Top 5 AI Prompts Every Legal Professional Should Know

Tired of spending long hours at your desk? AI prompts for lawyers are your shortcut to faster contract drafting, case strategizing, research, and more.

We’ve seen firsthand how legal workflows are enhanced with AI to streamline work. Before using AI, it would take us hours to draft contracts. Now, with the right AI prompts, we can complete the same job in minutes. 

In this guide, we explore the best prompts you can use.

Understanding AI for Lawyers

Think AI doesn’t belong in your law office? Think again. From contract drafting to document review, AI speeds up repetitive tasks and allows you to focus on strategic legal work.

Imagine cutting contract review time in half. Tools powered by natural language processing (NLP) can review, analyze, and summarize contracts in minutes. AI can also provide insights into contract language, giving you the strategic edge in negotiations.

It has been estimated that AI can automate approximately 44% of legal tasks, freeing up hours of your day.

5 Best AI Prompts for Lawyers

Ready to see how AI can transform your workflow? Here are five of the best AI prompts for lawyers.

Prompts for Contract Drafting

Lawyers can speed up drafting a legal document by prompting AI tools for assistance. Prompts give structure to your request and help the AI generate more relevant content. 

To do so, use a prompt like this:

"Draft a confidentiality clause for an NDA between a tech startup and a freelance developer. Include details on non-disclosure, data security, and duration of the agreement."

Use this as a starting point and refine it for your client’s needs. More details yield better results. 

Pro Hack: Spellbook refers to its clause library to suggest clauses based on best practices to help ensure your language is airtight. 

Contract Review Prompt

Manually reviewing contracts can take hours. AI can enhance contract review, spotting red flags and inconsistencies in minutes. One study showed that AI achieved an average accuracy rate of 94% in spotting risks in non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), compared to an average of 85% for experienced lawyers.

Example prompt:

"Review this service agreement for missing indemnity and termination clauses. Highlight any inconsistent terms related to payment timelines or deliverables."

This helps you analyze contracts more efficiently and accurately.

Prompt to Summarize a Contract

Want to review a 100-page contract quickly? Tell AI to summarize a legal agreement, and it will extract actionable insights and key takeaways to save you time. 

Example prompt:

"Summarize this lease agreement. Include the parties' names, the lease term, payment obligations, renewal options, and penalties for early termination."

Researchers found that 77% of legal professionals already use AI to summarize documents. Why not give it a try and reap the benefits for yourself?

Pro Tip: AI summaries are a great starting point, but always review and refine them to ensure thorough legal accuracy.

Proofread Contract Prompt

An unclear section or a misplaced comma in a contract can lead to costly misunderstandings. AI tools help spot grammatical errors and ambiguous and inconsistent phrasing. Humans can overlook errors, but AI catches nearly all of them. 

Here’s a sample proofreading prompt:

"Proofread this contract for grammar and punctuation errors. Highlight any inconsistencies in language, tone, or formatting."  

Spellbook can automatically proofread documents in Microsoft Word–no prompts needed. Ambiguous language? It suggests fixes for that, too. 

With Spellbook, you get a reliable assistant that rarely misses a detail, helping you review contracts with speed and confidence.

AI polishes your document, but you should always review it for nuanced legal language and potential legal errors.  

Prompt to Conduct Legal Research

Legal research is time-consuming. AI assists by responding to tailored prompts, cutting legal research time in half, and helping you quickly analyze case law and build arguments in minutes.

Example prompt:

"Find recent case law related to breach of contract claims involving non-compete agreements. Provide a structured summary of the cases and highlight the outcomes, citations, and key takeaways for legal arguments."

With 55% of law firms set to optimize legal research through AI, it’s a valuable tool to give you case insights in minutes. 

Practical Ways for Lawyers to Write AI Prompts

AI can make legal work faster and more efficient, but it all comes down to the prompts. Automated prompts assist in drafting and reviewing documents, but how do you improve them? Here are some tips:

Research Legal Precedents

AI-assisted legal research could reduce research time by up to 70% compared to traditional methods. Plus, AI stays sharp and consistently focused, unlike us humans. This makes AI tools ideal for pulling case precedents effectively.

