In only a few years, synthetic intelligence (AI) instruments within the authorized {industry} have gone from being one thing primarily for innovators and trailblazers to turning into more and more frequent for legislation corporations of all sizes. Based on our newest Authorized Traits Report, 79% of authorized professionals use AI in some capability of their observe, and 84% of corporations consider that AI utilization will develop over the subsequent yr.
Not surprisingly, as AI adoption accelerates, the authorized AI ecosystem is increasing simply as quickly. Many AI-powered options now help legal professionals with a variety of duties—from automating operational workflows to drafting and analyzing authorized paperwork to streamlining e-discovery and past.
With new options rising always, these instruments have gotten extra accessible, correct, and environment friendly. This implies it’s simpler than ever for legislation corporations to combine AI options into every day workflows and rework their work.
Nevertheless, with so many accessible options, it’s not at all times simple to find out which particular forms of instruments (or which stage of AI adoption) would finest suit your agency’s wants. The overwhelming variety of potential choices can depart some corporations susceptible to falling behind attributable to inaction.
Right here, we break down at this time’s authorized AI ecosystem—exploring the forms of AI instruments presently accessible, what they can assist with, and methods to use them to your agency’s benefit.
What proportion of legal professionals use AI?
The extent of AI utilization for legal professionals is quickly growing. Based on our newest Authorized Traits Report, 79% of authorized professionals use AI in some capability of their observe, with 25% of legal professionals adopting it broadly or universally. This marks a major soar from 2023 when solely 19% of legislation corporations used AI of their practices.
Need to discover the facility of AI proper out of your case administration platform? Clio Duo, Clio’s cutting-edge AI resolution, is constructed inside Clio Handle’s case administration platform— seamlessly remodeling the way in which your agency works, accelerating your case and shopper work, and extra. Ebook a demo at this time.
The authorized AI ecosystem
With the sheer variety of AI choices for legal professionals quickly rising, the authorized AI ecosystem has developed into an more and more complicated and difficult panorama. That is the place many legislation corporations fall into the frequent lure of making an attempt to implement them unexpectedly.
Whereas it could be tempting to go from low or no AI utilization to adopting each AI device yow will discover to maintain up, speeding to implement all of them might result in extra issues than options.
First, it’s essential to know the moral concerns surrounding the usage of AI in legislation and methods to use instruments responsibly. AI instruments include dangers—akin to bias and discrimination, hallucinations, knowledge privateness issues, and transparency points—that authorized professionals should perceive and punctiliously navigate.
Subsequent, it’s vital to know what an AI device can do earlier than you rush to make use of it. Moderately than adopting each device that sounds spectacular, it’s a good suggestion to begin small with AI instruments that handle particular challenges after which strategically construct up your agency’s use of AI.
With this in thoughts, take into account the next ranges of AI adoption for legislation corporations:
Stage 1: Your agency presently makes use of no instruments or depends on server-based software program solely.
Stage 2: Your agency presently makes use of some primary cloud-based instruments, however some techniques are disconnected and never built-in.
Stage 3: Your agency is absolutely cloud-based with a central authorized observe administration resolution for all agency knowledge.
Stage 4: Your agency has began to automate processes utilizing know-how in Stage 3, however these processes nonetheless require vital human enter.
Stage 5: Your agency leverages AI inside a centralized system utilizing know-how in Stage 3 to automate duties and improve decision-making.
Should you’re not sure the place to begin with AI at your legislation agency, take into account the place your agency presently stands inside the authorized AI ecosystem based mostly on the listing above, after which progressively undertake particular instruments that make sense in your agency and develop from there as you study the AI ropes.
Breaking down authorized AI instruments by class
As extra AI options emerge, realizing the place to begin with AI in your legislation agency will be overwhelming. Whereas the listing beneath isn’t exhaustive, it outlines key classes of authorized AI instruments that intention to cut back—and even remove—the repetitive work typically confronted by legislation corporations in non-public observe.
Legislation agency operations
Legislation agency operations are all about repetitive, time-consuming inside processes—splendid candidates for automation. Utilizing AI to automate these processes permits corporations to save lots of time, enhance effectivity, and make it simpler to deal with high-value duties.
Nevertheless, as knowledge safety is paramount for corporations dealing with delicate shopper knowledge, it’s additionally important to search out authorized AI instruments that not solely leverage knowledge to reinforce present workflows—but additionally emphasize safety and mitigate danger.
Clio Duo matches this invoice.
