From brainstorming ideas and drafting legal documents, AI is bringing major changes to how law firms operate.
However, many law firms are still not harnessing legal AI tools as effectively as they could. The result is lost productivity gains, a slower workflow, and lower revenue potential.
Plus, many law firms haven’t fully harnessed AI tool for client experience optimization, such as automated responses, translating legal documents into plain English, and 24/7 client support.
By more fully embracing AI legal collaboration software, your firm can improve its client experience and grow revenue.
We’ll look at the best AI software for law firms, so you can choose the tool that can give your firm an edge in a competitive environment.
1. Case Status powered by Client Intelligence
Case Status powered by Client Intelligence stands out for its ability to use your firm’s data and communication history to improve client experience while integrating seamlessly with your case management system.
Unlike more general AI tools, Case Status analyzes client interactions and case information to understand sentiment and recommend the next best action for stronger communication and engagement.
For example, instead of generating generic responses to client communications, Case Status analyzes a client’s tone and mood, then drafts responses that reflect your firm’s voice. This approach dramatically reduces response times without sacrificing quality.
Case Status is optimal for firms that have a large volume of client communication and are looking to free up attorney and staff time. While the technology can be utilized by companies of all sizes, it performs best with those that have a large volume of historical data to work from.
As with any AI platform, Case Status is not a replacement for human staff, but rather a tool to help them work faster and deliver a better client experience.
2. Harvey AI
Harvey AI is a comprehensive legal assistant built specifically for law firms. The platform utilizes natural language processing that helps with contract analysis, drafting legal documents, litigation strategy, and regulation research.
Harvey particularly stands out for its ability to handle complex legal research and document analysis. This makes it a good fit for large firms handling complex cases and accounts.
It’s also good at providing citations, ensuring firms can easily verify the accuracy of the information provided.
However, Harvey’s pricing is on the higher side and may not be suitable for small and mid-sized law firms. Its platform also has a steep learning curve and requires significant onboarding to get the most value from it.
3. Darrow
Darrow stands out for its focus on the litigation lifecycle. Its model can help with case origination by surfacing early signs of potential wrongdoing and validating a potential case’s legal merit. It can even assess your current pipeline to suggest likely outcomes based on financial models and legal research.
Darrow is also able to help with plaintiff discovery and onboarding. Its campaigns can connect qualified plaintiffs with law firms that may be best positioned to pursue their claims. This approach can help you grow your client base with high-quality leads.
However, Darrow has limited value to firms that aren’t focused on plaintiff-side litigation. While Darrow is good about identifying potential cases and assessing their merit, it should not be relied upon to guarantee success or case viability.
4. ChatGPT
ChatGPT is the most well-known AI platform and has been used in a wide variety of industries, including law. It’s a highly versatile platform that can be used to draft documents, brainstorm ideas, write client emails, and translate complex legal topics into plain language.
ChatGPT’s conversational interface makes it easy to use, even for those who are new to AI platforms. Plus, its low cost is attractive, especially for small law firms or those who want to test out AI’s potential uses before committing to a product that’s more tailored to the legal industry.
However, while ChatGPT can be useful in some law firms, it lacks legal-specific training, including attorney-client privilege. That can lead to security and ethical concerns.
Also, the platform has a tendency to generate false information or “hallucinations,” such as fake data and fictitious legal precedents. Attorneys need to carefully verify any claims and legal citations.
5. Diligen
Diligen is designed for contract review and due diligence. It analyzes hundreds of contracts to identify clauses, summarize findings, and surface potential legal issues. The platform is good at recognizing legal language patterns, contract types, and clause categories.
For firms that review a high volume of contracts, such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions and commercial real estate, Diligen can dramatically increase productivity. Instead of requiring associates to spend days reviewing contracts, Diligen can complete much of the job in just hours.
But the platform has limited use outside of contract analysis. It functions best when documents are properly formatted and machine-readable.
Plus, it has a limited ability to suggest the implications of its findings. This means you’ll still need human attorneys to review the identified clauses to better understand their importance.
