What would justice look like if legal help were abundant rather than scarce? In this episode, Armin Alimardani and Mark Bennett speak with Professor Benjamin Alarie, Osler Chair in Business Law at the University of Toronto and co-author of Superjustice: Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Ben presents a provocative vision of AI-enabled justice that could make legal guidance and dispute resolution more accessible, personalised and responsive - not only to legal rights and material outcomes, but also to whether people feel heard and respected. The conversation explores what superjustice would look like, whether machines can exhibit empathy or support the exercise of discretion, why human values must be built into AI systems through “algorithmic constitutionalism”, and what might happen when legal AI becomes difficult for an individual lawyer or judge to confidently override. It also examines the future of lawyers and legal education: the enduring value of critical thinking, multidisciplinarity, intellectual and social maturity, and learning to work with powerful AI tools while retaining human responsibility for the institutions, values and guardrails that shape justice.

Guest

Benjamin Alarie is Professor of Law and Osler Chair in Business Law at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law. His research lies at the intersection of tax law, artificial intelligence, legal theory and judicial decision-making. He is also CEO and co-founder of Blue J, a University of Toronto spinout founded in 2015 that applies artificial intelligence to tax research.

Guest links

University of Toronto institutional profile:

https://jackmanlaw.utoronto.ca/people/benjamin-alarie

SSRN author page:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=384494

LinkedIn profile:

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/aitaxman

Personal website:

https://www.benjaminalarie.com/

The book

Superjustice: Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, by Samuel I. Becher and Benjamin Alarie:

https://superjustice.com/

Open-access introduction on SSRN:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6552638

Published by Oxford University Press on 30 July 2026, Superjustice argues that AI will transform law but will not automatically produce justice. The book examines how legal systems might be redesigned to make justice more abundant, accessible and responsive while protecting human flourishing, procedural legitimacy and institutional accountability.

Blue J

About Blue J:

https://www.bluej.com/about-us

Blue J Academic Access Programme:

https://www.bluej.com/academic-access

Blue J is an AI-powered tax research platform serving practitioners in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Its Academic Access Programme provides eligible faculty at accredited institutions in those countries with complimentary access for teaching and academic research.

Generative AI is already reshaping legal practice, not only through new tools, but through fake cases, misstated authorities, longer AI-generated submissions, and new pressures on courts, tribunals, regulators, lawyers, and law schools. In this episode, Armin Alimardani and Mark Bennett speak with Associate Professor Amy Salyzyn from the University of Ottawa about how AI is appearing in Canadian legal practice and litigation, what courts and regulators are doing in response, and why cost consequences, personal costs orders, discipline, and professional responsibility are now part of the AI conversation. The discussion also turns to legal education: how to teach AI in law school and professional responsibility courses, why students still need to “do the reps” of reading cases, writing, and legal analysis, and how to avoid cognitive deskilling or “cognitive foreclosure”. Amy closes with a practical mindset for lawyers and students navigating this moment: curiosity, confidence, and caution.

Guest

Prof. Amy F. Salyzyn is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, Common Law Section. Her work focuses on legal ethics, lawyer regulation, legal technology, AI in the legal profession, and access to justice. She teaches Torts and upper-year seminars in legal ethics and AI and the legal profession, is a regular legal ethics columnist at Slaw.ca, and co-authors Understanding Lawyers’ Ethics in Canada. (University of Ottawa)

Guest links

University of Ottawa institutional profile: https://www.uottawa.ca/faculty-law/common-law/faculty/salyzyn-amy-f

SSRN author page: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1956286

LinkedIn profile: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/amy-salyzyn-a86264222

Slaw.ca author page: https://www.slaw.ca/author/salyzyn/

Prof Salyzyn’s related work and references

Amy Salyzyn, “AI and Legal Ethics”, in Artificial Intelligence and the Law in Canada: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3733952

Amy Salyzyn and Florian Martin-Bariteau, Legal Ethics in a Digital Context, Canadian Bar Association: https://www.cba.org/getmedia/d68b09a5-d4e6-4393-be6b-7d87e9cd8381/LegalEthicsInaDigitalContext.pdf

Amy Salyzyn, “Deceptive Dynamics of Generative AI: Beyond the ‘First-Year Associate’ Framing”, Slaw.ca, 28 October 2025: https://www.slaw.ca/2025/10/28/deceptive-dynamics-of-generative-ai-beyond-the-first-year-associate-framing/

Most lawyers using AI today are typing questions into a chatbot and reading the answer. But what if AI could act more like a team of junior colleagues working alongside you?

In this episode of the Future Ready Lawyer podcast, we're joined by Helen Fan, a California lawyer and founder of the Silicon Valley Legal Tech Frontier Community, to discuss her experiments building an AI-powered law firm.

Helen set up two AI Agents, Morgan, a senior associate, and Cleo, a junior, and gave them a real legal research task. To her surprise, they divided up the work, debated each other, and even created additional helpers on their own. We explore what this means for supervision, accountability, and trust when AI starts taking action rather than just answering questions.

Helen also shares her vision for the AI-native law firm, why smaller firms are leading the way, and her advice for law students.

Helen Fan — Personal & Community

• Helen Fan | LinkedIn — link
• Helen's Legal AI Lab — link
• Helen's Substack — link
• Silicon Valley Legal Tech Frontier — link

Helen's Own Writing

• "Claude for Legal — Webinar Summary" — Helen breaks down how legal professionals can use Claude's Skills feature to build reusable, domain-specific workflows for document review and client communication. — link
• "AI-Native Law Firm Workflow at OpenClaw Law LLP" — A behind-the-scenes look at Helen's experimental multi-agent "law firm in a group chat," documenting how Morgan (senior associate) and Cleo (junior associate) agents collaborate on client work. — link
• "California Lawyer Tests AI-Law Firm Model with First Client" — Helen recounts the real-world test of OpenClaw Law LLP with its first client, including how she configured risk flags and decision rules for the AI agents. — link

OpenClaw & Agentic AI

• "OpenClaw Surpasses GitHub Records, Raises Security Concerns" — Coverage of OpenClaw hitting #1 on GitHub Trending and the security conversations it sparked in legal tech circles. — link

Related Viral Legal AI Discussions

• "Lawyer Uses Claude Skills, Legal World Loses It…" — link
• "I Interviewed the Claude-Native Lawyer Whose Viral Post Broke the…" — link