Using AI in legal work without risking confidentiality or accuracy

AI tools can now produce a first draft of a letter, summarise a long judgment or find the relevant clause in a stack of contracts in seconds. Used well, they give lawyers back hours every week. Used carelessly, they create two risks the profession cannot accept: confidential information leaving the firm, and confident-sounding text that is simply wrong.

These five rules keep the benefit and remove most of the risk.

1. Know where client data goes

Before anyone pastes a client document into an AI tool, the firm should know where that text is sent, whether it is stored, and whether it may be used to train someone else's model. Consumer chat tools are rarely the right answer for client material. Use tools the firm has approved, with terms that protect client confidentiality.

2. Ground the AI in your own documents

A general model answering from memory will fill gaps with plausible inventions. A system that answers from the documents on the matter — and shows which document each statement came from — is far easier to check and far less likely to invent.

3. A lawyer signs off on everything that leaves the firm

AI output is a draft, never advice. Every letter, clause or summary that goes to a client or a court must be read and approved by a lawyer who takes responsibility for it, exactly as they would for a trainee's work.

4. Verify every citation and figure

If a draft cites a judgment, an article of a law or a number, check it against the source. Invented references are the most common and most damaging AI error, and they are the easiest to catch if checking is a habit.

5. Keep a record

Record which tool was used on which matter and who reviewed the result. If a question is ever raised, the firm can show exactly how the work was produced and checked.

Where AI helps most today

• first drafts of routine correspondence,
• summaries of long documents and hearing notes,
• finding clauses and facts across a matter's documents,
• turning notes into a structured update for the client.

Lexivo's AI works inside each firm's own workspace, answers from the firm's matter documents with sources shown, and leaves every final decision with the lawyer.