内部律师如何使用法律人工智能工具以产生最大影响

The role of in-house counsel, especially at small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs),demands agility and frugality. Forsolo in-house lawyers, you are the contract reviewer,compliance advisor, policy drafter, risk manager, dispute resolver, legal operations, andhead of legal all in one. If you are part of a small team, the experience is similar though youtend to have more resources to share the workload. Even in small teams, each memberoften serves as a generalist. Unlike large legal departments with deep benches and big Unlike large legaldepartments withdeep benches andbig budgets, SMB Over the past 18 months, GenAI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and others havematured from novelties to powerful productivity boosters. Beyond these general-purposeAI tools, legal tech providers have created solutions specifically for the legal profession,particularly targeting in-house counsel. For example, Thomson Reuters®CoCounseland However, adopting these technologies is not without challenges. In-house legal teamsare understandably cautious due to concerns about confidentiality, trustworthinessof AI outputs, and drafting prompts that get truly useful results. These are all valid Fortunately, these challenges can be managed. This white paper explores practical, high-value ways for SMB in-house counsel to simply and easily integrate GenAI into their daily Pulling back the curtain: What GenAI is and isn’t To start, there is no big mystery here.GenAIuses advanced computer algorithms andlarge language models to produce human-like work based on user-generated prompts. Inparticular, GenAI tools are very good at generating text based on user inputs: document So, what does this mean? Think of GenAI as a sophisticated chatbot, one that allows forincredibly humanlike conversations and responses to questions. Unlike traditional searchengines, GenAI interacts with you in a dialogue format, allowing for follow-up questionsand iterative responses. However, it does not think or understand like a human. It works GenAI solutions offer legal professionals a range of capabilities designed to streamline •Draft documents such as contracts, memos, and emails•Summarize documents•Simplify legalese into plain English for business briefings•Help brainstorm or outline What AI cannot do is provide guaranteed accurate legal advice, replace human judgment,or understand the nuances of a client’s question with the context of the situation — only ahuman can do that. Consider these tools as capable interns or summer associates — they Choosing the right tools Regardless of whichGenAI tools youchoose, stronglyconsider enterprise Choosing the right version of GenAI depends on your professional needs. There are twomain levels of GenAI available today. First, there are consumer-focused tools like ChatGPT,Claude, Gemini, and others. These tools are flexible, customizable, and good for generalbrainstorming and business-productivity uses, but typically do not have the data securityand grounding in legal data that you need for more critical work. Second, there are These GenAI tools are much safer for legal teams since they are domain-specific andbuilt with legal guardrails around databasesand the use of confidential data. Regardlessof which GenAI tools you choose, strongly consider enterprise or professional versions of Concerns with using consumer-grade GenAI and When using consumer-grade GenAI, exercise caution with the information you input. Anydata entered may be used for training, shared with others, or potentially exposed in a databreach. Any one of these can put lawyers in a tough spot when it comes to protecting 1.Avoid entering confidential or proprietary information:Refrain from using clientnames or details that could compromise privilege. There are many queries that donot require confidential information like, “Explain the insider trading laws in the UnitedStates.” For requests involving specific names or confidential data, perform a “find and 2.Leverage GenAI tool settings to protect your data:Take a few minutes to utilize •Use a strong password and turn on multifactor authentication•Don’t give the tool login information to other accounts•Use “temporary chat” features to prevent conversations from training the model•Regularly clear the memory Trusting the results of GenAI presents complex challenges, particularly when not usingembedded GenAI. Although instances of generating inaccurate information are limited,they do occur. As noted above, treat GenAI like a valuable intern or summer associate.Provide background and context for each assignment, follow up to refine outputs, and If your budget and priorities allow, implementing a GenAI system built for legal is a muchbetter solution, and most of the above controls can be handled during implementation Crafting precise prompts for optimal GenAI results Prompts are simplythe questions orrequests you enter Utilizing GenAI effectively begins with crafting precise prompts. Prompts