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How are solicitors using AI safely?
Start with a task based on public or approved files. For a conveyancing firm, that could be a draft client intake checklist. A solicitor checks it against the firm’s guide before staff use it. Keep client advice with the person responsible for it.
You do not need to put a live client file into a tool to explore this. The prompt below helps you find a useful office task and plan the checks.
Try the promptChoose a source. Name a checker. Try a small task.
Look at work inside the firm
Ask your team which steps they repeat when a new client gets in touch. Look at the first call, the forms and the next handover. Pick a task with a clear source and someone who knows the right answer.
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Walk through a recent example. Where do people wait or copy text? What do they need at the end? Use that view to choose a small test. Keep the trial away from live client advice while you learn how much checking the draft needs.
Choose the files and the checker
Use a small set of current files that the firm has agreed you can share. Give each file a name, a date and an owner. Say which questions the draft should answer.
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Decide who will check the result before you start. Ask that person to mark missing facts and changed meanings. Keep the source beside the draft. If the answer needs a fact outside the pack, send the question to the right person. Leave the gap clear until someone checks it.
Check the work outside the chat
The SRA warns that AI can produce false details, including made-up cases. Its guidance also covers the risk of sharing private client data. Read that guidance before choosing a task or tool.
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Open each source yourself. For a case reference, check that the case exists and supports the point being made. Asking the same chat to confirm its own answer is not a source check. Keep the firm’s review and sign-off steps in place as you test.
Read the source: SRA: misuse of AI
Not sure where to start?
Find a sensible task for your firm
Use this prompt to talk through office work. Describe the job in broad terms. Leave out client names, case facts and private staff records.
Try this in your AI app
ChatGPT
Claude
Gemini
CodexUsing Gemini? The button copies the prompt. Paste it into the new chat.
Help me find a client intake task where our conveyancing firm could test AI.
Interview me one question at a time. Ask how work moves through the firm, what staff type more than once and where they wait for answers. Ask what a finished task should achieve.
Explore tasks based on the firm’s approved intake guide we have permission to use. Do not ask me to upload client files. Ask which current document holds the facts and who owns it.
For each possible task, ask who could check the result and how they would spot a wrong answer. Include a test with missing or out-of-date facts.
Repeat back what you think we want to improve. Let me correct it. Then give me a short table of possible tasks, source files, checks and open questions.
Suggest one first trial. Keep legal advice and final approval with the firm. Do not invent case references, duties or results.
Watch Warren's story
Warren learnt to work from his own sources
We set up Warren’s Claude Project with notes on his role and a hotel-standards file. In Leader Lab, we checked the answers against that source. Warren went from trying AI without a clear plan to building a reporting dashboard for his hotel work.
Read the source: Warren’s Leader Lab story
Testimonial · 0:24
"I’ve learned more than I have playing around with it in the last couple of months."
Warren Lavender · Luxury hospitality
Worked example
Prepare a conveyancing intake checklist
A conveyancing firm wants a clearer start for new clients buying a home. It tests a draft intake checklist using its staff guide and made-up client details. The draft lists what to ask at the first call and who handles each next step.
One page of the guide has no deadline for a follow-up. The draft must flag that gap. It should not supply a date that sounds right. A solicitor checks the list and asks the guide’s owner to settle the missing point. Staff then walk through a sample enquiry before using the approved checklist.
Made-up example.
Firm’s guide
Use the agreed conveyancing intake steps.
Draft list
Show missing details and open questions.
Solicitor’s check
Review the list before staff use it.
A few more things to know
Agree how client data may be used
The ICO’s AI guidance covers personal data, including the need to limit what you use and protect it. Review the exact service, account and settings before sharing real records.
Removing a name may leave facts that still point to a person. For early tests, write an invented file from scratch. Ask who can access uploads and saved chats. Decide how staff should report a mistake and who will decide what happens next.
Read the source: ICO: guidance on AI and personal data
Keep a record of what went wrong
Test a blank page, an old date and two files that disagree. Write down what the correct response should do. Keep that answer sheet apart from the tool’s input.
Compare the output with the sheet. Note every missed gap and each extra claim. Count the time spent reviewing and fixing it. If the work takes longer or hides errors, change the task or stop. Try the same tests again when you change the files, tool or brief.
Can we use AI for case research?
Follow the firm’s rules and the SRA guidance linked above. Check every case and the point it is meant to support in the original source. Keep a solicitor responsible for the work.
What if staff have not used AI before?
Begin with a made-up office task and a source they already know. Let them see a wrong answer, find the error and practise the review before working with real files.