AI for Legal Document Review: A Game-Changer for Lawyers

Reviewing legal documents is tedious but essential for case strategy and trial preparation. Even experienced lawyers can miss critical details, so a thorough and effective review is crucial.

AI-powered legal document review streamlines this process, improving efficiency and accuracy. Here, we explore AI’s role in legal document review and implementation of best practices.

What is AI legal document review?

AI-powered legal document review leverages artificial intelligence to efficiently analyze, categorize, and extract key information from legal documents. By automating the most time-intensive aspects of the review process, AI enhances accuracy and streamlines workflows, allowing legal professionals to focus on higher-value tasks.

AI-powered tools leverage various technologies, including:

• Machine learning to identify patterns and connections between documents.
• Natural language processing to interpret and analyze text.
• Optical character recognition (OCR) to convert scanned or handwritten content into searchable text.
• Retrieval-augmented generation to enhance AI-generated responses with external knowledge sources.

Types of AI legal document review

Technology-assisted review (TAR)

TAR is widely used in eDiscovery, and leverages machine learning to help lawyers analyze and prioritize large document sets. Lawyers tag sample documents, and TAR predicts relevance for the rest. While it speeds up review and cuts costs, its accuracy depends on the training set, and it mainly handles text-heavy documents, limiting its use for other data types like video evidence.

Generative AI

Emerging in legal document review, generative AI processes various data types, summarizes documents, assists with drafting, and interprets content. Unlike TAR, it analyzes unstructured data like texts and social media. However, it’s prone to AI hallucinations and less accepted in courts.

How AI legal document review aids case preparation

AI streamlines labor-intensive aspects of case preparation by processing documents quickly and precisely, allowing lawyers to focus on case strategy. Key benefits include:

• Efficient eDiscovery: AI tools automate document identification, classification, and prioritization, making it faster to retrieve and review relevant evidence. AI can also extract key details like names, dates, and locations.
• Document summarization: AI pulls key points from lengthy documents, creating concise summaries for quick reference.
• Document generation: AI assists in drafting pleadings, statements of fact, and responses by identifying patterns in existing documents.
• Translation: AI-powered translation tools help process legal documents in multiple languages, reducing time and costs.
• Case narrative building: AI organizes case files into coherent narratives by extracting relevant facts and structuring them logically. Clio Duo, for example, builds case timelines from legal documents.

Leading AI tools for legal document review

Several AI-powered tools assist with legal document analysis:

• Clio Duo: Built into Clio Manage, Clio Duo accelerates casework, automates routine tasks, and enhances document review workflows.
• Logikcull: An eDiscovery platform that automates document review and organization.
• Everlaw: AI-driven eDiscovery software that streamlines administrative tasks and document review.
• Harvey AI: A comprehensive AI platform offering insights, recommendations, and predictive analytics for legal professionals.

Choosing the right AI tool for legal document review

Selecting an AI tool requires careful evaluation based on firm needs, costs, and ease of use. Consider the following:

• Workload requirements: Identify the volume and complexity of documents requiring AI review. Advanced NLP and machine learning tools are useful for eDiscovery, while generative AI aids with summarization and drafting.
• Cost-effectiveness: While AI can improve efficiency, firms should assess the cost-benefit ratio of various AI solutions.
• User-friendliness: Choose tools with intuitive interfaces and customizable features to meet firm-specific requirements.
• System compatibility: AI tools that integrate with existing legal software, such as Clio, improve workflow efficiency.

Best practices for AI in legal document review

While AI offers substantial benefits, ethical considerations and responsible implementation are critical. Law firms should follow these best practices:

• Establish clear guidelines: Define when and how AI tools will be used, specifying which document types are appropriate for AI review.
• Ensure human oversight: Lawyers must verify AI-generated results to maintain accuracy and reliability, checking sources and citations.
• Prioritize data privacy and security: Strong security protocols are necessary to protect sensitive legal data.
• Adhere to legal ethics: Ensure AI tools comply with ethical standards and bar association rules.
• Implement training programs: Continuous training helps legal professionals stay informed about AI capabilities and limitations.

Final thoughts

AI transforms legal document review by automating tedious tasks and extracting insights from vast data sets. By reducing manual review time, AI allows lawyers to concentrate on strategy and client advocacy, leading to faster case preparation, lower costs, and better outcomes.

Looking to streamline document workflows? Clio Draft automates legal document creation and expedites the signing process, saving your firm hours and boosting productivity.