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Artificial Intelligence

Five good tech habits to help attorneys work with confidence

· 6 minute read

· 6 minute read

Build stronger workflows with strategic technology

Attorneys, like most professionals, face challenges such as maintaining work-life balance. While work hours and deadlines are often beyond your control, you can improve other aspects of the job simply by creating a few good habits so you can breathe easier and work with confidence. Review the following aspects of your work process to identify opportunities for improvement. Your future self might just thank you. 

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1. Make the most of existing knowledge


2. Commit to staying informed


3. Sharpen your legal research skills


4. Never leave your work vulnerable


5. Believe in yourself

1. Make the most of existing knowledge

Look around you. How much collective expertise do your peers have? Probably a lot. The challenge is putting that knowledge to work for you in a way that is systematic and repeatable. You and your colleagues are busy with new clients, cases, and matters, which can make documenting success stories or categorizing work product low priorities. 

What if you could rely on something more than your peers’ institutional knowledge and goodwill? What if there were existing services or resources that could help you start down the path quickly and confidently? Imagine being able to engage in your work without having to build your knowledge from the ground up. 

Using existing knowledge effectively can help you stay ahead in your work. While collaborating with colleagues is valuable, there are other resources to consult first. Consider using expert-created content written in plain English, like that within Practical Law. When you work with a reliable source of information and know-how, you’ll start each legal matter with a solid understanding of the law and path forward. 

2. Commit to staying informed

One of the primary challenges in legal practice is the ever-changing nature of the law. Small modifications can have a significant impact on the manner and effectiveness of your work. Staying informed of every change in state, local, and federal law isn’t practical. Yet all attorneys need to ensure their work product reflects a current understanding of the law. 

For some, this gets slightly easier with experience. The pace of change doesn’t slow down for anyone, but experienced attorneys can notice patterns when history starts repeating itself. Nevertheless, even the sagest senior partner recognizes the limits of one person’s knowledge. When changes in the law do happen, a seasoned professional can quickly land in uncharted waters.  

Due to the fast-paced nature of the law, it’s important to include recency and accuracy checks in your workflow. Look to your peers for expertise and wisdom. They’ve earned it. But when it comes to hard data on changes in the law, adopt a “trust, verify, and check the date” attitude toward the information you’ll be counting on.  

 

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Thanks to technology’s nonstop progress including the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) finding information keeps getting easier. You just have to ensure it’s the right information.  

 As the volume and quality of search results increases, our own tolerance for imperfect results has decreased. For attorneys, this is especially true. Some search results merely point attorneys in a direction, with much work left to do. Using the incorrect AI tool can point you in the wrong direction. 

However, the right technology can help. Westlaw, for example, uses an advanced search engine built specifically for legal practice. Its platform is built on data backed by 150 years of legal expertise, and the output is supported by easy to verify source materials. It is important to remember that while technology enhances capabilities, professional expertise is required for it to be truly effective.  

Even experienced attorneys need to know how to effectively research legal issues. To that end, attorneys should look for and use built-in support from their legal research tools. In the case of Westlaw, that includes support from our reference attorneys — bar-licensed attorneys deeply versed in legal research. They are available to assist you in optimizing the use of this technology, ensuring that you get the most out of your research efforts.  

4. Never leave your work vulnerable

Quality control should already be part of your workflow, but the best lawyers always see room for improvement. Litigators know the importance of crafting ironclad work, as opposing counsel are always waiting for their chance to exploit any weakness. While the risks are different for transactional attorneys, they’re not absent. 

Prepare your work for the challenges it will face by taking advantage of peer review or resources that will assist you in your drafting and document curating process. The AI tools in CoCounsel, for instance, can help you spot and fix weaknesses in your research and arguments.  

Resources like these are invaluable investments for clients seeking a fresh perspective and objective review of their work.  

5. Believe in yourself

This final bit of advice is more concrete than it sounds, and it’s really a continuation of the previous tip. It’s common to doubt yourself — even more so for people whose work is subject to intense scrutiny. So, make it a habit to identify where you can incorporate technology and human expertise into your workflows. Then, breathe a little easier. 

Once you’ve done your due diligence and ensured your work is as solid as possible, by using the available tools and quality checks, you can confidently move to the next task. 

You’ll never lose the drive for perfection — if anything, it will increase as technology continues to raise the bar. By incorporating trusted tools and seeking human feedback at selective points in the process, you can feel more confident in your results. You can amass evidence that “you’ve got this,” allowing you to submit work product with conviction. 

CoCounsel from Thomson Reuters empowers you to deliver exceptional results with speed and precision, no matter where you’re working. Find out how. 

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