GenAI for Briefs: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Generative AI is transforming legal practice, and not just in the ways you might expect. Sure, you’ve heard about using it to draft briefs or memos. But what if I told you that’s just scratching the surface? By thinking outside the box, lawyers can harness GenAI to improve their practice in ways they never imagined. It’s time to get creative and explore the many avenues GenAI opens up—beyond drafting.

Choosing the Right Tools and Understanding Their Capabilities

Before diving in, it’s important to choose the right tool. GenAI models, like GPT and Claude, all come with different strengths. Some are better at handling legal documents, while others excel at interacting with multimodal inputs like voice. Understanding what a tool is capable of and how to integrate it into your workflow is key to maximizing its potential.

For example, platforms like Claude offer the ability to upload and manipulate entire documents visually, giving you a bird’s eye view of a case or brief. Or take GPT’s custom instructions feature, which allows you to teach the AI how to respond in line with your firm’s style. Specialized tools now are even designed with lawyers in mind, fine-tuning the experience to meet the demands of legal practice.

Embedded GenAI in Legal Tools

Many of the tools you already use might have GenAI embedded in them, helping behind the scenes. Google Docs Editor leverages GenAI to suggest improvements in real-time. Westlaw’s AI now assists with advanced legal research, and platforms like Kramer make it possible to create your own, customized GenAI apps integrated into your own practice structure. Understanding where and how these AI tools are embedded can help you make the most of them.

Ethical Considerations: Using GenAI Wisely

No discussion about AI in legal practice is complete without touching on ethics. The duty of competence is especially relevant here—lawyers must understand the technology they’re using. GenAI can be prone to hallucination (making up facts), and there are confidentiality issues to consider, especially when inputting sensitive client information. But with awareness and care, these risks can be mitigated.

Expanding Beyond Drafting: Where GenAI Really Shines

Now that you know the tools and the risks, let’s talk about what GenAI can do. Here are some of the most innovative ways it can help legal professionals:

1. First Drafts from Your Work: Use GenAI to generate initial drafts based on your own writings, not just templates. This allows you to maintain your voice while saving time.
2. Organization Aid: GenAI can help you reorganize your arguments, briefs, or contracts for better flow and clarity.
3. Mass Rewriting for Specific Goals: Whether it’s simplifying language, adjusting tone, or tailoring to a particular audience, GenAI can rewrite entire sections with ease.
4. Honing Key Sections: It can assist in refining the most critical parts of your documents, like executive summaries, key arguments, or real estate clauses.
5. Spotting Writing Challenges: Need help identifying your blind spots? GenAI can critique your style, spot common mistakes, and provide targeted feedback.
6. Summarizing and Spotting Issues: GenAI excels at summarizing dense legal documents or client policies, often highlighting details you might overlook.
7. Issue Spotting & Critical Critique: It’s a great partner for playing devil’s advocate. Feed it your arguments, and it will help identify weaknesses or counterpoints you hadn’t considered.
8. Checklists and To-Dos: Whether you're prepping for a trial or drafting a complex motion, GenAI can create checklists to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
9. Post-Source Legal Research: When conducting legal research, AI can process sources and extract the most relevant insights for you.
10. Guidance and Explanations for Clients: AI can draft client-friendly explanations, from legal concepts to case strategies, making your communications clearer and more accessible.
11. Marketing Assistance: GenAI can assist with blogs, social media, or even creating client updates to keep your practice front-of-mind.
12. Deposition Prep & Client Education: AI can help draft deposition questions or even train clients on what to expect during litigation.
13. Building Playbooks: It’s a fantastic tool for creating playbooks—step-by-step guides for everything from litigation to transactional work.
14. Business and Process Improvement: AI can brainstorm ways to improve your workflow, suggest tech tools, or even help solve specific practice challenges.

Making the Most of GenAI: Tips for Success

To truly unlock the creative power of AI, you’ll need to adopt a hands-on, iterative approach. The more specific you are with prompts, the better results you’ll get. Don’t just ask for a general summary; focus on fine-tuning a particular section. Run the same prompt from different angles to see what works best, and don’t be afraid to sandbox—play around with different prompts and parameters to find what works for you.

You can also try combining results from different runs, which can be especially useful for larger projects. Keep track of helpful prompts, and don’t be afraid to experiment.