Kirsten K. Davis

Kirsten Davis is a Professor of Law and Director of Online Legal Education Strategies at Stetson University College of Law. In March 2024, Stetson University Provost Elizabeth Skomp appointed her as its Faculty Fellow for Generative Artificial Intelligence and Higher Education. A Southeast Ohio native, she holds a law degree from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, summa cum laude and Order of the Coif, and a PhD in Human Communication from Arizona State University Hugh Downs School of Human Communication.  Prior to joining the faculty at Stetson, she was a federal judicial clerk, attorney at Jones Day, and a faculty member at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

Dr. Davis’s work focuses on the intersection of legal communication and legal ethics.  Most recently, she has been studying the impact of generative artificial intelligence on legal communication, legal ethics, and higher education. This past year, she has given talks on generative AI to law faculty, law students, administrators, lawyers, and judges.  She is leading a group of over 400 law professors who are exploring the impacts of Generative AI on legal writing education and practice.  Her course, Legal Writing with Generative AI, was one of the first of its kind to be offered to law students.  Her essay, A New Parlor is Open:  Legal Writing Faculty Must Develop Scholarship on Generative AI and Legal Writing, argues that generative AI represents the beginning of a paradigm shift in legal writing and identifies the “big issues” of legal writing that will need scholarly investigation.  https://www2.stetson.edu/law-faculty-research/a-new-parlor-is-open-legal-writing-faculty-must-develop-scholarship-on-generative-ai-and-writing/

Dr. Davis has served on the board of directors of the Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute.   She is a past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting Program Committee and of its Section on Women in Legal Education. She is also a past Chair of the Florida Bar's Standing Committee on Professionalism and served on its Special Committee to Review Professionalism.  She currently serves as the Program Co-Chair for the AALS Section on Technology, Law, and Legal Education; as a member of the Legal Writing Institute’s AI Committee; and as a member of the Florida Bar Standing Committee on Technology.

Davis has received Stetson’s Dean's Award for Extraordinary Service, its Award for Teaching Excellence, its Homer and Dolly Hand Award in Faculty Research, and its Dickerson-Brown Award for Faculty Excellence in Faculty Scholarship. She was recognized for her work in online education with the 2021 Stetson Board of Trustees COVID-19 Innovation Award. This year, the AALS Section on Technology, Law, and Legal Education selected her for its Inaugural Technology Mentorship Award. The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center named her to its distinguished Women of Legal Tech list for 2024.  She founded Stetson’s Institute for the Advancement of Legal Communication.