Seven practical examples of how a lawyer uses AI in their day-to-day work  

NeoSmart,  March 19, 2024

There is a lot of talk about the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence to save time, increase efficiencies, improve processes. But this does not always translate into practical examples that illustrate how these tools are used. The legal sector is among those that will be impacted by the technology almost from the outset. Hence, we have collected some specific cases of how a lawyer uses AI in his or her daily tasks.
Some legal professionals are already using AI tools to streamline their tasks. But the adoption of the technology will continue to grow in the coming years. Let’s look at some practical examples of how lawyers can employ AI.

Drafting a contract
Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT or specialised tools such as CoCounsel can help lawyers draft a contract. To do this, artificial intelligence is simply asked to draft a draft of, for example, a rental contract. In order to refine the result, it is necessary to provide the tool with as much context as possible, including the law that applies.
The AI will be able to draft a contract and will be able to redo it if we are not satisfied with the result. And, if the task is too complex to tackle as a whole, it is also possible to instruct the AI to draft certain clauses or give us a list of clauses that should be in the type of contract we want to make.
But when using these functions we have to be careful about one aspect. It is necessary to anonymise all personal or confidential information that we are going to include in the contract. It should be borne in mind that the data we introduce in an AI sometimes serve to train the algorithm, so its privacy cannot always be guaranteed.

Document review
This is one of the functions that AI can best perform, in order to save a lawyer’s time. It can be asked to review a legal document, any kind of agreement or contract, and identify the risks for the client. Instead of going through the text point by point, the practitioner can go to the parts highlighted by the tool. It will also be useful to send a written explanation to the client that sets out how the legal situation stands. In this way, the lawyer can focus on how to mitigate the risks, rather than spending time discovering them. Document review with AI does not involve proofreading documents (a task that artificial intelligence can also perform) but goes one level further: it is scanning the entire text for relevant and useful aspects for the practitioner.

Streamlining paperwork
AI models can navigate through all legal documentation, to extract specific information based on keywords or a purpose expressed in a prompt. But they can also draft emails to clients, respond to government communications, structure and even generate the text of a complaint or an application.

Carrying out a legal search
Another practical example of the use of AI for lawyers is the automation of search and research. The tool can be presented with documents, such as current rules, and asked to extract the relevant information for a given case.
But AIs can go further. Not only are they able to dive into legal texts presented to them, they also have the Internet at their fingertips. So lawyers can accelerate the research process that takes place across the online world. They can obtain data published in the media about an event, analyse social media posts and even the emails of those involved, provided the lawyer has access to them.

Analysing the legal situation
Lawyers can also use AI to analyse the legal situation a client is in. It may not have an exhaustive level of detail, but the assessment made by the tool could serve as a first approximation or first impressions.
For the AI to serve its purpose effectively, it will need to be provided with as much documentation as possible. To begin with, it will need to have the relevant legislation and other regulatory texts that apply to the case, as well as the facts that have occurred, to which as much context as possible will be added. Of course, the tool should also be told which specific legal position we want to analyse. As always when personal data is involved, the information is anonymised.

Preparing public speeches
This is a task that a lawyer often needs to master, whether to pitch clients, to speak to partners of the law firm, to give a lecture or even in court. AI can help structure a speech, give us ideas on how to start or end it, and even help us to identify the most important points to be addressed. With proper training, artificial intelligence could be useful in speeding up the preparation of a speech or a pitch.

Correcting grammatical and spelling mistakes
Law firms work with large amounts of text. It is not only analysed, but also produced. This is where spelling and sometimes grammar corrections are often necessary. This is too much for one person to handle, and automatic proofreaders do not always get everything right. However, today’s AI models, developed with natural language processing technology, have the capacity to deal with these errors.