The legal industry is witnessing a seismic shift as artificial intelligence (AI) revolutionizes how legal professionals carry out their daily tasks.
From enhancing legal research and document drafting to streamlining contract review and client communication, legal AI tools unlock immense potential, allowing lawyers to focus on more complex tasks and client interactions.
In this blog post, we will explore the top legal AI tools of 2023, their features, and the impact of AI on the legal industry. Discover how AI integration in law firms can streamline administrative tasks, enhance client communication, and provide valuable insights through data analysis and pattern recognition.
How You can use AI tools in the Legal industry
There are several everyday use cases:
- Optimizing the document review process
- Minimizing the risk of human error
- Enabling attorneys to classify documents expeditiously
- Recognizing pertinent information
- Prioritizing document review based on importance
With the help of AI, legal professionals can focus on more critical aspects of their work, such as client interactions and strategic decision-making.
Enhanced Legal Research
AI tools enable lawyers to quickly and accurately find relevant laws, statutes, and regulations, improving the quality and efficiency of their research.
One such prominent tool is Casetext, established in 2013, which utilizes artificial intelligence to assist lawyers in locating relevant case law, statutes, and regulations in a timely and effective manner.
Another AI-powered legal research platform, Astria, offers advanced search capabilities, including concept and citation searches.
Efficient Document Drafting
AI tools speed up the preparation of the legal documents process and enable professionals to draft legal documents more efficiently by suggesting pertinent clauses, contrasting them with existing contracts, and verifying legal standards compliance.
LinkSquares, for instance, provides customizable templates, dynamic workflows, real-time visibility, and contract execution in seconds, among other features.
PatentPal, another AI-driven tool, saves lawyers time and effort in drafting patent applications through automated mechanical writing and generating specifications and figures with a single click.
Improved Contract Review
AI-enhanced contract review tools have emerged as a game-changer in the legal industry. By identifying key terms, clauses, and potential risks, these tools allow lawyers to prioritize their review and make informed decisions.
Maigon AI provides document-specific contract review modules and a contract type-agnostic API, allowing it to review contracts from different angles and generate immediate compliance reports with extracted clauses, concepts, terms, identified risks, and compliance suggestions.
Another AI tool, Diligen, streamlines contract review by leveraging machine learning-powered analysis to accurately identify specific clauses, provisions, or changes and promptly produce a summary.
Top AI Legal Assistant Tools for 2023
This section will delve into the leading AI legal assistant tools for 2023. They include:
- Casetext
- Westlaw Edge
- Latch
- Paralegal AI
- Avokaado
Each tool brings unique features and capabilities, making them invaluable assets for law firms and legal professionals seeking to stay ahead of the curve.
Casetext
Casetext's CoCounsel is an AI legal assistant that performs tasks such as:
- Document review
- Legal research memos
- Deposition preparation
- Contract analysis
It delivers trusted results in minutes. Using AI and machine learning, CoCounsel can provide lawyers with critical insights and analysis, ensuring their legal strategies are well-informed and practical.
Casetext allows easy integration with Clio, a leading legal practice management platform. This feature enables legal professionals to initiate tailored legal research directly from their Clio dashboard and save their research to the relevant matter.
With CoCounsel, lawyers can access a wealth of legal knowledge and resources at their fingertips, ensuring they receive up-to-date and accurate information to support their cases.
There are two main subscription models: Basic Research, which allows you to search the law and your documents, and CoCounsel, the AI legal assistant that helps lawyers research, review, and draft with superhuman speed.
Pricing
Basic research $220 per month
CoCounsel - $500 per month.
Westlaw Edge
Westlaw Edge is a comprehensive legal research service that offers advanced search capabilities and data analysis tools, making it a valuable resource for legal professionals.
Though it may be expensive, the benefits of using Westlaw Edge are undeniable. By providing easy access to relevant legal information, it allows lawyers to:
- Stay informed and make well-informed decisions
- Use advanced search capabilities and data analysis tools to conduct thorough research
- Identify trends and develop effective legal strategies
They offer products such as Westlaw Precision, Westlaw Edge, and Westlaw Classic.
- Westlaw Classic provides comprehensive legal research with a reliable citator, KeyCite.
- Westlaw Edge offers intelligent insights, AI-enhanced reports, and data-driven insights for legal professionals.
