Prof. Franky Newcomb teaches students to navigate the practical realities of legal research in a rapidly changing information landscape. As reference and instructional services law librarian and assistant adjunct professor of law, Newcomb invites students to explore that landscape through their Advanced Legal Research class: Solo, Public Interest, and Small Firm. Alongside traditional legal research methods and strategies, students investigate opportunities for using generative artificial intelligence. Rather than treating AI as a magic solution, students learn to understand how it works and test its limits. As Newcomb observes, “technology will always change. Our students are trained to think critically, adapt, and be lifelong learners in a profession that demands it.”
In Newcomb’s course, students follow the life cycle of a legal matter much as they would in practice. Students actively engage in discerning what role AI should play in their own research, and the course acts as a lab for experimenting with new strategies and tools. In class, students test several AI tools through a battery of test prompts specific to different types of research and evaluate the performance of each. When the same tools return different outputs in response to the same prompts, students can examine the differences between information and content. In one exercise, students uncover hallucinated citations hidden within a legal brief and learn firsthand why lawyers must verify every authority they rely upon. The experience quickly turns curiosity into healthy skepticism.
Newcomb has found that some of the best classroom moments happen when a student tries a creative search strategy. In those moments the class follows their lead, and everyone discovers a new path to the answer. This reinforces Newcomb’s view that legal research is both an art and a science.
The course itself was shaped by Newcomb’s background in public interest work and a belief that some of the best lessons about research come from working within real-world constraints. By focusing on the practice settings of solo practitioners, small firms and public interest organizations, students learn how to find answers creatively and efficiently. Along the way, they explore larger questions about access to legal information, justice and the lawyer’s role in serving the economically disadvantaged, marginalized, and underrepresented. As Newcomb says “information is power. Good research requires tenacity, and our students have that in spades.”
The cornerstone of Newcomb’s pedagogy is their roots as a law librarian, where the concepts of information literacy are at the heart of every search. Whether evaluating an AI-generated output or researching a complex legal issue, students learn skills that will outlast any technology. As the tools continue to evolve, Newcomb is helping Marquette Law students build something even more valuable: the judgment, adaptability, and curiosity needed for a lifetime in the law.
