9 Best Legal AI Tools To Boost Your Law Firm Efficiency

You're a busy lawyer trying to juggle clients, cases, research, and a million other things. When you finally drag yourself home after a long day, the last thing you want to do is tackle a mountain of paperwork. But what if technology could help? Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing legal work, and there are some amazing legal AI tools that can boost your productivity and give you back time in your day.

In this guide, we'll explore the most innovative AI tools reshaping legal practices and how to choose the best options for your firm. From research to contract analysis, you'll learn how to leverage legal technology to work smarter, not harder.

Looking for a way to simplify your law firm's operations and improve client satisfaction? Our friendly, knowledgeable virtual receptionists can handle your calls, chats, appointments, and intake, allowing you to focus on practicing law while your leads and clients receive prompt, professional assistance.

What are AI tools for lawyers?

Legal AI tools are software applications that leverage machine learning, natural language processing, and other AI technologies to assist legal professionals in their daily work. These tools are designed to automate and optimize routine tasks, analyze large amounts of legal data, and provide insights to lawyers. Some common use cases include:

• Legal research and document analysis
• Contract review and drafting
• E-discovery and document management
• Predictive analytics for case strategy
• Chatbots for client communication

While the field of legal AI is constantly evolving, with new innovations emerging regularly, the ultimate goal remains the same: to help attorneys work more efficiently and effectively while providing better service to their clients.

The benefits of legal AI tools

Integrating AI tools into your legal practice can offer significant benefits that help you deliver better service to clients while improving your bottom line. Advantages of leveraging legal AI tools include:

• Boost efficiency: AI can automate many time-consuming, repetitive tasks, allowing lawyers to focus on strategic work. For example, AI-powered document review tools can quickly scan through large volumes of contracts and highlight key clauses, saving hours of manual review.
• Improve accuracy: Human error is a common issue in legal work, especially when dealing with complex, lengthy documents. AI tools can help minimize mistakes by consistently applying predefined rules and catching potential issues that might be overlooked by tired eyes. 
• Save time and costs: By automating tasks and streamlining workflows, AI tools can significantly save time and resources to complete legal work, minimizing the need for administrative assistants and paralegals to handle repetitive chores.
• Boost client satisfaction: With AI handling routine tasks, lawyers can dedicate more time and attention to building client relationships. Additionally, conversational AI platforms like chatbots can provide instant support and guidance to clients, improving their overall experience with your firm.

9 best legal AI software

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the legal field. Here are a few cutting-edge AI tools that can streamline your practice and improve client outcomes.

1. Smith.ai

Best for: Virtual receptionist service

Smith.ai is an AI-based customer engagement platform built to support the fast-paced, demanding world of law firms. Smith.ai's virtual receptionists act as an extension of a law firm's team, using custom workflows to handle calls and chats exactly as instructed. This provides responsive, live support 24/7 while freeing up lawyers and staff to focus on higher-value legal work. 

Here's an overview of how Smith.ai leverages AI technology specifically for the legal industry:

• Natural language processing allows agents to have more natural, contextual conversations that feel unscripted, resulting in better client experiences.
• Real-time translation enables agents to communicate with non-English-speaking clients by translating chats automatically.
• Call transcripts with automated speaker identification to allow quick and secure review of client interactions.
• Continuous feedback loops between agents and the product team help the AI learn and improve every day.

By combining friendly, knowledgeable human agents with AI assistance, Smith.ai helps law firms deliver prompt, professional assistance around the clock.

Key features:

• 24/7 availability: Smith.ai offers 24/7 live receptionist and chat services, ensuring leads are never missed, even outside traditional business hours.
• AI-assisted conversations: AI technology guides conversations in real time, ensuring a natural flow and responsiveness beyond basic, scripted interactions.
• Integration with top legal software: Smith.ai integrates with popular CRMs and legal tools (like Clio, MyCase, and Filevine) to log calls, chats, and appointments automatically.

Price: From $285/month

2. Casetext

Best for: Legal research

Casetext stands out as a go-to legal research tool, empowering you to find relevant case law, statutes, and regulations with unparalleled speed and precision. At the heart of Casetext's capabilities is CoCounsel, an advanced AI assistant. Powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 language model, CoCounsel can comprehend legal concepts at a postgraduate level, enabling it to glean troves of case law, statutes, and regulations to surface the most relevant information for your research needs.

Unlike other large language models, CoCounsel uses dedicated servers to access GPT-4, ensuring your data isn't used to train the model. This means your data is secure and not shared with anyone, maintaining confidentiality and protecting sensitive information. Additionally, Casetext employs retrieval-augmented generation to prevent hallucinations and ensure answers are grounded in real-world sources.

Key features:

• CARA (Case Analysis Research Assistant): This AI-assisted document review and search refinement delivers relevant legal cases quickly, including some that researchers might miss. It tailors search results based on the context of a legal document uploaded by the user.
• Document review: Ask questions about uploaded documents, such as case dockets or contracts, and receive summaries of relevant information.
• Deposition preparation: Quickly generate a detailed deposition outline based on the deponent and case details, including relevant topics and questions.
• Summarization: Swiftly and accurately summarize complex documents, including legal contracts and transcripts.

