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What a UK law firm wants to know before, during and after bringing an assistant into its work. Short, practical and written to be checked, like everything else here.
· 5 min read
Yes, for reading and sorting. AI can tell you what each letter says, what it asks for and what dates it raises, with the page named. Deciding what to do about it, and replying, stays with the fee earner.
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Support staff, paralegals and practice managers can use AI for preparation, organisation and first drafts, so long as the work still reaches a fee earner for judgement and sign-off.
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Yes, for the mechanical work: summarising the report, listing its assumptions and source documents, checking it against the papers on file and drafting a first set of questions. The weight of the opinion stays with the fee earner and counsel.
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Yes, for the checking part. AI can read the file and tell you what looks outstanding, what was promised and what the client was last told, so the fee earner closing the file is deciding from the papers rather than from memory.
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AI can do the groundwork: pull the facts out of the papers with page references, build the chronology and test a draft against the file. The pleading decisions, and the signature, stay with the fee earner.
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Check before you conclude anything. Verify each citation and quotation at source, raise what does not hold up in plain correspondence, and keep a record of what you checked and when.
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In most cases the cost of an AI tool is a practice overhead rather than a disbursement, so what you bill is the work, not the software. If you intend to charge it separately, say so in the retainer and be ready to justify it.
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It can help a cover fee earner get across unfamiliar files quickly: what the matter is about, what is outstanding and what dates are coming. Triage, client contact and judgement stay with the firm.
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Yes, for the document handling and arithmetic: pulling asset and liability details out of the papers, building schedules with the working shown, and flagging what is still missing. The judgement calls, valuations and tax positions stay with the fee earner.
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Treat an AI conversation as part of the working papers for the matter and keep it for as long as you keep the rest of the file, unless you have a considered reason not to. Decide this once in your retention policy rather than fee earner by fee earner.
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The label matters less than the obligations. Whether or not you call it outsourcing, the firm stays accountable for the work, for confidentiality and for supervision, so treat an AI supplier with the same care as any third party you rely on.
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Yes, for the mechanical parts: pulling figures out of the papers, arranging them under heads, and doing the arithmetic with the working shown. The heads claimed, the assumptions and the final figure remain the fee earner's judgement.
Read the answerCreate an account, open a matter and put a real question to it. Every point it makes names where it came from.
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