AI in Legal Practice: Opportunities and Guardrails

The Case That Made Headlines

In 2023, a New York attorney submitted a brief to federal court citing six cases to support his client’s position. The cases sounded authoritative. The citations looked right. There was just one problem: none of them existed.

The attorney had used ChatGPT to conduct legal research and filed the output without verification. The judge imposed sanctions. The attorney’s reputation suffered lasting damage. And the legal profession got a very public lesson in both the promise and peril of AI.

This case isn’t a cautionary tale against using AI. It’s a cautionary tale against using AI without professional judgment. The attorney’s mistake wasn’t using AI—it was abdicating his professional responsibility to verify what AI produced.

Used correctly, AI transforms legal practice. Used carelessly, it creates catastrophic risk. This course teaches the correct way.

What to Expect

This course is broken into focused, practical lessons. Each one builds on the last, with hands-on exercises and quizzes to lock in what you learn. You can work through the whole course in one sitting or tackle a lesson a day.

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

Analyze legal research faster with AI-assisted analysis
Evaluate and draft contracts more efficiently while maintaining accuracy
Analyze case law and identify relevant precedents with AI
Write clear client communications that explain complex legal concepts
Execute compliance checks and due diligence systematically
Build repeatable legal workflows that save hours of billable time

The Legal AI Landscape

AI is reshaping legal work across every practice area. Here’s where the impact is greatest:

Legal Task	Traditional Time	AI-Assisted Time	Quality Impact
Legal research	4-8 hours	1-2 hours	More comprehensive (broader search)
Contract review	2-4 hours per contract	30-60 minutes	More consistent (less fatigue error)
Document drafting	3-6 hours	1-2 hours	Better structure (templated from best practices)
Case analysis	6-12 hours	2-4 hours	More connections identified
Due diligence	Days to weeks	Hours to days	More thorough checklist coverage
Client communications	30-60 min per letter	10-15 min per letter	Clearer plain language

These aren’t theoretical projections. They’re what law firms using AI effectively report today.

What AI Does Well in Legal Practice

Pattern recognition in documents. AI can scan hundreds of pages and identify specific clauses, provisions, inconsistencies, or risk areas faster than any human.

Research compilation. Gathering relevant statutes, regulations, case summaries, and secondary sources into organized research memos.

First-draft generation. Creating structured first drafts of contracts, briefs, memos, and correspondence based on detailed specifications.

Plain language translation. Converting legal jargon into clear language for client communications, without losing legal precision.

Consistency checking. Identifying inconsistencies across documents—defined terms used differently, conflicting provisions, missing cross-references.

Summarization. Distilling lengthy documents, depositions, or case histories into actionable summaries.

What AI Cannot Do

Exercise legal judgment. AI doesn’t understand the strategic implications of legal positions. It can’t weigh the political dynamics of a negotiation or gauge a judge’s likely reaction.

Guarantee accuracy. AI generates plausible content, not verified content. Every citation, every legal conclusion, every factual claim must be verified by a qualified professional.

Maintain privilege. AI tools don’t inherently understand attorney-client privilege. Information entered into general-purpose AI may not remain confidential.

Understand context. AI doesn’t know the history between your client and opposing counsel, the personality of the judge, or the business realities driving a transaction.

Replace ethical judgment. When to pursue a legal strategy, how to counsel a client in a difficult situation, whether to take a case—these require human ethical reasoning.

Quick check: Think about your current workload. Which tasks consume the most time while requiring the least strategic judgment? Those are your AI opportunities.

The Ethical Framework

Before using AI for any legal task, apply this framework:

The VALID Check

V — Verify everything. Every citation, every legal principle, every factual claim. No exceptions.

A — Anonymize sensitive data. Strip client names, case details, and confidential information before inputting into AI tools.

L — Limit scope appropriately. Use AI for research and drafting, not for making legal conclusions or strategic decisions.

I — Inform when required. Understand your jurisdiction’s disclosure requirements for AI-assisted work product.

D — Document your process. Keep records of how AI was used, what was verified, and what professional judgment was applied.

Client Confidentiality

This deserves special emphasis:

Never input into general-purpose AI:

Client names or identifying information
Privileged communications
Confidential deal terms or settlement figures
Proprietary information
Personally identifiable information (PII)

Safe approaches:

Use anonymized or hypothetical facts
Use enterprise AI tools with data protection agreements
Input only publicly available information
Strip all identifying details before prompting

Competence Obligation

Model Rule 1.1 requires technological competence. In the AI era, this means:

Understanding how AI generates responses (including hallucination risk)
Knowing when AI is and isn’t appropriate for a given task
Maintaining the ability to do the work independently (AI assists, it doesn’t replace your skills)
Staying current on AI developments and ethical guidance from your bar association

Your AI Legal Workflow: A Preview

Over the next 7 lessons, you’ll build AI-assisted workflows for:

Lesson	Topic	What You’ll Build
2	Legal research	AI-assisted research methodology with verification
3	Contract review	Systematic contract analysis and clause identification
4	Document drafting	Templates and workflows for legal documents
5	Case analysis	Precedent research and case comparison frameworks
6	Client communication	Plain language translations and client letters
7	Compliance and due diligence	Systematic checklist-based workflows
8	Capstone	A complete legal analysis project

Exercise: Your Legal Time Audit

Take 10 minutes to assess your current workflow:

List your top 5 most time-consuming tasks (research, drafting, review, communication, admin)
Estimate hours per week for each
Rate each on a scale of 1-5: how much strategic judgment does it require?
Identify the tasks that are high-time, low-judgment—these are your AI opportunities
Note any confidentiality concerns for each task that would affect AI use

Key Takeaways

AI hallucination—fabricating plausible legal content—is the single biggest risk in legal AI use
The VALID framework (Verify, Anonymize, Limit, Inform, Document) governs responsible AI use
Never input confidential client data into general-purpose AI tools
AI excels at research compilation, document drafting, and pattern recognition
AI cannot replace legal judgment, ethical reasoning, or client relationship skills
Lawyers have a professional obligation to understand AI’s capabilities and limitations

Next: we’ll start with the most common legal task—research—and show how AI makes it faster without compromising quality.

Up next: In the next lesson, we’ll dive into Legal Research with AI Tools.