These conversations are more important than ever as generative AI becomes more widely implemented across the legal industry. As our customers鈥� 鈥� and their clients鈥� 鈥� expectations change, it鈥檚 crucial that we鈥檙e closely aligned with their collective needs.听听

With this mind, 成人VR视频 and Lexpert hosted a featuring law firm leaders and industry experts discussing the challenges and trends around the use of generative AI in the legal profession.鈥疊elow are insights from an engaging and informative discussion.听

Lawyers are excited to implement generative AI solutions听

Law firms may not have a reputation as early adopters of technology, yet many firms are already using generative AI solutions. David Cohen, senior director, client service delivery, McCarthy T茅trault, noted his firm鈥檚 response when it rolled out CoCounsel, the professional-grade GenAI assistant, a year ago. 鈥�听

鈥�鈥淲e put a call out for people to sign up and get a license, and the 175 seats were immediately filled,鈥� Cohen said. 鈥淭here was a wait list where people were pleading to get access to the tool 鈥� there鈥檚 certainly a lot of interest and excitement at our firm.鈥濃��听

Panelists noted how firms are increasingly implementing AI for drafting legal documents as well as for predictive analytics and other complex tasks.听

Cohen said McCarthy T茅trault is using AI for higher-value work, including in litigation matters to scan data troves and identify where the firm has been successful in the past. 鈥�听

鈥�鈥淲e鈥檙e very interested in how we get a strategic advantage,鈥� Cohen said. 鈥淲hat arguments were used, what makes for a successful pleading 鈥� that鈥檚 something we can leverage.鈥� 鈥�听

鈥�Rikin Morzaria, principal at Kinara Law, said he鈥檚 鈥渆xperimenting with and finding solutions that work long term,鈥� including using AI for advanced tasks such as drafting memos or reviewing his own work to identify potential areas for improvement.听

鈥�鈥淚 treat it as something that would be submitted by a student or an intern, that needs to be reviewed again,鈥� Morzaria said. 鈥淚t ultimately produces a better product for me in the end.鈥�听

鈥�Unfounded concerns about robot lawyers听

Panelists shared their perspectives on generative AI solutions augmenting, not replacing, humans.听

鈥淎I doesn鈥檛 have human insight or instincts, it doesn鈥檛 know the client, it 肠补苍鈥檛 read a room,鈥� said Valerie McConnell, senior director of CoCounsel Customer Success at 成人VR视频. 鈥淗ow lawyers allocate their time will shift: the hope and expectation is when we clear their plates, they鈥檒l have the space to think about strategic angles.鈥�听

鈥�This brought up how firms鈥� use of AI is changing talent management. Cohen noted that McCarthy T茅trault revamped its training program to incorporate the integration of AI into its workflows and processes.听

鈥�鈥淗aving best-in-class prompts that are shared and available to our lawyers is something we certainly weren鈥檛 discussing a couple years ago,鈥� Cohen said. 鈥�听

鈥�Changing billing practices and elevating services听

Panelists noted that generative AI is changing how lawyers bill their clients. They discussed an example of litigators relying more on flat-fee billing because they know they can handle certain aspects of a matter more quickly. 鈥�听

鈥�鈥淵our time in a discovery, trial, or mediation won鈥檛 change, but a lot of that time leading up to it will,鈥� Morzaria said. 鈥淭hat allows you to work more efficiently and take on work that may not have been feasible before.鈥� 鈥�听

Panelists also shared how generative AI is helping firms elevate their services. They called out how firms in the litigation space are using it to surface key鈥痚vidence, while firms on the transactional side are using it for contract review.听听

Managing and mitigating risks听

Panelists discussed how firms are addressing concerns around emerging technologies including accuracy and privacy. Cohen noted firms are focusing on 鈥渁chieving the right balance where we鈥檙e generating benefits for our clients but also managing and mitigating the risks.鈥澨�听

McConnell emphasized that AI is not a replacement for a lawyer鈥檚 oversight. She recommended that firms create an AI policy, use a secure software platform that allows lawyers to easily verify output and doesn鈥檛 train on firm data, and provide employee training on responsible AI use. 鈥�听

Generative AI is shaping the future of law, and its impact on the legal profession will be even greater in 2025 and beyond. As the market matures, legal professionals will not just desire but require AI capabilities for their workflows.鈥疘nnovative firms at the forefront, including Kinara Law and McCarthy T茅trault, are best positioned to capitalize on the potential of this transformative technology to better serve their clients.听

鈥�Check out highlights of the panelists鈥� conversation and listen to their full discussion .听

This is a guest post from Raghu Ramanathan, president, Legal Professionals, 成人VR视频.听

The generative AI-driven solution enables UK legal professionals to find the best starting point from their own databases or Practical Law templates, use content from Practical Law alongside their legal department鈥檚 or firm鈥檚 contract repository to draft or revise clauses, leverage Practical Law contract playbooks, and correct common drafting errors. It uses AI to refine and review documents, producing more accurate, higher-quality work 鈥� without leaving Microsoft Word.

