Most attorneys know Practical Law as the trusted, up-to-date legal know-how platform that helps them get accurate answers across major practice areas. Its newest enhancement, Search & Summarize Practical Law is a generative AI search tool that dramatically improves the way you access the trusted expertise from Practical Law.
“Search & Summarize Practical Law is a generative AI-based, question-and-answer tool that dramatically improves the way our customers access the legal expertise in Practical Law,” says Kristin Delaney, Director of Product Management for Practical Law.
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Search & Summarize Practical Law
See how you can get to the answers faster.
Jump to:
 | Conversational experience |
 | The power of generative AI |
| What if Practical Law doesn’t know an answer? |
 | Validation and review |
 | Using Search & Summarize Practical Law |
Conversational experience
Using natural language questions, attorneys can find specific answers that fit their questions. Search & Summarize Practical Law takes that comprehensive set of legal know-how resources and helps users zero in on the answer they need to get started with their matter.
“This isn’t a generic chatbot,” says Delaney. “It’s an AI-based search, retrieval, and summary tool. Users don’t need to be fluent in the specifics of their queries. They can ask questions using everyday language and get quickly into the Practical Law resources.”
The power of generative AI
Traditional artificial intelligence has been part of the search capability of Practical Law for years. Now, Search & Summarize Practical Law uses generative AI to create a fresh response tailored specifically to an attorney’s question, adding more power to a traditional set of search results. This tool synthesizes the most relevant Practical Law know-how content into a single response with citations to the underlying resources. “A new attorney can get up to speed fast on a new issue and they can feel confident as they find better resources right on point. They don’t need a regimented keyword query with our proprietary search technology. That saves time and builds confidence in their work product,” says Delaney. The same is true for a seasoned attorney working in a new practice area.
“We’ve all heard horror stories where generative AI just makes things up. That doesn’t work for the legal industry. They have to trust the content that AI serves up. With Search & Summarize Practical Law, all the responses are based on the expert resources of Practical Law that have been created and curated by more than 650 bar-admitted attorney editors.”
What if Practical Law doesn’t know an answer?
If a user asks a question that can’t be answered from within the verified content of Practical Law (i.e., a query about divorce law), the tool will respond accordingly. And while the broad data of Practical Law means this isn’t common, it’s good to know that a search only returns information from the universe of Practical Law.
Validation and review
Search & Summarize Practical Law provides fast and accurate answers, but as with any AI tool, the ability to validate the information is important. It provides summarized answers grounded in Practical Law know-how while connecting you to deeper insights. And with each response, the tool provides supporting resources for easy review.
For example, a traditional search on indemnification provisions may return hundreds of results. If a user asks a question about indemnification with this tool, Search & Summarize Practical Law is able to identify the most relevant resources, then summarize and combine their elements and information into a summary with supporting materials. The time savings between reading just a few pages and reading hundreds of pages is substantial, especially when a client or partner is waiting. In addition to the hyperlinks in the summary, the supporting resources used to generate the answer are also accessible, allowing users to continue their research by scanning or reading passages, or digging deeper into the cited materials.
Using Search & Summarize Practical Law
For users of Practical Law’s Dynamic Tool Set with CoCounsel, Search & Summarize Practical Law will be an additional feature within the set, joining Knowledge Map, Quick Compare, What’s Market Analytics, Dynamic Search, and Interactive Matter Maps. For attorneys without a subscription to Practical Law, this enhancement makes the legal know-how platform an even greater return on investment.
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– Kristin Delaney
 | Using Search & Summarize Practical LawLearn more about Search & Summarize Practical Law |
