Revolutionizing Law: The Top Three Uses of ChatGPT in the Legal Industry

ChatGPT is the new kid on the block—and unless you’ve been living under a rock with no WiFi, you’ve heard about it.   

ChatGPT and other AI technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way we work, but many law firms are understandably cautious. AI has its drawbacks, many of which we may not even know about yet, and lawyers want to protect their firm and their clients. 

While ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies can’t, and shouldn’t, replace much of the work that legal experts accomplish for their clients, that doesn’t mean law firms should avoid AI at all costs.  

There are plenty of responsible use cases where AI tools can help law firms dramatically improve workflows and efficiencies while maintaining compliance, for example, in areas like client intake and communications.  

Rocket Matter’s new ChatGPT integration is designed to bring the benefits of ChatGPT to your legal practice management software without the risk. With this integration, legal professionals can take advantage of ChatGPT from their Rocket Matter software directly, while adding additional security measures to protect your firm from liability. 

Let’s explore the top three ways you can use ChatGPT to launch your legal practice to new heights! 

What is ChatGPT? 

ChatGPT falls under a new class of technology called generative AI—artificial intelligence that can create work products similar to what people can create themselves. This type of AI can produce art, text, video, and even audio content. 

ChatGPT is a language processing model, sometimes called a “large language model” or “LLM,” designed to respond to user-generated prompts and questions in a conversational tone. ChatGPT was trained on common crawl web data (what you can find publicly online). This gives it the ability to mimic the content that already exists online. By referencing vast amounts of information and sources, ChatGPT can perform tasks like writing social media posts, drafting emails, and generating outlines, summaries, and content ideas.  

The company behind ChatGPT is OpenAI, an AI research and development company. While OpenAI was initially a non-profit, it has since transitioned to a private, for-profit company with a commercial partnership with Microsoft. 

When law firms should use their best judgment with ChatGPT 

ChatGPT has access to a vast amount of information, but it doesn't have access to anything published on the internet after September 2021. It also lacks the ability to browse specific sources. Its output may not include the most up-to-date information, especially in areas of the law that include evolving state and federal regulations.  

And you know that phrase, “don’t believe everything you read on the internet”? Remember that ChatGPT is based on public information on the internet. Its output is a reflection of the internet, which means that it’s not always 100% correct.  

Professionals should take all generated content with a grain of salt and have it reviewed for accuracy by a subject matter expert.  

Lawyers across the country are also keeping an eye on privacy laws and copyright infringement concerns. ChatGPT and other generative AI may have copyright implications worldwide, and the EU is currently investigating if ChatGPT violates the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

On the other hand, firms that embrace generative AI have an opportunity to dramatically improve productivity and workflow efficiencies, and AI isn’t going away any time soon. At the end of the day, users that exercise caution and sound judgment can get the benefits of ChatGPT (and there are a lot) while minimizing associated risks.  

For example, law firms that use Rocket Matter’s ChatGPT integration can use generative AI with less risk. By going through Rocket Matter’s system instead of ChatGPT’s website, lawyers protect sensitive data; OpenAI doesn’t use customer-submitted data via their API to train their models or improve their services.  

Three ways law firms can use ChatGPT to improve their productivity 

ChatGPT is most effective when it’s used as a sounding board. This can include rough drafts, content ideas, and other workflows that go through review before it reaches your target audience. This makes it an excellent tool for the client intake process, marketing, and general client communications. 

Here’s how you can implement ChatGPT at your legal practice today. 

1. Drafting client intake document templates 

ChatGPT may not be reliable for generating sound legal documents, but it is a fantastic way to create document templates for future use. With ChatGPT, lawyers can substitute hours of work every month for 30 minutes of work one time. Law firms can use ChatGPT to draft initial document templates for each stage of the client intake process, including service agreements, email reminders, and other welcome documents. 

Document template prompts 

• Draft a welcome letter for a new client joining my law firm for family law. Make the tone… 
• Use the attached document to create a more casual and approachable explanation of our client portal in 500 words or less.