ChatGPT and AI in the legal profession – increasing efficiency, minimizing risks

Artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally changing the legal profession. AI-powered tools like ChatGPT enable lawyers to conduct extensive legal research in seconds, automate routine tasks, and review contracts more efficiently.

But how can AI be meaningfully integrated into the day-to-day work of a law firm? What opportunities does it offer for legal departments – and what risks need to be considered? While AI can increase the efficiency of legal professionals, the responsible handling of sensitive data remains a key challenge for law firms and legal departments.

AI in legal practice – the three most important areas of application

The use of legal AI is no longer a vision of the future in law firms and legal departments. The use of AI-supported tools has already proven itself in these three areas:

1. Efficient legal research

Traditional legal research can be time-consuming. AI-supported search and analysis tools significantly accelerate this process by making it easier to find relevant judgments, commentaries, and laws.

According to Anwaltsrevue (2023), AI models can “support data analysis and information gathering”, but it remains the job of lawyers to evaluate, interpret and contextualize this information. This means that AI can be an efficient support, but it does not make independent legal decisions.

Advantages of AI-supported legal research:

• Faster processing of legal issues through intelligent search algorithms

• Automatic identification of relevant judgments and changes in legislation

• Higher precision through context-related results

2. Automated document creation

The creation of contracts, written submissions and expert opinions takes up a lot of time in law firms and legal departments. AI-powered document generation tools help to automate documents, create and review boilerplate text more efficiently, using predefined templates or targeted questions and automatically inserting relevant data.

By using automated document generation, legal professionals not only save time, but also minimize errors, increase standardization and facilitate collaboration with other teams – especially with business.

Why this is important:

• Reduction of manual work à More time for core legal activities

• Avoiding errors & minimizing risk through standardized templates and automatic data integration

• Higher compliance through structured workflows and centrally updated templates

For us, it is clear: while AI facilitates document creation, the final legal review and responsibility should still lie with the lawyers.

3. Automated document review and contract analysis

Contract reviews are often time-consuming and prone to error. AI-powered contract analysis helps identify risks, highlight potentially problematic clauses, and suggest improvements.

The use of AI for automated contract review promises not only an increase in efficiency but also a higher quality of analysis. Instead of going through a contract manually, lawyers can now benefit from intelligent algorithms that identify discrepancies, missing clauses or potential liability risks in seconds.

How AI improves contract analysis:

• Identification of potential risks in contract clauses

• Suggestions for alternative formulations based on best practices

• Automatic comparison with internal standards (benchmarking)

Data protection and professional confidentiality: the deciding factor in the use of AI in law firms

The use of ChatGPT and Legal AI in law firms brings not only advantages but also significant challenges – particularly regarding data protection, professional confidentiality and regulatory requirements.

Many common AI models, including ChatGPT, are cloud-based and process input on external servers, often outside the EU. This poses a significant risk for law firms, as sensitive client data could be processed and possibly stored. Careless use of such systems can violate data protection regulations such as the GDPR and, in the worst case, constitute a violation of the attorney-client privilege.

CASUS: AI specifically for lawyers – with the highest data protection standards

When using AI in law firms and legal departments, confidentiality and security are paramount. CASUS was developed specifically for legal practice and guarantees the highest data protection and security standards.

What CASUS offers to law firms and legal departments:

• AI-supported contract review & document analysis to identify risks, avoid errors, make informed decisions

• Automated document creation

• ChatGPT in a protected environment – specifically for lawyers, without data protection risks

• Automated processes & workflows – more efficient workflows without manual errors

With CASUS, law firms can take advantage of AI without compromising on data protection or professional confidentiality.

Conclusion: AI is changing the legal industry – but carefully

Law firms that use AI in a targeted and strategic way will work more efficiently and remain competitive in the long term – while those that rely exclusively on manual processes will increasingly fall behind. AI will not replace lawyers, but it can make their work more efficient, precise and future proof.