I recently shared a CoCounsel Drafting demo with 鈥檚 Richard Tromans.

鈥淭he offering has been especially shaped for legal needs here and will directly engage with TR鈥檚 contract data in Practical Law,鈥� Tromans said in .

I highlighted CoCounsel Drafting capabilities and features for Tromans, and we discussed how 鈥淟LM-supported drafting could be truly transformative.鈥� We talked about how users will be able to use the large language model (LLM) to modify a clause, for example, and how CoCounsel Drafting uses generative AI grounded in retrieval augmented generation (RAG) to access听Practical Law content and notes.

We also discussed how CoCounsel Drafting delivers a level of detail similar to what a junior associate may produce when asked to draft a contract. I noted that CoCounsel Drafting allows customers to use their own playbook to draft a preferred set of terms for any contract type or use a Practical Law playbook for a range of popular contract types.

Finally, Tromans and I discussed integrations 鈥� with HighQ and with document management systems (DMS) including iManage 鈥� as well as security.

On the other side of the pond, U.S. customer feedback on CoCounsel Drafting, which we introduced earlier this year, has been overwhelmingly positive. I hope that UK legal professionals are equally pleased with the time savings and productivity increases CoCounsel Drafting offers.

As a former lawyer turned AI product leader, I’ve lived the pain of tedious legal tasks firsthand. That’s why I’m passionate about harnessing generative AI to transform legal drafting. I know how much time and energy gets wasted on repetitive tasks, taking away from the work that really matters. Now, I’m excited to help lawyers reclaim that time and focus on what they love 鈥� whether that’s helping clients, developing strategy, or simply enjoying a better work-life balance.

You can learn more about CoCounsel Drafting , and check out Tromans鈥� blog .

This is a guest post from Rawia Ashraf, vice president of Product Management, 成人VR视频.

LLMs for professional-grade AI solutions must be tailored with the right mix of data sources and go through a rigorous data architecture process. For enterprise tasks, developers need specialized data plus domain expertise to organize it in such a way that the eventual outputs will be helpful for end-user professionals. Developing a tool for accountants or tax attorneys, for example, involves gathering a wide array of tax codes, regulatory filings, legal interpretations, and more as well as integrating and standardizing this data into a format that LLMs can digest.

As I recently shared in , getting raw data to a place where it can be used to power a generative AI solution requires two steps: grounding and the human factor. Grounding is like giving an LLM a specialized education 鈥� analogous to an individual going from an undergrad degree to law school 鈥� by augmenting it with use-case-specific information. Human experts, of course, are irreplaceable when it comes to domain expertise, which is essential for creating industry-specific LLMs.

Leading the Technology Services team of engineers at 成人VR视频 is an incredibly rewarding experience. We tackle the unique challenges of creating professional-grade AI solutions that meet the high standards of accuracy and reliability demanded by legal and tax professionals.

Our team is deeply committed to bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and specialized domain knowledge. We understand that our work doesn’t just involve writing code or developing algorithms; it’s about empowering professionals with tools that enhance their expertise and efficiency. Guiding this team has shown me the impact that thoughtful, well-crafted AI can have in transforming the way professionals work, and it reinforces our dedication to continuous innovation in this space.

Check out my article to learn more about the need for data curation and data stewardship in developing professional-grade AI solutions.

This is a guest post from Noah Pruzek, head of Technology Systems, 成人VR视频.

Below, CJ Lechtenberg, senior director, Westlaw Product Management, 成人VR视频, shares her insights on developing Mischaracterization Identification, a generative AI capability to help detect mischaracterizations and omissions in legal briefs.

In the five years since Quick Check was introduced, you鈥檝e added many enhancements including Quick Check Contrary Authority Identification, Quick Check Judicial and Quick Check Quotation Analysis. How did integrating generative AI make the Mischaracterization Identification enhancement different than previous ones?

Lechtenberg: This enhancement takes researchers beyond the step of knowing what might be a potential mischaracterization to an explanation of why something might be a potential mischaracterization 鈥� and that is radically different from any feature we鈥檝e deployed in Quick Check before.

I鈥檓 sure it鈥檒l come as no surprise when I say that generative AI is just a completely different beast. Lay people may think about the law as being black and white.听You can do this; you 肠补苍鈥檛 do that.听But legal professionals know that the law is really a sea of varying shades of gray. With machine learning, we wrestled with how we could ever give the machine enough data to figure out all the different ways an attorney may mischaracterize the law.

