Certification Architecture

A visible ladder from literacy to litigation.

Every level is earned 100% online and gated by a live oral defense — you present and defend your work to a faculty member over video before the certificate issues. Stackable levels, eight micro-certificates underneath, and recertification keyed to how fast legal-AI obligations actually change. Every certificate is independently verifiable.

The Four Levels

Each level certifies a capability — not attendance.

Level One · Foundations

AI Literacy & Responsible Use

Demonstrate working understanding of models, prompting, retrieval, verification, and the ethics that govern AI in legal settings.

6 weeksPrereq: NoneAssessment: Applied exercises + live defense

Level Two · Research & Drafting

Source-Grounded Legal Drafting

Produce research-backed drafts with a verification appendix that proves every authority was checked under attorney oversight.

6 weeksPrereq: Level OneAssessment: Capstone + live oral defense

III

Level Three · Operations

Firm Workflow Automation & Governance

Design and govern AI-assisted firm workflows — intake to billing — with policy, KPIs, and an auditable adoption plan.

6 weeksPrereq: Level OneAssessment: Workflow build + live defense

Level Four · Advanced & Trial

Litigation Simulation & Advanced Systems

Operate transcript intelligence, verdict modeling, and appellate drafting in a panel-reviewed trial simulation capstone.

6 wks + capstonePrereq: Level TwoAssessment: Live panel defense (video)

Sample Lawnova Academy Certificate of Professional Completion — Level Two, AI Research & Drafting for Legal Work

The Certificate

A certificate you can prove.

Complete a program online and pass your live oral defense, and you receive a Lawnova Academy Certificate of Professional Completion — naming your level, your program, and the responsible-AI competencies you demonstrated.

✓Awarded after a live oral defense with a faculty member
✓Signed by your Academic Director and Lab Director
✓A unique certificate ID, issued the day you complete
✓Independently verifiable by employers and courts below
✓Mapped to the four practice labs — BlueShark, PDF.LEGAL, VerdictPilot, COAPP

Earn yours — enroll →

Sample certificate shown for illustration. Each certificate verifies completion of a private professional training program; it does not confer bar eligibility or imply ABA approval.

Certificate Verification

Every certificate is verifiable.

Employers and courts can confirm a certificate's authenticity, level, and status in seconds. Try the sample certificate's ID — LN-2026-GL-021.

lawnova.org/verify

✓

George Lincoln

Level Two · AI Research & Drafting for Legal Work

● Valid · Issued June 2026 · Current

Verified against the Lawnova Academy certificate registry.

Staying Current

Recertification, because the rules keep moving.

Legal-AI obligations evolve faster than traditional CLE cycles. Our recertification keeps a certificate meaningful.

The principle comes from Chain of Truth by Academy faculty member Deniss Gladkihs: a credential is evidence about competence, not competence itself, and what it proves weakens as tools, law, and threats move on (chapters 33–34).

24 mo

Validity window

Each level certificate stays current for two years from the issue date.

1 unit

Renewal update

Complete a short annual update module covering changes in tooling, ethics, and case law.

CLE

Where marked

Select live sessions separately qualify for CLE in approved jurisdictions when explicitly noted.

Certificates verify completion of a private professional training program. They do not confer bar eligibility or imply ABA approval. CLE approvals, where pursued, are jurisdiction-specific.