Legal work is text-heavy, making it well suited to language models — with important cautions.
Uses
- Document review: e-discovery, due diligence and contract review at scale.
- Contract analysis: extracting clauses, obligations and risks.
- Drafting: first drafts of letters, clauses and summaries.
- Legal research: finding and summarising relevant materials.
- Knowledge management: searching precedents and internal know-how.
Risks
- Fabricated citations: courts have sanctioned lawyers for filing AI-generated briefs citing non-existent cases.
- Confidentiality: client information must not reach unapproved tools.
- Jurisdiction: general models may mix up laws from different places.
- Professional responsibility: lawyers remain responsible for their work.
Safeguards
- Use legal-specific tools grounded in verified sources.
- Verify every citation and legal statement.
- Follow court rules on disclosing AI use.
- Choose tools with strong confidentiality terms.
Where Value Lies
Speeding up review and first drafts, freeing lawyers for judgement and advice.