Voices in Law

Instructions

You are a staff writer for your college’s magazine, The Undergraduate. Your editor has assigned you to write a major feature article titled “So You Want to Work in Law? A Guide to the Legal Profession.” To prepare, you must interview 10 different legal professionals from various sectors.

Using AI to Create Interviews: You will use AI to generate 10 fictional legal professionals and conduct simulated interviews with them. This allows you to explore diverse perspectives across the legal field. Optional: If you are able to interview actual legal professionals (lawyers, paralegals, judges, etc.), that would be fantastic and can replace your AI-generated interviews. In short, you need 10 interviews whether real or AI-generated.

Your task is to create 10 detailed journal entries documenting these interviews. This is the raw material from which the article would eventually be written. But you’re NOT writing the magazine article itself, just the 10 journal entries.

I’ve provided two prompts to get you started. See AI Prompts section below. These are just starting points. Adjust them however you want.

Prompt 1 creates the legal professionals you’ll interview. Run it multiple times and mix-and-match characters until you have 10 that interest you.

Pro Tip: Refine the characters: “Make #3 more (insert personality trait)” or “Change #7 to someone working in environmental law in Montana.” The goal is diversity across every possible dimension: roles, practice areas, geography, career stages, backgrounds, personalities, and perspectives.

Prompt 2 starts the interview. The AI will roleplay as your interviewee. Keep your interview conversational and wide-ranging to bring out the character’s personality and test whether their facts are accurate. Ask for vivid scenes, specific examples, and memorable quotes that reveal what their work is really like. Use open-ended questions such as how they got started, what a typical day looks like, or what challenges and surprises they’ve faced. Try asking off-the-wall questions and see how they respond.

Pro Tip: If the AI drops out of character, simply remind it: “Please stay in character as [Name] and respond as they would.”

Course Themes: Across your 10 interviews, naturally weave in the topics we studied: Rule of Law & Jurisprudence, Legal Education, U.S. Constitution, Sources of Law, Court System, Litigation (Civil and Criminal), Criminal Law, Torts, Contracts, Property Law, and Ethics & Professionalism. Each interview should connect to 2-4 themes relevant to that person’s work. Don’t force anything that doesn’t make sense.

Deliverable: 11-Page PDF

• Page 1: A cover page with your name, course name and semester, and the date. Below that, write a 200–300 word reflection explaining your experience with this project: What you enjoyed, what you learned about the legal field, any surprises from the interviews, which careers interested you most, and how the project deepened your understanding of course topics.
• Pages 2-11: Ten Journal Entries

Journal Entries

After each interview, create a one-page journal entry with following sections:

• Introduction: List the person’s full name, current position and organization, and location. Follow this with a brief 2–3 sentence background summarizing their education and career path.

• Interview Summary: Write a narrative summary of your interview describing how the person entered their career, what their current work involves, and the main challenges they face day to day. Connect 2–4 course topics that relate to their experiences, and include 2–3 direct quotes that capture their authentic voice and perspective.

• Personal Reflection: Write an honest reflection explaining whether the interview felt authentic (for AI), what surprised you about the career, what new insights you gained, and whether this path interests you or not.

• Fact Check: List and verify 2–3 factual claims from your interviewer using this format:

  • ✓ VERIFIED: [Claim] (Source: [URL or citation])
  • ✓ VERIFIED: [Claim] (Source: [URL or citation])
  • ✗ INCORRECT: [Claim] – Actually: [Correct information] (Source: [URL or citation])

• Interview Links: Provide 1–2 clickable links to your AI chat conversations.

Headshots

Use AI image generation tools (e.g., Gemini, Grok, ChatGPT) to create realistic professional headshots for 2–3 interviewees, similar to photos on law firm or LinkedIn profiles. You do not need headshots for every interviewee. However, try to get 2-3 and insert them creatively into the one-page Journal Entry. If you’re having fun, feel free to make a headshot for every interviewee if you want.

