AI Tools for Lawyers: A Practical Guide
AI-assisted legal tools are transforming legal practice. In the March 30, 2023 working draft of their article, AI Tools for Lawyers: A Practical Guide, Daniel Schwarcz and Jonathan H. Choi provide practical guidance on how to effectively leverage freely-available AI large language models (LLMs), (like Chat-GPT or Bing Chat), to enhance legal analysis in legal research and writing.
My interest in this article is in its offering of developed generalizable strategies, with practical examples, for using AI-assisted LLM tools in legal practice now.
General Strategy; (1) Prompt & (2) Confirm
Generally the authors explain that a lawyer’s approach to using LLMs should reflect a Prompt & Confirm strategy.
(1) Prompt
Beginning with prompting, the lawyer should systematically ask the LLM “follow up questions that break down the AI’s legal analysis into constituent parts and refine its articulation of legal principles to fit the needs of the questioner”. (Pg. 4) It’s important that lawyers fight the instinct to use the targeted search queries we’ve grown accustomed to use with search engines, and instead elaborate. For example, you may instruct the LLM to respond as a specific legal author/authority, or to “apply principles from the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation” when proof reading a document. (Pg. 6). The key is to iterate, and treat the LLM as a conversational partner (Pg. 6).
(2) Confirm
After prompting, lawyers should
seek to verify the output “by requiring AIs to cite and quote from specific source
material that the lawyer directly provides to the AI” mimicking the way lawyers
cite-check other work product. (Pg. 4). This is accomplished through Chain-of-thought-prompting;
Add the phrase “think step by step” to your prompt to elicit reasoning you can
assess and respond to if an answer is inadequate or failed in some way. (Pg. 7) This assessment is especially important because LLM’s have a “tendency to
provide incorrect answers or even hallucinate source material” making some
answers appear accurate, when they are not. (Pg 8) Note: In it’s
current state, Bing Chat has a significant advantage over other LLMs because it
provides citations to source material (Pg. 10)
Practical Applications
The following are a collection of examples that practically demonstrate how lawyers can leverage LLMs by using simple prompts to strategically augment work flow.
· Direct the LLM’s assessment by copying and pasting the entire text
of the source material into your query. (Pg. 11)
o
For example:
§
Identify the
holding in the following case, which is quoted in full here: “[copy and paste
text of case in quotation marks].”
§
Evaluate what
legal issues are raised by the following fact pattern: “[Insert fact pattern]”
o
If the text
is too long, use multiple queries:
§
(1) Summarize
Part I of the following case, [Case Name], which is contained here: “[copy and
paste text of first ~2000 words Put the case in quotation marks so that GPT-4
can extract quotations from text in answering later questions].”
§
(2) Summarize
Part II of [Case Name], which is contained here: “[copy and paste text of
second portion of opinion, constituting no more than ~2000 words].”
§
(3) Now
summarize all of [Case Name] based on both Part I and Part II. (Pg. 13)
· Legal Analysis
o
In a case
analysis, ask the LLM to identify the rule or rules that the case uses:
§
What rule
does the court use to determine whether the proposal to lease was enforceable
under the doctrine of promissory estoppel? Quote directly from the case
excerpted above in your answer. (Pg. 16)
o
Direct the
LLM to perform legal analysis by directly supplying it with the relevant legal
rules or source material. (Pg. 23) For example:
§
Evaluate
whether [party] has a good promissory estoppel claim. In doing so, assume that
promissory estoppel would require [party] to show (1) a clear and definite
agreement, (2) proof the party seeking to enforce the agreement reasonably
relied upon it to his detriment, and (3) a finding that equity supports
enforcement of the agreement.
o
Better
understand the legal issue by directing the LLM to consider arguments on both
sides of the issue (Pg. 24)
§
What is the
best argument that [party 1] and [party 2] did indeed reach a clear and
definite agreement for purposes of a promissory estoppel claim against [party
2]?
§
What is the
best argument that [party 1] and [party 2] did not reach a clear and definite
agreement for purposes of a promissory estoppel claim against [party 2]?
o
Use these
answers to write an analysis of the issue based on your position: (Pg. 26)
§
Write a portion of a legal brief rejecting the
best arguments that [party 1] and [party 2] did not reach a clear and definite
agreement for purposes of a promissory estoppel claim against [party 2].
o
Develop
arguments further:
§
Further develop
the section of your prior answer arguing that the Parties' Conduct Supports the
Existence of a Clear and Definite Agreement.
o Identify and
clarify the meaning of potentially ambiguous words within a contract: (Pg. 34)
§ Identify any potentially ambiguous terms in the contract language you've already produced and generate clarifying text that eliminates those ambiguities.
|
o (i) Evaluate what legal issues are raised by the following
fact pattern: “[Insert fact Pattern]” o (ii) Evaluate whether [Party 1] and [Party 2] reached a clear
and definite agreement for purposes of a promissory estoppel claim against
[Party 2]? o (iii) Why does the court conclude that there was no clear and
definite agreement reached by the parties in the following case [Insert full
text of case, here Chiopokas]. o (iv) Argue that the facts involving the [Party 1] case are
analogous to the facts of Chipokas, such that a court should find that [Party
2] made no clear and definite agreement with [Party 1].
|
· Legal Writing
o
Use LLMs to
Generate Thesis Sentences (Pg. 31)
§
Draft a
single sentence that conveys the primary point of this paragraph: [insert
paragraph].
o
Use LLMs to
Improve Writing Flow and Remove Unnecessary Words (Pg. 31)
§
Rewrite the
following paragraph to eliminate unnecessary words, clarify how each sentence
relates to the prior sentence, and increase readability: [Insert your own
paragraph].
o
Use LLMs to Produce
Initial Contracts Drafts (Pg. 31)
§
Draft a
contract that meets the following parameters: [Insert deal terms for contract]
§
Pattern the
contract draft in this case on the following sample contract: [Insert precedent
contract].
 | AI Tools for Lawyers: A Practical Guide Daniel Schwarcz, Jonathan H. Choi Posted: 14 Apr 2023, 35 pages Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4404017 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4404017 |
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