Artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for many years, but only recently have legal professionals been working to diligently and ethically integrate it into the way they work. At this point, it’s not so much a question of whether AI should be used in legal work but how it can be effectively used.
To illustrate this, a 2023 survey conducted by Bloomberg Law found that a majority of law firms (53%) are having internal discussions about how to better understand AI and incorporate it into their practice of law. In other words, AI in the legal industry is here to stay.
This is precisely why tools like LexCheck now exist to assist those in the legal profession with their work. But if you’re currently unsure about legal AI technologies, you’ll want to read on.
In this article, we’ll cover the AI systems for legal services and how lawyers are implementing them effectively.
AI tools utilize different algorithms to analyze large volumes of datasets they receive, from which they can classify and predict information.
Most AI tools that are used for legal purposes fall under one of the following sub-branches of AI:
Generative AI creates content called “output” that can take the form of text, coding, or images. This output is generated in response to input (or a prompt) that a user creates and sends the AI. The output that a generative AI model creates in response to the input is created based on the patterns it has identified from datasets as described above.
Generative AI has become much more sophisticated since its inception. It can create a variety of content including blog posts, essays, software code, poetry, and legal documentation and casework.
The most famous generative AI model is ChatGPT, which is a chatbot released in late 2022 by OpenAI. But beyond GPT, there are several generative AI tools made specifically for legal work.
Another subset of AI you may have heard about is NLP or natural language processing. NLP helps computers to read text or listen to words and then understand what is being written or spoken about.
This may sound like exactly what people do on a daily basis. The difference is that NLP trains computers to analyze massive volumes of data to identify patterns. From there, software trained with NLP can determine which parts of that data are important.
When it comes to practicing law, NLP training is like law school for software, which can then be used to assist lawyers, paralegals, and even law students. LexCheck, for instance, commonly uses NLP for tasks such as contract analysis and document review. More on this below.
Another branch of AI that is commonly used by law firms is machine learning or ML. ML-based software applications focus on taking existing data and algorithms to help AI learn about the way humans learn.
Then, the software can automate routine tasks that would otherwise take legal professionals days, if not weeks, to complete, such as analyzing legal contracts to extract important data.
The short answer is yes, it absolutely can. There are several good reasons why those in the legal profession are incorporating AI-powered tools and software into their legal work.
But perhaps the three biggest reasons are:
How exactly can lawyers utilize AI to aid them in their legal work so they can achieve some of the benefits listed above? Currently, legal professionals utilize AI in many specific areas of their work.
The following are some of the most common ways that lawyers are taking advantage of new technology:
In this same vein, something else AI can do is scan and compare different documents for any differentiations. Lawyers may need to do this if there are similar documents but different clauses or case specifics between those documents.
Again, the best part is that AI can do this literally in a matter of seconds.
AI-powered contract review software can evaluate every contract and catch deviations from your preferred positions in seconds. For instance, LexCheck identifies potentially problematic contract language and explains why it requires attention.
LLM-powered playbooks are trained on the most common provisions and are ready to use on virtually every contract type. Get started with your custom playbook in minutes by simply uploading your template and your preferred positions are automatically captured.
This level of automation allows for contract review in significantly less time than doing so manually. This frees up the legal team's time for more in-depth work and client relations.
In general, law firms have been moving away from paper documents and to electronic documents for a while. However, electronic document storage can present just as many issues as storing hard copies of documents.
Even though electronic documents take up significantly less physical space, it can still be enormously challenging to sort through and organize them. This is where AI can come into play.
Lawyers can use AI-powered document management software to organize different kinds of legal documents (including case files, contracts, or email communication with clients or other teams) via tagging or automation.
For example, lawyers can fill out form fields from their case records into templates generated by AI-powered software. This functionality offers lawyers a centralized strategy for managing their documents.
Furthermore, AI can also improve the security of electronic legal files by establishing check-in and check-out privileges to maintain control over who has access. They can also easily link up with existing document workflows, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Office, to facilitate easy file sharing amongst other members of your legal team.
Perhaps the easiest and most straightforward use of AI in law firms is e-discovery, or the process of scanning through digital data to obtain any specific information that is relevant to a case.
Lawyers can use AI-powered discovery software to search digital documents for specific terms or content that falls within specific parameters, such as any information relating to a person, a date, or a location. What’s more, AI can also search for relevant information in video and audio files, as well as from social media and websites.
Thanks to how quickly AI can scan the data or documents and provide responses, lawyers can save several hours worth of time that would have been otherwise spent on doing this work themselves.
Another important use of AI for lawyers is legal research. They can use AI-powered software to quickly scan through several large databases to receive the relevant information they need on a particular case.
For instance, a lawyer may be well-versed in US federal or a specific state’s laws but might not be familiar with another state’s laws. If they typically practice in New York but their case involves or interacts with the state of California, AI can quickly inform them of any relevant information about state or local regulations, statutes, or relevant past cases and their outcomes.
As a result, lawyers won’t just become more knowledgeable about the law as it pertains to a case but will also become more familiar with legal precedent as it pertains to case law. And while lawyers are certainly more than capable of conducting this research themselves, AI will save them a significant amount of time.
Last but not least, AI tools can extensively research past cases involving similar legal issues to the one a lawyer is working on now. Then the AI could provide anything that would be pertinent to the new case, such a past precedent or a little known law that was not otherwise protected. Lawyers can then draft new documents based on the data that was collected here.
To be clear, AI will not be replacing lawyers anytime soon. But the right AI-powered tools like LexCheck can work wonders to help lawyers work more efficiently by saving them countless hours on remedial tasks that they can then spend working on their cases or with their clients.
Sources:
AI Tools for Lawyers: A Practical Guide | Bloomberg Law
What is generative AI? | IBM Research
What is Machine Learning and How Does It Work? In-Depth Guide
What Is E-Discovery? Definition & How it Works | Proofpoint US