7 AI mistakes you're making as an in-house lawyer (and how to fix them) 🦾

AI can revolutionize legal work.

IF you use it right.

But too many in-house teams get it wrong!

Here’s how to avoid seven common mistakes.

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1️⃣ Treating AI like Google – Google is for finding existing information fast through key word matching. Al prompting is about creating something NEW by giving it the right instructions - usually very detailed, in the same way you would instruct a junior associate on a new task.

2️⃣ Not using a legal tool – Get a tool designed for in-house legal use cases. ChatGPT is good to practise on to build your confidence, but tools designed with our pain points in mind (and the touchpoints where we hang out in-house e.g. Slack, email) are faster, more reliable, secure and compliant.

3️⃣ Not specifying a number – AI loves lists! So take advantage. If you are prompting and ask for "key risks," you might get 3 or 30. Tell the Al exactly how many you need: "List 5 potential risks in this contract."

4️⃣ Not sharing documents – Al works better with full information. If you're summarizing a contract or case law manually, you're making extra work for yourself and increasing the risk of the Al hallucinating. Do yourself a favour and upload the document or link and let it do its thing.

5️⃣ Asking for answers, not explanations – Al is better at reasoning than conclusions. If you jump straight to "what's the answer?" you might get an oversimplified or incorrect response. Try asking it to explain its reasoning, then request a final answer. This is hard for in-house lawyers because from day one you realise the wider business prefer the reverse structure (answer up top; reading reasoning optional!!)

6️⃣ Not giving AI a persona – Al loves to imitate experts. It's a giant copycat! Without a defined role, you'll get inconsistent advice, so give Al a persona: "you are an in-house counsel specializing in tech contracts at a scaling SaaS company. Analyze this clause for compliance risks and list 5 we need to discuss later at our leadership meeting."

7️⃣ Not iterating – One-and-done doesn't work. The Al improves with iteration, so treat it like a conversation - keep adjusting your prompts, be curious, refine as you go.

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