6. Clio Manage AI
For existing Clio customers, Clio Manage AI is a way to incorporate an AI platform into their existing legal practice management platform. Clio Manage AI offers a comprehensive suite of AI-powered solutions, such as document drafting, workflow optimization, and automated task management.
The platform is good at learning from your firm’s existing documents and templates. This helps it draft documents and communications in your firm’s voice while also identifying bottlenecks and opportunities for faster processes. If you’re already a Clio customer, you’ll find the interface intuitive.
But if you’re not already with Clio, Clio Manage AI will require a high cost to switch over, which may not be worthwhile. Plus, Clio’s focus is on standardizing workflows and processes, which doesn’t work well with firms that have developed their own highly customized approach.
7. CoCounsel
CoCounsel was developed by Thomson Reuters specifically for the legal industry. Built on GPT-4 and Westlaw and Practical Law content, it can help with reviewing documents, preparing depositions, and analyzing contracts.
CoCounsel excels at sophisticated legal research and document analysis, which can save attorneys a significant amount of time. Because it was built specifically for legal applications, CoCounsel tends to be more reliable and accurate than more general AI platforms.
That said, just like with any AI tool, CoCounsel can make mistakes. Attorneys still need to verify any claims and citations. And because it works best with complex legal matters, its price is similarly high. That may make it unsuitable for smaller firms with a lower budget or simpler cases.
8. Smith.ai
Smith.ai is a receptionist service that combines AI with built-in human oversight to help with client intake, scheduling appointments, and routine client communication. The platform focuses more on engaging potential and current clients rather than with substantive case management.
For that reason, it can be a good tool for identifying potential clients and growing your business. It can qualify leads and respond to prospective clients who call or message outside of business hours.
Consumer-facing firms, such as those practicing in personal injury and criminal defense, will likely get the most benefit out of Smith.ai.
But because it's focused more on the client experience, you’ll need to invest in other AI tools for more substantive legal tasks, like document review and contract analysis.
9. Eudia
Eudia’s AI platform is focused on the legal needs of Fortune 500 companies. It can assist with drafting contracts, deliver insights into proposed M&A deals based on historic data, and ensure legal compliance.
Eudia’s predictive capabilities enable enterprise companies to make more informed decisions about business strategy and resource allocation. Every contract reviewed also helps Eudia improve its future results.
But, Eudia has limited application to firms that aren’t working with enterprise clients. Because it’s mostly for large firms, its pricing may be out of reach for solo attorneys and small companies.
Benefits of AI Tools in Law Firms
AI tools have the power to fundamentally transform how your law firm operates. From boosting productivity to creating a better client experience, here are just some of the benefits of AI tools for law firms.
Boosts Productivity
AI tools can be used to significantly cut down on time-consuming, repetitive tasks, such as document review, contract analysis, legal research, and client communication.
These tasks, which would normally account for a large amount of attorney and staff time, can now be done in minutes with AI.
According to the Legal Trends Report, 74% of hourly billable tasks could potentially be automated by AI. This provides an impressive productivity boost for law firms that implement AI technology strategically.
Saves Time
Law firms can cut down significantly on the amount of time attorneys and staff take to complete routine tasks. According to the Federal Bar Association, 65% of law firms that use AI saved between 1 and 5 hours of work per week, while 19% saw more than 6 hours saved per week.
These savings accumulate over the year and represent time savings of hundreds and even thousands of hours.
By building an effective client experience strategy that incorporates AI tools, such as AI-drafted client communication and automatic case updates, firms can save time while focusing on more complex tasks and building closer connections with high-value clients.
Enhances Work Quality
AI has the potential to dramatically cut down on human error, which helps to improve the overall quality of your firm’s work. AI tools are not prone to missing clauses or relevant case law because of fatigue or time pressure. They deliver consistent results no matter the workload.
Unlike traditional research methods, AI can analyze thousands of cases in minutes. This helps you identify patterns and precedents that human researchers might miss.
