw’. Secure one the final few spots.
View this post on Instagram
About Legal Cheek Careers posts.
