How will AI change my practice?

 
As the saying goes, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail”, and when it comes to Generative (Gen) AI, this saying rings true. Gen AI has emerged in recent years as a transformative technology with significant potential to enhance a multitude of tasks and workflows but is better equipped for certain specific use cases rather than applied broadly as a panacea. We look at the use cases that show the most promise for corporate lawyers and litigators.

Improved accuracy of legal research

Gen AI’s ability to rapidly analyze vast amounts of information can be leveraged in several ways. For instance, researchers can use natural language to build sophisticated prompts around their query, allowing for a level of nuance that may not be possible when using conventional keyword or Boolean searching. This functionality can also go a step further, identifying and suggesting similar cases and other materials for further exploration.

Beyond its search capabilities, Gen AI can significantly streamline the drafting process for research memos or detailed emails. By swiftly summarizing cases and conducting comparative analyses, AI tools can help researchers efficiently document their findings or identify countervailing decisions or analyses that challenge the initial assessment, helping identify potential gaps that should be addressed.

Summarization and document review accelerated

The technology also offers significant potential for streamlining and accelerating document review in corporate transactions. Certain AI tools have proven very effective at accurately and efficiently summarizing key clauses, identifying potential risks and pinpointing inconsistencies across one or more legal documents. This capability significantly reduces the time and effort required for manual review, allowing legal professionals to focus on more strategic and complex tasks.
 

 
Moreover, Gen AI is well-suited for large-scale document review projects across a variety of circumstances, such as corporate transactions, litigation, investigations, or regulatory matters. These tools can quickly analyze vast datasets to identify patterns, compare documents and uncover market trends or industry standards. In the litigation context specifically, AI models have been deployed in many eDiscovery review platforms to surface certain confidential or personally sensitive information, identify likely privileged documents and locate key documents that are responsive to issues in the case (for more information on eDiscovery, read “I, Robot-Reviewer? Generative AI and the future of eDiscovery”).

While AI cannot replace the nuanced legal analysis provided by human experts, it can supplement that analysis by highlighting areas of focus, expediting the review process and providing an extra layer of assurance that important provisions are not being overlooked.

Gen AI must be used deftly in drafting

AI can be particularly helpful for drafting more informal communications—such as the first draft of a document or a basic starting point when writing an email, memo or other communication—which can then be revised to suit the needs of the end-user. It can check style and grammar, fix inconsistencies within a document or provide a launch-pad by producing basic clauses.

For more formal communications, such as specific legal analysis or agreements and clauses, the benefits are less clear-cut, as the more creative the task, the more prone to fabrication and hallucination these models tend to be. Given the probabilistic nature of these tools, there is always a certain level of uncertainty about what will be generated, which means that every output will need to be carefully reviewed and vetted for quality and accuracy. The more nuanced the issue or the more legal skill and analysis required to produce the output—whether it be a clause in a corporate agreement or pleadings for court—the less reliance should be made on Gen AI.

If you intend to use Gen AI for drafting, appropriate checks and guardrails must be in place to verify and validate the results. To help minimize this issue, look for tools that can ground their output in an existing document or set of documents from your collection or, better yet, tools that can cite the documents being referenced to generate their results (for more on implementing AI, read “What are the new best practices for AI for legal teams?”).

Conclusion

Whether you are a corporate lawyer or a litigator, Gen AI tools will likely introduce changes to established workflows by speeding up or eliminating routine tasks. While these tools can help legal professionals work faster, none of these tools are a substitute for professional skill and oversight.