- Westlaw Precision is known for innovative capabilities that speed up case research.
There are also three main groups of users
- Law firms
- General Counsel
- Government
Westlaw Edge offers a free 7-day trial.
Pricing
Law firms start from $148 per user
General Counsel start from $523.80
Government - $104.65
Latch
Latch is an AI contracting assistant that reduces negotiating time, effort, and cost. Powered by GPT-4, a large language model created by OpenAI, Latch assists with tasks such as generating redline suggestions, determining if clauses are market standard and modifying clauses.
Latch lives directly inside of your Microsoft Word application, requiring minimal implementation, and enables users to:
- Review contracts
- Analyze agreements
- Create redline language
- Modify language with custom instructions
- Generate summaries
- And more
Moreover, Latch ensures client data privacy by not storing any first or third-party contract information and only using it to maintain playbooks.
Legal teams can simplify their workflow with Latch and leverage AI technology for streamlined contracting.
Pricing
Free tool
Paralegal AI
Paralegal AI is an AI-powered legal research platform that precisely responds to legal queries by examining web and case texts for pertinent patterns.
Utilizing AI-driven Research, Paralegal AI can analyze and provide tailored answers to legal questions, enabling lawyers to obtain instant legal help.
Some of the features offered by Paralegal AI include:
- Sophisticated AI models for scanning web pages and case texts
- Generative AI features for document interaction
- Automation of manual and administrative tasks
- Integration of advanced features such as natural language processing and predictive analytics
Paralegal AI's capabilities make it a reliable and efficient resource for legal professionals seeking to conduct legal research and receive accurate information.
Pricing
It's a Free tool.
Avokaado
Avokaado is an all-in-one toolbox that automates contract negotiation, signing, and management for organizations. It offers complete automation for various contracts, such as customer contracts, employment agreements, and investor agreements.
This tool is valuable for lawyers and companies to manage contracts efficiently.
Avokaado serves multiple industries, including hospitality, finance, healthcare, retail, information technology, and the public sector.
The offered features include Private Workspace, Contracts Automation, Advanced Collaboration, Electronic Signatures, Storage and Management, and Connected Contracts.
Ethical Considerations and Trustworthiness of AI Legal Assistants
As the prevalence of AI legal assistant tools increases, the ethical implications and trustworthiness of these tools become increasingly important to consider. It is essential to carefully consider issues such as bias, objectivity, data privacy and security, and the need for human supervision and collaboration to ensure that AI-generated advice and recommendations align with legal standards and ethical guidelines.
Addressing these ethical concerns and setting up appropriate governance and risk management measures enable law firms to exploit AI legal assistants' potential fully. This is done while preserving the integrity of the legal process and assuring the best possible outcomes for their clients.
Bias and Objectivity
AI tools must be designed and trained to minimize bias, ensuring objectivity in analysis and recommendations while maintaining the integrity of the legal process.
To achieve this, the following steps can be taken:
- Train AI legal assistants on diverse and representative data.
- Implement transparency in the AI algorithms and decision-making processes.
- Establish corporate governance and internal policies to ensure the ethical and unbiased use of AI. By taking these measures, bias can be mitigated, and objectivity can be maintained in AI-powered legal systems.
It is essential for legal professionals to be aware of the input provided to AI tools and to verify the accuracy of the output, as generative AI tools like ChatGPT may generate false information in their responses. By implementing proper measures to address bias and ensure objectivity, law firms can uphold the reliability of the legal process and deliver accurate, unbiased results to their clients.
Data Privacy and Security
Data privacy and security are critical concerns when using AI legal assistants, as sensitive client information must be protected from unauthorized access and potential misuse.
Legal professionals must comply with relevant data privacy and security regulations, such as:
Summary
AI legal assistant tools are transforming the legal industry by automating routine tasks, enhancing research capabilities, and improving document drafting and review processes. As we have explored in this blog post, the top AI legal assistant tools for 2023, including Latch, Paralegal AI, Casetext, and Westlaw Edge, offer many features that can significantly benefit law firms and legal professionals.
Ethical considerations must be taken into account when utilizing AI to ensure advice aligns with standards & guidelines while preserving the integrity of the process. So remember that humans should still make the final decision to ensure the quality.