In Quick Check Quotation Analysis prior to the Mischaracterization Identification enhancement, we highlighted the actual textual differences 鈥� additions, omissions, and changes 鈥� in the quotations and showed the context around the quotes.听Doing so certainly saved researchers a significant amount of time and helped them spot issues they might not otherwise find, but the onus was still on researchers to review everything and determine what the precise differences were and how material they might be, if at all.听Even with the additional context provided, it could still be difficult to determine whether the quotations were taken out of context, especially if the quotes themselves didn鈥檛 appear to be different.

In developing Mischaracterization Identification, we recognized that the task of analyzing quotations and their context is so nuanced that attorneys will have different expectations for whether a mischaracterization occurred, so we needed to provide more than just categorizations. We found that large language models (LLMs) can generate nuanced descriptions of potential mischaracterizations, versus just explicit categorizations, and do it well, which is hugely beneficial for this type of task.

How will using Mischaracterization Identification give legal professionals and law firms a competitive advantage? How will judges using it benefit?听

Lechtenberg: The advantages of using the new Mischaracterization Identification are substantial for both legal professionals and the judiciary 鈥� both in terms of speed of review and quality of work product.听When we launched Quick Check Quotation Analysis in 2020, customers, both legal professionals and the judiciary, lamented about how time-consuming it is for them to review quotations and how challenging it is to spot differences. It is a mentally taxing task and often our brains fill in the blanks 鈥� interpreting what we think a brief maybe should say but actually doesn鈥檛.听 Attorneys never have a surplus of time, so the last thing they want to do is spend the little bit they have on the most tedious of tasks and still end up missing potential problems.

For attorneys, Mischaracterization Identification will help them efficiently and accurately make contextual misstatement and omission determinations for their opponents鈥� and their own quotations and the context surrounding those quotations. The fear of missing their own mistakes is very real for attorneys, but the possibility of missing the opportunity to capitalize on their opponents鈥� mistakes is an even larger concern. This new enhancement reduces both of those worries and will help attorneys be even better advocates for their clients.

Judges will also be able to effectively review the filings of parties in matters before them much faster. Attorneys owe a duty of candor to the judiciary and the Mischaracterization Identification feature will help flag any potential issues quickly. An added benefit, which members of the judiciary or their staff perhaps haven鈥檛 considered, is the ability to analyze their own orders and opinions to ensure that they haven鈥檛 made mistakes that could be appealed. This new enhancement will help alert judges and law clerks to potential issues before they finalize their opinions.

What early feedback are you hearing from customers?

Lechtenberg: In a recent survey, 93% of law firm professionals told us they鈥檝e seen opposing counsel misuse a quotation, 66% said they鈥檝e seen misrepresentations by an associate or colleague, and 65% of corporate respondents said they check the accuracy of outside counsel鈥檚 quotations.听The need to review opposing counsels鈥� and colleagues鈥� briefs for mischaracterizations of the law is still a very real issue for attorneys. Likewise, attorneys have said they鈥檙e always concerned about the accuracy of their work and that maintaining their reputation as a credible litigator with courts and opposing counsel is incredibly important.

Customers are extremely excited about this new Quick Check enhancement to help combat these concerns and we鈥檝e received positive feedback from them.听One law firm managing partner stated that they would use this tool a lot.听They cite-check their opponents鈥� briefs, so any shortcuts are beneficial to them. They recognize that most of the time, errors are harmless, but occasionally there are things they want to bring to the court鈥檚 attention and this feature will help them spot those issues more quickly and accurately.

Another law firm partner said this new feature is the 鈥渦ltimate security blanket鈥� because everything attorneys do is based on their credibility, and this feature alerting them to quotes being taken out of context before filing with the court would calm some of those fears.

Any surprising or unexpected moments as the team worked on developing or launching Mischaracterization Identification?

Lechtenberg: The fact that we鈥檝e accomplished this now with the use of LLMs is exciting, a little surprising and a long time coming. I鈥檓 an attorney who leads a team of attorneys; we鈥檙e literally trained to question everything and have a healthy dose of skepticism.听But I have been dreaming about a mischaracterization identification feature in Quick Check ever since we developed Quotation Analysis more than five years ago. At my core, I believed someday this could be achieved, but for years traditional machine learning approaches were just not powerful or nuanced enough to do it well.

Leveraging LLMs for a use case like this is a new frontier like we鈥檝e never seen before.听The LLM鈥檚 ability to analyze text from an uploaded document and compare that text to the text from the cited case used to support the argument and then go beyond highlighting textual differences and provide an actual explanation of what may be problematic 鈥� whether that鈥檚 a selective quote, omitted context or a misinterpreted holding 鈥� has been absolutely astounding.

What鈥檚 the one thing you want everyone to know about Mischaracterization Identification?

