Technology for Legal Practice

Lexis and Westlaw are both rolling out AI research and drafting tools in 2024. Lexis+ AI is the first to be released and is already available to all faculty and to our upper-class students. 1Ls will be getting access on February 9. Westlaw will be rolling out its AI platform in two stages. The first stage is adding AI assistance to Practical Law which will be released on January 24. Then West will be releasing an AI assistant to its main database, Westlaw Precision, sometime later this semester. 

Lexis+ AI

Lexis+ AI is a supplemental tool that can be used as an efficient starting point for research and drafting. Unlike public AI tools such as ChatGPT, Lexis+ AI is grounded in trusted, authoritative content and provides hallucination-free legal citations all from within Lexis' own database. 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 can be accessed by going into Lexis and clicking on the nine-dots symbol in the top left corner and the selecting "Lexis+ AI"

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. 

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. Westlaw will be releasing two different AI tools in the coming months. For more specific info, please see the link to Thomson Reuters' AI technologies below. 

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. 

Westlaw Precision with AI

Westlaw Precision is the main research database of Westlaw. It will be available sometime in the Spring of 2024 and should boast many of the same features as Lexis+ AI. 

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. They are poised to re-shape the world and the legal field in particular. Some of those 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