Here’s an example of a refined prompt for law citations:

“Find California wrongful termination cases (2015–2023) where non-compete clauses were unenforceable.”

Tip: AI may pull inaccurate cases, so always double-check its output. Be clear and specific by including jurisdictions, legal issues, and date ranges for optimal results. 

Look for Potential Legal Questions

A great lawyer is proactive and anticipates questions the other party might ask. AI can help you identify potential legal issues and questions, giving you a head start at meetings and hearings. But how do you create a good prompt for legal questions? 

"List common employment law questions on wrongful termination and severance agreements.”

For stronger legal prompts, be even more specific and include industry, case type, and legal concerns. 

Researchers have found that AI tools can save the average lawyer 132 to 210 hours in legal research per year. It’s a significant time-saver, especially when you’re buried with too much work. Remember, always use AI for insights, but trust your expertise for client needs.

Proofread Legal Documents

AI catches errors you might miss, making legal proofreading faster. A LexisNexis survey found that 90% of the sample legal documents contained errors, highlighting the prevalence of proofreading mistakes. Even more concerning, 33% of lawyers surveyed admitted they skipped proofreading because it’s too time-consuming.

To proofread legal documents with AI, review them in stages:

1. Use AI to catch grammar, spelling, and formatting errors. 
2. Manually review to ensure legal accuracy. 

Example prompt: 

"Proofread this employment contract for errors in grammar, punctuation, formatting, and tone consistency, while maintaining proper legal language."

Combining AI efficiency with human expertise results in polished, error-free legal documents while accelerating proofreading.

Assess Drafts of Documents

Getting a fresh perspective on your initial document drafts can be tricky. Use AI to identify redundancy and ambiguous language in your drafts.

Tip: Use Spellbook to spot language errors and inconsistencies in seconds. It provides suggestions for corrections, which you can approve with one click. It also offers explanations for its suggestions that you can easily copy and paste.

Legal strategies are refined using AI, and AI helps you draft more accurate and concise documents. Today, 72% of legal professionals believe AI is a ‘force for good’ in the legal field. Why not give it a try?

Create Discovery Questions

When drafting discovery documents, AI can generate initial questions to gather facts, request documents, and clarify case details. The goal is to draft using AI, then fine-tune the language for case specifics.

Research suggests that formulating a set of instructions and clear guidelines helps AI produce high-quality output. Accordingly, specifying a case type (personal injury, fraud), key issues (liability, damages), and the opposing party’s position can help AI draft initial discovery questions. 

Example prompt: 

"Draft discovery questions for a personal injury negligence case against a rideshare company, covering liability, causation, damages, medical records, eyewitness accounts, and expert testimonies.”

Use AI Prompts for Lawyers Today

AI prompts help lawyers work smarter, not harder, freeing up time on tasks such as contract drafting, research, and proofreading. As a result, they can focus more on delivering quality legal services to clients. 

To benefit from AI, try Spellbook. It’s specifically built for lawyers, and it comes ready to draft and review contracts with more precision than basic online AI tools. Instead of juggling multiple tools, you get a comprehensive solution that integrates with Microsoft Word. 

Key Takeaways

• AI prompts for lawyers can significantly save time in contract drafting, review, proofreading, and other tasks.
• Adding specific details, such as jurisdiction, date range, and case issues, to your prompts helps AI generate relevant and accurate responses.
• AI can help you improve efficiency, but you must review all content for final judgment and nuanced decision-making.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can AI Prompts Help with Legal Client Service?

AI prompts can help streamline client service by providing quick, consistent answers to legal FAQs, directing clients to resources, and automating new matter intakes. However, AI cannot replace legal professionals and must be monitored for accuracy.

How Can AI Prompts Enhance Legal Document Drafting?

AI prompts simplify legal drafting by helping AI generate drafts, suggest language, and identify key issues. Spellbook integrates with Word for seamless legal document drafting.

How Do I Train My AI Tool to Understand Complex Legal Prompts?

Start by using precise language that clearly defines legal terms and context. Provide examples, such as past case precedents, contract templates, and legal references, to help AI generate more accurate outputs.

AI tools like Spellbook are already pre-trained on legal documents and built for law firms, so you can start generating and reviewing content instantly. No extra setup needed.