Your practice is the most important part

Issue 56 

Here is an all-too familiar story: a lawyer decides they are ready to find an AI tool to help improve their practice. They begin surveying their options, and in no time, they feel paralyzed by the endless choices. So, the lawyer uses the information they already have about AI tools to make their decision. Some lawyers pick a tool like ChatGPT because they know that it’s popular among lawyers and it’s relatively affordable. Other lawyers pick the legal-specific tool that someone they know and trust is already using.  

Many of the lawyers in both of those camps start using their new AI tool, only to wonder, is this really what all the hype is about?  

If you’ve been underwhelmed by the AI tools you’ve used so far, here are some considerations that might help you move forward.   

The AI tool market is the wild west  

Selecting an AI tool for a law practice is not like selecting practice management software. The market for practice management software is mature, with an established range of features and price points and a handful of top contenders recognized by the industry. It’s relatively easy to compare the options and decide which features are worth paying for and which company feels like the right match.  

In contrast, the legal market for AI tools is currently the wild west. There are hundreds of companies offering AI tool solutions that in most cases cannot be compared apples to apples. AI tools for lawyers can do many different things, but no one AI tool does them all. There are AI tools that offer extremely niche solutions to problems faced by lawyers, and AI tools that try to broadly cover many possible friction points a lawyer could experience in their workflow. Some AI tools are intended to make lawyers more efficient, some AI tools are intended to improve the quality of a lawyer’s work, and some try to do both. Some AI tools attempt to provide security and confidentiality standards that align with lawyers’ professional responsibilities, while others don’t. While there are a few AI tools that are commanding the majority of the attention from the press, independent evaluations of AI tools for lawyers are still in their infancy.  

It’s no wonder that lawyers feel overwhelmed by the AI tool options available. Ultimately, the way to cut through this overwhelm is to change the way you search for AI solutions. Searching for AI tools with the potential to make a meaningful difference to your practice requires a more personalized approach. 

The point at which you search for an AI solution matters 

If you want to drastically improve your chances of being satisfied with the AI tool you select, you need to start by figuring out what you need, then look for the solution that best meets your needs – not the other way around. Many lawyers are skipping the step of figuring out which AI tool features are likely to have the greatest impact on their unique practices, jumping straight to considering the AI tools on the market, trying to make an educated guess about which features will be most helpful, and ultimately feeling underwhelmed with their results.  

Your practice is the most important part 

Your practice is the most important part of your search for an AI solution. Your firm has its own unique culture surrounding technology, workflow, and existing set of technology solutions. The best AI tool for your practice may be completely different than the best AI tool for your biggest competitor. Ultimately, how an AI tool can work for you and serve your practice is all that matters. If you don’t have clarity about what your practice truly needs, you can’t have confidence in the tool you pick. Once you have clarity about the features that are most likely to make an impact on your practice, it becomes simpler to identify and evaluate the solutions available to you. 

How to Pick the Best AI Tools for Your Practice 

I created an on-demand CLE to help lawyers bypass AI tool overwhelm and identify the AI solutions that match their needs. It’s called How to Pick the Best AI Tools for Your Law Practice.  

The CLE walks you step-by-step through: 

• How to figure out where an AI tool could actually make a meaningful difference in your unique practice, 
• What independent evaluations of AI tools for lawyers have revealed about the best uses for AI in legal practice so far, 
• How to assess potential AI tool solutions, and 
• How to implement and govern your selected AI tool(s). 

At the end of the two-hour CLE, you’ll have a roadmap to guide you through the process of picking the best AI tools for your practice with clarity and confidence.  

The CLE has been accredited in 10+ states, and is available now. You can register here for instant access.  

Thanks for being here.  

Jennifer Ballard 

Good Journey Consulting