Artificial Intelligence And How Your Lawyer May (Or May Not) Use It

AI seems to be everywhere these days, so it’s probably not surprising that AI is playing a growing role in law firms of all sizes. You’ve probably heard news stories about lawyers getting in trouble for misusing AI, mostly by not checking on the results it provides. But AI can add real value to legal work, by freeing lawyers from repetitive tasks, analyzing document pools to identify key points that might otherwise get lost in the noise, and otherwise streamlining legal work.

Whether and how your lawyer knows how to make the best use of AI—and when not to rely on it—can affect the progress of your case.

If you are a current or potential client, you deserve a straight answer to a simple question: is AI involved in my case, and if so, what does that mean for me?

Every law firm is different, both in how it approaches AI and in how far along it is in adapting its processes to integrate AI, but here are some general areas in which AI is making inroads, and a little bit of insight into how Miller Law Group approaches AI.

Research

Legal research has always been a large part of a lawyer’s job, especially for litigation. It’s also the area where AI has the most established presence. Legal research databases, like Westlaw and Lexis Nexis, have built their own versions of AI-powered search engines to help researchers mine their resources more effectively. Think of these tools like Google’s search AI, but focused on legal issues. These tools are used daily by paralegals, attorneys, and judges and their clerks.

Unlike Google, ChatGPT, or other public AIs, AI-powered research platforms are “closed environments”: they limit their reach to the resources available on the hosting platform. They won’t search the whole internet for an answer, and they’re not supposed to create original material. But just like the summarized search results offered by Google’s AI, these AI-powered search engines are not 100% accurate. Users must review the material provided by the AI directly to make sure the bot got it right.

Miller Law Group’s lawyers use these tools frequently, as a way to launch a search or quickly identify key cases. But AI-generated search results are never the final step. Beyond just checking the bot’s results, we use those results as a springboard to create more focused searches and search terms to get us to the answer we need more quickly. We always check our results and we never base an answer, to a client, a court, or anyone else, on unvetted search results.

Drafting

Law is, in some ways, very predictable. Every case, circumstance and set of facts is  unique, but the method of delivery is almost always the same. Lawsuits all follow the same broad procedural path, and even startlingly new arguments and agreements must be presented in specific forms and formats.

AI-powered drafting tools can help ensure consistency in standardized documents and relieve lawyers and paralegals of repetitive drafting tasks. Your attorney may use an AI tool to help build out a form or create a template, or even to create a document from scratch. This approach can cut down on the drafting time, freeing the lawyer for more critical tasks.

But, here again, AI is far from perfect. Any AI-drafted document must be closely reviewed—just as if it had been written by a junior staff member—for writing style and presentation as well as accuracy. Your attorney’s expertise in identifying the critical issues in a specific document or crafting the exact argument that will win the case cannot be replaced by AI.

At Miller Law Group, we limit our use of AI drafting to very basic documents that we then review and edit. Often, those documents are reviewed by more than one person. For instance, a paralegal may use an AI drafting tool, review and revise the result, and then forward the edited document to an attorney for review. We use only closed universe drafting tools, so the AI uses only the information we provide it and that information does not become part of a public AI’s training set. As with research, no document leaves our offices without having been reviewed and verified by at least one human being.

Discovery

Discovery is the process in which the parties to a lawsuit exchange information and documents, so that everyone has the same facts as the case moves toward settlement or trial.

AI can be hugely useful in discovery, especially in cases involving very large amounts of information. An AI-powered discovery platform can conduct direct searches to identify the specific documents that are relevant to a particular issue, summarize long documents to allow attorneys to focus on the key points, and help sift out the truly important evidence from the volumes of less critical materials.

Discovery AIs are generally embedded within purpose-built platforms created specifically for discovery processes. They are by default closed environment AIs, focused only on the body of documents and other kinds of evidence given to them. And because they are summarizing or analyzing documents given to them, using search terms and other prompts designed specifically for that set of information, they are both more limited and more reliable than other, more general AIs. However, an attorney or paralegal still must review the documents underlying summaries or identified by searches, and a cursory review of documents may still be necessary to ensure the AI doesn’t miss anything.

At Miller Law Group, we invests in AI-powered discovery tools when the amount of information and the value of the case warrants the investment. We select and validate vendors for this service carefully, and ensure the AI is backed up by focused attorney attention to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

The Bottom Line

What AI has changed for the practice of law is the volume of material that can be reviewed and the speed at which lawyers and paralegals can identify critical issues. But reviewing something is not the same as understanding it. Understanding the is not the same as advising you on it. And advising you on it requires knowing not just the law, but you—your goals, your risk tolerance, and what a good outcome actually looks like for you. Only your lawyer can do that.

At Miller Law Group, we will never rely on AI to make judgment calls. We will never send you work that has not been reviewed and approved by an actual attorney (or, where appropriate, a paralegal). We will always be able to explain why we are advising you the way we are because we understand your situation and the law that will help.

The legal profession is built on trust, and trust is earned through accountability. No AI tool is accountable to you. We are.