By enhancing your research capabilities, your firm’s partners will be able to deliver a higher level of legal expertise in a fraction of the time.
Improving Client Experience
One of the most transformative aspects of AI’s use in the legal industry is in the client experience. Our research shows that 86% of attorneys are still relying on phone or email to provide clients with daily case status updates.
These manual updates are time-consuming and prone to inconsistency, which creates a worse client experience. AI tools can provide clients with automated daily case updates, 24/7 answers to routine questions, and can draft communications that reflect your firm’s tone and voice.
By understanding how to improve law firm client experience through AI, you can transform clients into promoters, generating long-term referral growth.
Choosing the Right AI Tool for Your Firm
With so many AI tools to choose from, it can be hard to decide which one is right for your law firm. The key is to evaluate how each tool aligns with your firm’s processes and goals. Consider these along with fundamental performance metrics that are essential for every legal AI tool.
Evaluate Security
Security is the top priority when evaluating AI tools for the legal industry. Your firm handles confidential communications and sensitive client data, all of which must be carefully guarded.
Look for tools that offer law firm communication security guarantees, such as data encryption in transit and at rest; authentication mechanisms; and compliance with SOC 2, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Make sure you understand whether or not the AI platform will be using your firm’s data to train its AI model. This could potentially expose your clients’ confidential information.
Identify Specific Needs
AI works best when it addresses your firm’s unique pain points and opportunities. Understand what those pain points and opportunities are for your firm, such as any repetitive tasks that are consuming a large amount of resources.
These tasks might include client communication, case research, document drafting, or contract review. When you know what your specific needs are, you can then better identify the AI tools best equipped to address them.
User Interface and Ease of Use
User experience quality is an important but often overlooked element of successful AI implementation. If your AI tool is difficult for attorneys and staff to use, they’re more likely to give up on it and stick to familiar routines, no matter how inefficient those routines may be.
Test out AI tools with tasks that are common at your firm. Look for tools that are intuitive, have clear workflows, and require a minimal learning curve.
Integration Capabilities
When evaluating different AI tools, make sure you choose one that fully integrates with your existing technology infrastructure. This should include billing platforms, document management systems, and case management software.
Poor integration risks creating data silos, reducing efficiency gains, and leading to duplicate data entries.
We recommend you explore all of Case Status’s integrations to see how our AI technology can be seamlessly incorporated into your existing workflow to provide even greater productivity and time-saving gains.
Vendor Reputation and Support
Vendor reputation plays a big part in ensuring your AI tool can continue paying dividends for your firm over the long-term. AI technology is advancing rapidly, so you want a reputable vendor that will provide ongoing support and updates.
Evaluate vendors on their financial stability, track record in the legal industry, and their security and legal compliance commitments. Your vendor should provide ongoing technical support, regular product updates, and training resources.
Assess AI Hype
While AI has the potential to deliver impressive benefits to law firms, you should be wary of vendors that promise revolutionary results without the data or track record to back up those claims.
Ask for evidence of the product’s benefits, such as case studies, demos, and third-party verification of any claimed benefits.
Be especially skeptical of vendors who promise to replace staff with AI. Responsible AI vendors understand that AI is a tool that augments human expertise, it doesn’t replace it.
Whichever tool you use should be able to address your firm’s specific challenges, which may range from cutting down on time spent on drafting documents to building an effective client experience strategy.
Final Thoughts on AI Tools for Lawyers
The right legal AI tool has the potential to transform your law firm’s workflow, productivity, and customer experience.
But choosing the right tool requires understanding your firm’s unique challenges. At the same time, you need to carefully assess each vendor’s security commitments, integration capabilities, reputation, and support.
The AI tools we’ve listed above have their unique strengths that can pay dividends for your law firm over time.
With a tool like Case Status AI, you can get more work done in less time and dramatically improve the client experience. This allows you to deliver a higher level of legal expertise that will make your firm stand out against the competition.
Ready to transform your practice with AI? Discover how Case Status AI can boost productivity, streamline your workflow, and keep clients satisfied. Schedule a demo today!
