By: Aaron Eberle The spring and summer buying season is in full bloom in the American real estate industry, a time of year when lawyers who advise clients in real estate transactions tend to be busier...
The arrival of Pride Month in June is an annual reminder of the importance of workforce diversity and creating a safe place for people of all backgrounds to contribute to the success of their organizations...
By Elias Kahn | LexisNexis Practical Guidance The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finally delivered on a long-awaited order when it issued a final rule on April 23, 2024, that bans most noncompete agreements...
In-house counsel are faced with a dizzying array of labor and employment law issues on a regular basis, but one of them stands out by far as the source of the biggest headaches that keep them up at night...
By: Karen Hay The foundation of accurate legal research is ensuring that your citations are good law. Citing outdated, overruled or irrelevant cases not only weakens your credibility and undermines your...
By Geoffrey D. Ivnik, Esq. | Director of Large Markets, LexisNexis
Legal AI — Gen AI tools trained for the legal profession — is transforming the practice of law right now, enabling lawyers at firms who are adopting these tools to draft legal documents faster than ever, according to panelists at one of the featured sessions during a recent Wall Street Journal event for law firm managing partners that was sponsored by LexisNexis.
“Generative AI creates efficiencies, it allows for automation, it essentially allows us to do what we as lawyers want to do more than anything else, which is really excel at the expert judgment layer and application of how we work,” said Ilona Logvinova, managing counsel and head of innovation for McKinsey Legal. “The question is, where can you inject automation into your workflow as lawyers?”
New survey data illustrates that law firm leaders are already moving down this road by leveraging Gen AI for improved legal drafting support.
The LexisNexis 2024 Investing in Legal Innovation Survey: The Rise of Gen AI at Top Firms & Corporations, surveyed managing partners and other senior leaders at large law firms, as well as executives in corporate legal departments at Fortune 1000 companies, to better understand the business impact of Gen AI technology on the legal industry. Our survey found that 39% of law firm leaders named “drafting documents” as one of the ways their firms plan to use AI technology, the third most popular use case cited.
The panelists at the Wall Street Journal event noted that Legal AI delivers tremendous new efficiencies in legal drafting but does not substitute technology in the place of humans. Rather, it serves as a drafting assistant and merely modifies the lawyer’s role from being a “drafter” to being an “editor” of form-driven legal documents by providing them with a much better starting point.
For example, a Legal AI tool can instantly produce rough drafts of legal memos, cease and desist letters, contract clauses and client communications — all from a simple initial user prompt — that are grounded in authoritative legal content. In essence, the Gen AI technology helps to reduce the manual work involved in creating these documents and then allows the lawyer to apply their reasoning and legal judgment to refine the final product.
“Clients hire an attorney for the attorney’s knowledge, experience, and ability to interpret and apply legal precedent,” said Joel Murray, an attorney with McKean Smith in Portland, Oregon. “If properly developed, AI can be another means by which attorneys can increase their productivity and obtain optimal results for clients.”
A growing number of law firms are making investments now in Gen AI tools built specifically for the legal profession. Our 2024 Investing in Legal Innovation Survey: The Rise of Gen AI at Top Firms & Corporations found that 53% of Am Law 200 firms have already purchased Legal AI tools and that 45% of Am Law 200 firms are using Gen AI now for legal matters.
This article was based on one of the panel discussions at the Wall Street Journal event, “What Every Managing Partner & C-Suite Leader Needs to Know About Legal AI,” which took place on January 31st in New York City. Watch the entire session, Navigating Opportunities: Finding Benefits in AI Growth, for more insights from industry leaders.