Powered by generative AI know-how that operates inside Clio’s excessive safety requirements, Clio Duo can automate routine duties all through the case administration journey from shopper communication to time monitoring and calendaring. Additionally, as a result of it’s constructed inside Clio’s main observe administration software program, Clio Duo permits you to seamlessly delegate the creation of duties, time entries, and calendar occasions with out the distraction of switching between tabs or opening new home windows. The result’s smarter case administration in your legislation agency, harnessing the facility of AI.
In contrast to third-party AI instruments, Clio Duo works inside Clio’s trusted surroundings, which ensures user-inputted knowledge stays protected and is rarely used to coach AI fashions. This implies your agency can leverage the facility of AI for clever, extra environment friendly case administration—with out compromising confidentiality.
Authorized analysis
Authorized analysis is crucial to the observe of legislation, nevertheless it’s notoriously time-consuming and vulnerable to human error, making it a first-rate space for authorized AI instruments to streamline. Nevertheless, as some legal professionals have discovered the laborious method, utilizing generic and non-legal-specific AI instruments for authorized analysis will increase the danger of AI hallucinations—which may result in inaccurate citations and potential moral points.
Consequently, legal-specific AI options are essential for authorized analysis, not solely to reinforce effectivity but additionally to assist guarantee larger accuracy. In actual fact, based on the 2024 Authorized Traits Report, authorized analysis platforms are the highest legal-specific AI-powered options within the authorized {industry}.
AI-powered authorized analysis instruments like Lexis+ AI, Westlaw Precision, and Harvey (which is constructed on a model of Open.AI’s GPT AI however tailor-made to legal-specific wants) allow corporations to shortly entry authorized analysis databases, predict case outcomes, and determine related case legislation, statutes, and precedents with pace and accuracy.
E-discovery
Conducting e-discovery will be tedious—manually sifting by way of giant quantities of digital recordsdata to search out the related data wanted for a authorized case or investigation will be labor-intensive and, accordingly, pricey.
By automating e-discovery duties like doc evaluation and doc categorization, AI-powered e-discovery instruments like Logikcull can enhance search accuracy and streamline the method. Logikcull additionally integrates with Clio’s observe administration software program, permitting customers to routinely “mirror” their Clio issues into Logikcull, which implies you may import discovery paperwork related to Clio circumstances in seconds.
Shopper service AI
AI-powered instruments can assist legislation corporations be extra responsive and provide higher service to purchasers with out taking on workers’s administrative time.
AI chatbots can be utilized on legislation agency web sites to reply routine questions (such because the agency’s enterprise hours) and help with shopper consumption processes. Instruments like Smith.ai may maintain receptionist providers on behalf of legislation agency workers through the use of an AI-enabled voice receptionist to reply telephone calls, filter out spam, and auto-qualify leads.
Doc drafting, evaluation, and evaluation
AI know-how can rework how legal professionals work with authorized paperwork—streamlining varied duties associated to drafting and routinely analyzing authorized paperwork.
Constructed into Clio Handle, Clio Duo helps routine duties associated to working with authorized paperwork. It will possibly, for instance, simplify and speed up doc evaluation by summarizing prolonged paperwork for fast insights. It will possibly additionally analyze paperwork and extract key particulars—enabling extra exact and knowledgeable decision-making.
Genie AI makes use of AI to streamline authorized doc drafting, for instance, whereas CoCounsel Core facilitates fast and environment friendly AI-powered doc evaluation. Harvey AI can assist with doc comparability, translation, and extra. NetDocuments’ ndMAX Authorized AI Assistant permits you to ask questions conversationally and get informational solutions based mostly in your paperwork.
Instruments like Diligen, Luminance Diligence, and Spellbook use AI to help with duties associated to contract evaluation.
Observe area-specific AI instruments
There might also be AI options tailor-made to resolve a necessity in your particular observe space.
For instance, Steno, which integrates with Clio, presents an AI-powered resolution that may present tailor-made summaries of case transcripts for litigators.
Eve, which connects with Clio Handle to assist your issues, makes use of authorized AI to streamline duties and speed up casework from consumption to litigation for plaintiff legislation corporations.
For private damage legal professionals, one other Clio integration, EvenUp, turns medical paperwork and case recordsdata into AI-driven demand packages.
Non-legal generative AI instruments
Legislation corporations might also use generative AI instruments to spice up productiveness and help with varied administrative and non-legal duties, akin to advertising and marketing content material creation, drafting emails, and brainstorming concepts.
Some well-liked generative AI instruments can match this goal, together with ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Perplexity. These instruments generate content material and reply questions based mostly on person prompts, making them priceless for aiding with normal enterprise duties.