Grading Rubric

• Cover Reflection (10%) – Thoughtful, well-written reflection on learning and experience
• Diversity of Interviewees (15%) – 10 distinct roles, locations, practice areas, career stages, and perspectives
• Interview Quality (30%) – Realistic conversations with specific details, memorable quotes, and authentic voices
• Course Theme Integration (15%) – At least 8 themes naturally incorporated across all interviews
• Personal Reflections (10%) – Honest, thoughtful responses to each interview
• Fact-Checking (15%) – At least 20 verified claims total with credible sources cited
• Formatting & Presentation (5%) – Professional PDF with consistent formatting, headshots, and working chat links

Additional Pro Tips

• Adjust the prompts or make new ones, they’re not set in stone
• Make interesting characters with strong personalities and unique perspectives
• Plan for 15-30 minutes of conversation per interview
• Ask for specific examples: “Can you give me an example of that?”
• Copy-paste memorable quotes
• Fact-check claims and challenge the character back
• Be honest, your personal reflections don’t have to be positive if they weren’t
• Format beautifully

Prompt 1

Please generate 10 diverse fictional legal professionals for a college research project about careers in law. Create a varied mix representing different roles (attorneys, judges, paralegals, legal educators, corporate counsel, public interest lawyers, court staff, legislators, etc.), practice areas (criminal law, civil litigation, contracts, property, constitutional law, torts, family law, etc.), geographic locations across the United States (different states and regions, urban and rural settings), career stages (recent graduates, mid-career, senior/retiring professionals), and backgrounds (different educational paths, socioeconomic backgrounds, races, genders, and life experiences). For each person, provide: (1) their full name, (2) age, (3) current job title and employer, (4) location (city and state), (5) a 3-4 sentence biography covering their educational background, how they entered the legal profession, key career transitions, and what makes their perspective unique or interesting. Make these people feel realistic and distinct from one another—give them personality, specific career challenges they’ve faced, and authentic details about their work. Ensure the 10 professionals collectively represent the true diversity and breadth of the American legal profession, including both prestigious and everyday legal roles, big cities and small towns, and a range of motivations for working in law.

Prompt 2

You are an expert at simulating realistic conversations with legal professionals. I am a college student working on a major magazine article for my university publication titled “So You Want to Work in Law? A Guide to the Legal Profession.” This article will help undergraduates understand diverse career paths in the legal field. I am also taking a course called Introduction to Law, and I want to learn how the topics we’ve studied connect to real legal careers. I will provide you with the name and background of a legal professional I want to interview. Your job is to authentically simulate this person’s voice, personality, perspective, and expertise for a realistic interview conversation. When simulating this legal professional, create a distinct personality with realistic speech patterns, attitudes, and quirks—not everyone loves their job, some are burned out, some are passionate, some are pragmatic. Give this person authentic motivations, frustrations, and perspectives based on their role and experience level. Include specific details about their daily work, actual challenges they face like difficult clients, budget constraints, political pressures, work-life balance issues, and ethical dilemmas, plus concrete examples from cases or matters they’ve handled. Use realistic salary ranges, work hours, and industry details for their position and location. I studied these 11 topics in my Introduction to Law course: Rule of Law & Jurisprudence, Legal Education, U.S. Constitution, Sources of Law, Court System, Litigation (Civil and Criminal), Criminal Law, Torts, Contracts, Property Law, and Ethics & Professionalism. As we talk, naturally weave in how 2-4 of these topics relate to your work, but only the ones that genuinely connect to your role—don’t force topics that aren’t relevant. Explain concepts in accessible language since I’m still learning, and when you mention these topics, briefly explain how they show up in your actual day-to-day work with specific examples. Respond as this person would in a real interview setting—be conversational but informative, share both positive and negative aspects of the career honestly, give specific advice for students interested in this path, and include memorable quotes or phrases I could use in my article. Sometimes mention real organizations, courts, laws, or legal concepts relevant to your work. If I ask something outside your expertise, say so authentically like “That’s not really my area, but from what I understand…” or “You’d need to ask a criminal lawyer about that.” While you are a fictional person, the facts you share about the legal profession, legal system, salary ranges, educational requirements, and legal concepts should be accurate and verifiable—if asked about something you’re uncertain about, you can say “I’d need to double-check that, but I believe…” rather than inventing false information. Now, I’m ready to tell you about the legal professional I want to interview. Please wait for me to provide their name, role, location, and background information. Once I do, fully embody that person and we’ll begin the interview. Start by greeting me warmly as this professional would, briefly introducing yourself, and asking what I’d like to know about your career and work. Please confirm you understand your role and are ready for me to describe the legal professional you’ll simulate.