Legal Leaders Can Leverage Generative AI Tools to Boost Productivity

Q&A with Ron Friedmann, Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Legal & Compliance practice

Large language model (LLM) generative AI (GenAI) tools are designed to work with large amounts of text, and Gartner experts expect them to have a significant impact on the legal industry because legal work is so centered on words.

Ron Friedmann, Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Legal & Compliance practice shares his views on the most promising legal use cases for the technology, the biggest potential challenges, and how legal leaders can expedite adoption.

Q: What are some potential use cases for LLMs in legal departments?

A: LLMs enhance legal professional efficiency and effectiveness; consequently, legal departments that adopt them can expect significant productivity boosts, such as:

Summarizing documents, where LLMs can swiftly condense long texts, for example, to gain a quick understand of a new regulation or ruling.

Drafting various legal documents, including routine correspondence such as emails, more complex legal memos and contract drafts. By generating initial drafts, these models can save time, allowing lawyers to focus on refining these documents to better meet specific legal standards and client needs.

In legal research, LLMs can quickly identify relevant legal authorities such as case law and suggest arguments, including even developing and understanding an opposing point of view.

In contract analysis, LLMs can extract specific provisions from a corpus of contracts, assisting lawyers in quickly identifying clauses that require closer scrutiny, such as indemnity or limitations of liability. Additionally, LLMs can redline (compare) provisions across versions, which is essential during a negotiation phase or when revising contract documents.

For all these uses, lawyers must verify the work carefully given the risk of hallucination (inaccuracies) and omissions is a serious concern.

Q: What challenges do legal departments face in deploying LLM technologies?

A: Training and adoption pose considerable challenges. Legal professionals must be trained to use these new tools effectively (for example, writing good prompts), which involves not only learning how to use the technology, but also a willingness to change how they work. The broad excitement over LLMs in legal is yet to translate to easier or faster adoption than for prior technologies.

Moreover, data security and privacy are paramount concerns in the legal field. Ensuring that sensitive information processed by LLMs is secure and that these systems comply with stringent data protection laws is crucial. This often requires rigorous assessments of the technology providers' security measures, careful reading of provider Terms of Service and may involve ongoing monitoring and adjustments.

Additionally, the legal tech market is notably fragmented, featuring numerous broad and specialized solutions that may not seamlessly integrate with one another. Identifying, evaluating and integrating the right mix of tools to cover all desired functionalities can be daunting and may lead to inefficiencies or gaps in service.

Addressing these challenges requires not only a willingness to invest in new technologies but also a strategic approach to their implementation, involving careful planning and coordination across various departments.

Q: How can legal leaders expedite the adoption of LLM technologies?

A: To improve adoption of LLMs, legal leaders can employ several strategies. Learning from, and working with, law firms and technology providers that have experience with LLMs can provide valuable insights into the practical benefits and limitations of these tools, as well as strategies to gain adoption. This kind of collaboration can also set expectations for what can be achieved with LLM integration and help set realistic expectations for their own departments.

Running a pilot is another effective strategy. These allow legal departments to test LLM technologies in a controlled environment, assess their impact on specific workflows, build team support for use and identify any potential issues before a full-scale rollout.

Training and change management are critical to ensuring that legal staff are not only proficient in using new technologies but also comfortable with the changes these tools bring to their daily workflows. Effective change management practices can help mitigate resistance to new technologies, fostering a more receptive environment for innovation.

Finally, continuous evaluation and iteration are key to successful LLM use and adoption. By regularly assessing the performance and impact of LLM technologies, including to monitor the market given its rapid evolution, legal departments can make informed adjustments to optimize their use, ensuring that these tools deliver the intended benefits and support the evolving needs of the organization.

With these strategies, legal leaders can not only overcome the challenges associated with LLM integration but also leverage these powerful tools to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their legal operations, positioning their departments for success in an increasingly complex legal landscape.