Technology for Legal Practice

Lexis and Westlaw both rolled out AI research and drafting tools in 2024.

Lexis+ AI Legal Assistant

Lexis+ AI Legal Assistant is a supplemental tool that can be used as a starting point for research and drafting. Unlike public AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Lexis+ AI Legal Assistant is grounded in trusted, authoritative content. Lexis AI also provides legal citations from the Lexis database with every AI response. At this time not all of Lexis' database is accessible to the AI tool. Therefore, it can be a good starting point for research but will need to be supplemented with traditional research.  

Lexis+AI Legal Assistant can be accessed by going into Lexis and clicking on the "AI Assistant" and "AI" buttons

What can Lexis+ AI do?

Lexis+ AI can answer general and some complex legal questions, assist in drafting documents, and summarize information. All of it backed and contained within the Lexis database. Search queries and answers will be automatically saved for 30 days, although you can delete them at any time. Information that you put into Lexis+ AI Legal Assistant should be private and secure. 

Westlaw AI

Westlaw's AI program is based on the technology developed by CoCounsel, an independent leader in legal research assisted by Artificial intelligence. Westlaw acquired CoCounsel last year and is integrating the technology into Westlaw's database. 

Practical Law with AI

Practical Law is a database devoted to practitioner tools including forms, guidelines, checklists, and contract clauses. Using Westlaw's AI tool will enable users to get to these resources by asking question of the AI, which will then point the user towards relevant resources and guidance. This tool is very limited and only sits on Practical Law. It may even be easier for users who want to use Practical Law to browser their content or conduct a basic search instead. Recent queries and answers are not automatically saved, so users should copy and paste these responses to their own computer. 

CoCounsel on Westlaw

CoCounsel is coming to Westlaw in the Spring of 2025. CoCounsel was developed by Casetext to be a full-service AI assistant. It is currently unknown which CoCounsel features will be available to the Law School. Expectations are that it will include an AI research tool and AI drafting technology. To learn more about CoCounsel, you can visit the Westlaw AI website below.

Large Language Models (LLMs) have been taking the world by storm. Led by ChatGPT, these AI models produce human-like responses to questions asked of them. Some of the LLMs listed below can be tried out for free. Having trouble with some of the terms being used in the AI discussion? Check out law.com's Glossary of AI Terms:

Free Resources

Below are a few of the most popular generative AI chatbots.

Prompting

• Few Shot Prompting: Give the generative AI platform an example of the work product that you want it to produce, such as a memo, contract, letter, etc. Ask it to create a new document modeled on the example but using your new information.
• Grounded Prompting: Give it relevant source materials to work with (statutes, cases, regulations, etc.) and then ask it to summarize, interpret, or apply under specific circumstances.
• Chain of Thought: Tell it to explain what it is doing.

Context

• Avoid the tendency to be minimalistic. Provide lots of detail.
• Share the user’s role (lawyer, client, etc.). This will affect the tone and provide vastly improved results.

For Writing

• It was formerly recommended that one use it to get started, possibly to overcome writer’s block. Now it’s understood that it’s best used for a second draft. One needs to think independently for the first draft, otherwise one tends to forget there are other paths, opportunities, and alternatives.
• Start by making an outline first, then work with each section of the outline individually and fill it in over time.
  • Chunking up the assignment or problem or questions you are trying to answer is important to communicating with the generative AI program.
• Keep asking for more versions of the product that you want.
• Verify the results independently from the generative AI that you are using.
  • Use another source to verify accuracy of facts and assertions.
  • Make sure that the final product is in your voice.

Information above derived from "AI Assistance in Legal Analysis: An Empirical Study" by Jonathan Choi & Daniel Schwarcz