Nevertheless, it’s vital to notice that whereas these generative AI instruments will be helpful—and sometimes free—they don’t seem to be designed for legal-industry use and aren’t linked to the agency’s knowledge or observe administration system. This implies they lack the authorized context to assist corporations with specialised authorized duties like doc evaluation, workflow automation, or case-specific authorized doc drafting.
And, past simply being much less environment friendly or unreliable for authorized work, utilizing non-legal AI instruments for authorized duties can lead legal professionals to make severe errors with moral {and professional} penalties.
The place Clio Duo matches within the authorized AI ecosystem
Whether or not your agency is simply beginning to discover the authorized AIecosystem or is already leveraging just a few AI instruments, it’s vital to think about how a possible new AI device will work along with your agency’s observe administration software program. Options that combine along with your present workflows and tech stack make adoption clean and unlock further effectivity—permitting you to focus extra time on high-value work.
Take Clio’s authorized AI: Clio Duo.
Made particularly to remodel the way in which authorized work will get performed inside your case administration software program, Clio Duo helps speed up your case and shopper work—serving to you’re employed smarter. As your dynamic AI-powered companion, Clio Duo is at all times there, prepared that will help you take advantage of your work day.
Clio Duo’s AI presents quite a few advantages, together with:
Knowledge privateness and safety. One of many greatest dangers of utilizing AI instruments for legal professionals is the potential to enter delicate data and inadvertently compromise shopper knowledge and confidentiality, however Clio Duo operates securely inside Clio Handle’s case administration platform utilizing solely its knowledge. As a result of no AI fashions are educated in your knowledge and each motion taken is tracked by a safe occasion log, you should utilize Clio Duo’s AI with full knowledge security and privateness.
Easy job automation. Clio Duo automates time-consuming routine duties—like retrieving case or shopper data, producing matter summaries, creating duties, scheduling calendar occasions, including time entries, and drafting responses—all with out interrupting your present workflow. It handles these routine duties for you, permitting you to remain targeted on extra vital work.
Accessing data immediately. As a substitute of digging by way of paperwork to search out what you want, Clio Duo pulls the vital data you’re on the lookout for out of your paperwork and summarizes complicated paperwork—remodeling data into actionable insights for higher decision-making to assist transfer your circumstances ahead.
Prioritizing the place you focus your time. Clio Duo’s good suggestions proactively prioritize key circumstances and duties that want your instant consideration, making certain nothing slips by way of the cracks and serving to you handle your time extra successfully.
Getting again to purchasers quicker. Clio Duo’s AI suggests tailor-made responses when speaking to purchasers by way of textual content messages or emails—lowering the psychological load of making an attempt to determine what to write down and serving to you reply to purchasers extra promptly.
Do extra with Duo
Meet Clio Duo, your AI companion that amplifies your workflow, serving to you spend extra time on the work that solely you are able to do.
Get Began Now
What modifications are corporations that undertake authorized AI seeing?
Already, legislation corporations are seeing transformative modifications from implementing authorized AI instruments. As our newest Authorized Traits Report discovered, 54% of authorized professionals understand that AI saves them time and will increase effectivity, whereas 36% understand that it improves the standard of their work.
Clio Duo customers have shared how utilizing Clio Duo’s AI instruments boosted effectivity and productiveness, serving to them obtain extra high quality work in much less time and saving them as much as 5 hours per week.
“It might save as a lot as two hours. For me as a mediator, I don’t receives a commission for the work I do earlier than the mediation begins and I choose to be ready. Now, 10 minutes earlier than the mediation, I do a fast Duo evaluation and may get began”, says Mechelle Woznicki, Legal professional at Woznicki Legislation LLC
Equally, Melissa Oosterhof, Legal professional at Oosterhof Legislation Workplace, PLLC shares, “With Clio Duo, I can get the info I want immediately simply by asking a query. I don’t need to run studies or filter by way of customized fields anymore, which saves me time and helps me be extra productive!”
Ultimate ideas on the authorized AI ecosystem
The authorized AI ecosystem is complicated and quickly evolving, however that doesn’t imply it must be intimidating. By viewing rising AI instruments as thrilling alternatives to streamline operations and delegate routine duties to know-how, you may unlock extra time for the vital authorized work that solely you are able to do.
The hot button is to remain knowledgeable and undertake AI at a tempo that is sensible in your agency. Irrespective of the place you’re in your agency’s AI journey at this time, keep in mind that any agency can enter the authorized AI system on the proper stage for them. From there, it’s only a matter of strategically including the proper instruments to maximise your agency’s potential.
Interested by how Clio Duo can speed up your case and shopper work and show you how to work smarter? See the way it works and e-book your demo at this time.
We printed this weblog publish in February 2025. Final up to date: February 24, 2025.
Categorized in:
Enterprise, Know-how