Lechtenberg: Mischaracterization Identification will not only help researchers spot contextual misstatements and omissions in their opponents鈥� or their own quotations and contextual statements faster and with more accuracy, but most importantly it will help them understand why those misstatements or omissions may be problematic. And, spoiler alert: Mischaracterization Identification is just the beginning of how 成人VR视频 will harness the power of generative AI in Quick Check to solve important customer problems.

For more on Mischaracterization Identification, read the press release or check out the by Mike Dahn, head of Westlaw Product Management, 成人VR视频.

To address customers鈥� pain points, my team has spent the last year improving useability for both complex and simple contracts by using the power of generative AI. Now that Contract Express customers are using our innovative solution, I wanted to share how it鈥檚 helping legal professionals better support their clients.

Document automation challenges

For context, lawyers routinely draft similar types of contracts, so they create templates that can be easily updated with customer-specific data like names and addresses. Document automation is about making it quicker and easier for legal professionals to create and update these templates for every case.

Yet a frustration with document automation is that it鈥檚 time-consuming to manually create and customize contract templates. It requires a human author to enter code or syntax into a document, line-by-line.听The manual process leaves room for error, and errors can lead to compliance risk.

How generative AI is revolutionizing document automation

This is where generative AI is changing the game. We鈥檝e found that generative AI makes document automation听significantly听faster!

With the power of generative AI, Contract Express can now work much faster than human authors to generate documents. It eliminates the need to manually enter code; generative AI does the work, dramatically simplifying the authoring process. We estimate that a three-page contract takes about 30 to 60 minutes to complete manually, but Contract Express can automate that contract in about two minutes.

Customers who participated in our beta program were pleased with the time-savings our automation delivered. A senior developer at a large UK law firm told us that document automation takes 鈥渢he drudgery out of that first-stage creation.鈥�

A director at a UK-based legal automation consultancy said Contract Express 鈥渨as noticeably different in terms of the sophistication in听the suggested fields,鈥� compared to other document automation offerings, and would save time, 鈥渆specially where you have听a听document where there听are听a lot of obvious questions.”

My team and I are incredibly proud of this innovation, and I鈥檓 grateful to my colleagues for working so hard to make this happen for our customers.

Generative AI-powered document automation is available to Contract Express Cloud and HighQ customers.听CoCounsel Drafting听customers who also subscribe to Contract Express can access this functionality within CoCounsel Drafting in the United States; in the UK, CoCounsel Drafting will be available in Q4. Practical Law customers should have access by the end of 2024.

This is a guest post from Mark Cullen, senior director, Product Management, 成人VR视频.

What truly stood out to me at ILTACON was the energy and enthusiasm of the event. I was struck by how the collaborative atmosphere among attendees 鈥� ranging from seasoned legal professionals to tech enthusiasts 鈥� created an enriching environment for knowledge exchange and networking.

The conference center was brimming with excited representatives from law firms and vendors showcasing innovative solutions. Everyone was grappling with how 鈥� and when 鈥� generative AI could transform the practice of law.

The insightful sessions on cybersecurity, data privacy, and the future of legal tech trends provided valuable takeaways that are likely to shape the industry in the coming years. Overall, the conference underscored the rapid advancements and the pivotal role of technology in transforming the legal landscape.

CIO insights

I moderated a among G100 and G200 CIOs. The CIOs discussed the evolving role of the document management system, the opportunity for generative AI to drive efficiency improvements now and in the future, the evolving expectations of corporate law departments, and data security practices.

Audience attendees seemed especially interested in the tenor of the conversation around transformative AI solutions. One of the CIOs said that his firm was using CoCounsel as its AI assistant and that lawyers at the firm were eager adopters. He mentioned wanting to buy more seats. That was a fun moment for me!

CoCounsel 2.0

We hosted a number of extremely well-attended events, including customer dinners, an appreciation event, and other celebrations. The opportunity to share perspectives and learn from law firms was invaluable.

I was thrilled to see that the announcement of CoCounsel 2.0 seemed to generate the most excitement among product news. Jake Heller, head of Product for CoCounsel, 成人VR视频, showcased a side-by-side view on the speed of the application, highlighting how CoCounsel 2.0 moves more than 3 times faster than the current version CoCounsel Core. After customers saw that, they were clamoring for access.

On a personal level, I enjoyed seeing so many former colleagues and peers. The legal community is a tight-knit group. It was amazing to walk the halls of the conference centers and catch up with so many great people.

Check out other 成人VR视频听ILTACON recaps, including the legal industry鈥檚 reaction to the听launch of CoCounsel 2.0. and highlights from the 听鈥淗ow Today鈥檚 Lawyers Are Enhancing Their Practice with AI鈥� session.