Incorporating AI into Our Practice
I do not claim to be an AI expert, but over the past year and a half I have spent a great deal of time exploring different AI services and evaluating how they can help us serve clients more efficiently. At present, we use Microsoft 365 Copilot, premium edition. It helps me summarize many documents and recorded Teams meetings, conduct preliminary research, and generate ideas for additional clauses or phrasing in agreements. Its summaries are not perfect, but with specific direction they can be quite useful. I would estimate that it is about 70-80% accurate in its summaries. It has reduced the time I spend on certain review and summary tasks, and I pass those time savings on to clients. My team has also begun using it to refine emails and letters, so our communications are clearer, more concise, and grammatically polished.
As a law firm, we must be careful about how we use AI. We use tools within our organization’s secure Microsoft 365 environment, and we still review every output carefully. Microsoft states that prompts, responses, and data accessed through Microsoft Graph are not used to train the foundation models behind Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the product operates within Microsoft 365’s enterprise data protection and existing permissions model. That said, no AI output should ever be accepted uncritically. When I ask for examples of an extremely specific legal clause, the tool can be helpful in suggesting alternative language or approaches. Other times, the response is not useful. The value lies in using judgment to know the difference.
People often ask whether I worry about AI replacing attorneys. I do not. AI is a useful tool that can support review, research, and drafting, but it does not replace legal judgment. It allows me to spend more time on structuring estate and business plans and counseling clients. Recently, a client gave me a 100-page commercial lease with addenda, and AI did not summarize it well. I still spent two hours reviewing and annotating it myself. That is two hours, I’d very much like to have back. I look forward to the day when AI can assist more effectively with documents like that, because reclaiming that time would be meaningful.
I am also seeing new clients arrive with summaries or diagrams showing what they believe their legal structure should be. Because they lack the necessary legal training and experience, these materials are often convoluted or inadvisable. They can look polished enough to suggest that another professional helped prepare them, only for the client to explain that AI generated them. AI still reflects the adage: garbage in, garbage out. Its output depends heavily on the quality of the prompt and the reliability and limits of the sources it can draw from.
We are using AI to improve efficiency, strengthen communication, and generate additional ideas. But we do so carefully and securely, treating it as a tool that supports our work rather than replaces it. Used properly, it helps us serve clients more efficiently and allows us to pass along some of those savings. I asked AI to review this article with specific prompts, and it made minor grammar and phrasing corrections but helpfully corrected my AI terminology. This is part of the evolving practice of law, and I welcome it. I suspect many clients will as well.
At our firm, estate planning, asset protection, and trusts are just the beginning. We are committed to giving you true peace of mind through clear guidance and a full understanding of your options. Our goal is to make the process simple, approachable, and stress-free, so you can focus on your spouse, your family, and the adventures ahead. We welcome new clients with a 30-minute meet-and-greet consultation. Reach out at (480) 525-6244, email us, or visit our website anytime.