Price: From $250/user/year

3. Lex Machina

Best for: Legal analytics

Lex Machina stands head and shoulders above other legal analytics platforms, offering unparalleled depth and breadth of data-driven insights. It crawls massive databases like USPTO, EDIS, PACER, and state court records every 24 hours, compiling the latest data on millions of cases. This allows the platform to uncover a wealth of valuable information, from case outcomes and damages to the litigation history and strategies of judges and lawyers.

With access to Lex Machina's comprehensive, up-to-date data, you can gain a decisive edge in your cases by understanding how specific judges have ruled in the past, anticipating your opposing counsel's approach, and setting accurate budgets and client expectations based on historical precedents.

Key features:

• Outcome Analytics™: This tool provides crucial details about case results, including damages, findings, and resolutions.
• Case List Analyzer™: Surface similar cases and quickly build case lists based on pleadings documents.
• Latest data: Lex Machina compiles the latest data on millions of cases, giving you a foundation that generates accurate, actionable insights to inform your decisions.

Price: Custom pricing plans

4. Clio Manage

Best for: Practice management

Clio Manage is a practice management solution tailored for the legal industry. Its user-friendly interface and broad feature set make it an essential tool for streamlining operations across all aspects of a law firm. Clio Manage centralizes case management, document handling, billing, calendaring, and client communication on a single, user-friendly platform accessible anywhere.

The newly unveiled Clio Duo provides a future-proof solution that elevates workflow optimization. This AI feature offers personalized recommendations to maximize efficiency, prompts to keep your practice on track, and automated document and summary generation to boost productivity.

Key features:

• Clio App Directory: This expansive ecosystem allows firms to extend functionality by integrating Clio Manage with specialized tools for niche practice areas as well as general business applications like accounting software and e-signature platforms.
• Integrated billing and time tracking: Clio Manage includes integrated billing and time tracking tools that simplify the financial aspects of legal practice.
• Cloud-based accessibility: Clio Manage offers the flexibility to access case files and manage legal tasks from anywhere.

Price: From $39/user/year

Clio integration: Smith.ai automatically updates your Clio records with post-call information, including adding new clients and logging call details to existing client matters. This ensures all relevant call information is accessible within Clio for you to easily review and follow up.

5. WiseTime

Best for: Time tracking

Specifically designed by attorneys for attorneys, WiseTime revolutionizes legal time tracking as an intuitive, AI-powered solution. Unlike traditional time-tracking tools that require manual start/stop timers, WiseTime operates passively in the background, autonomously capturing your activity and attention across all applications and documents into a private timeline. This ensures every billable minute is accounted for without interrupting your workflow or forcing you to waste time on administrative tasks.

Beyond its transformative time-tracking capabilities, WiseTime also offers invaluable insights to help you manage your practice more effectively. The platform's comprehensive activity reports provide visibility into time spent, enabling you to identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions about resources, pricing, and profitability.

Key features:

• Case reference auto-tagging: Intelligently tag your time entries with the appropriate client and matter references, allowing you to generate detailed invoices that provide complete transparency to your clients. 
• NarrateGPT: Automatically generate clear billing narratives ready to integrate into your invoices and reports.
• Time zone handling: Automatically detect your time zone and display your activities according to the relevant local time.

Price: From $360/user/year

6. PatentPal

Best for: Intellectual property documentation

PatentPal expedites patent drafting by automating the tedious and time-consuming task of mechanical writing involved in patent filings. With PatentPal, you can effortlessly generate high-quality patent specs, diagrams, flowcharts, and text. The AI-driven platform leverages natural language processing and machine learning to automate the content creation process, saving you countless hours of manual labor.

The true power of PatentPal lies in its ability to accelerate the patent application process while maintaining accuracy and alignment with your specific requirements. PatentPal allows you to customize the generated text to match your preferred phrasing styles, create multiple profiles for different use cases, and export your drafts into industry-standard formats like Microsoft Word and Visio. By handling the tedious heavy lifting of patent writing, PatentPal enables you to focus on delivering airtight IP protection for your clients.

Key features:

• Multiple saveable profiles: Switch between personalized drafting styles in seconds.
• Block diagrams: Create detailed block diagrams visualizing your invention’s form and function.
• Export in multiple formats: Export polished applications into Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Visio with a click.

Price: Available upon request

7. Lawgeex

Best for: Contract review

Lawgeex is a contract review tool that automates the entire process, saving legal teams countless hours of manual effort. Using AI, Lawgeex can intelligently review contracts against your predefined legal policies, guidelines, and risk tolerance levels. It accurately identifies discrepancies, missing clauses, or non-compliant terms and proactively suggests edits and redlines.

Lawgeex integrates seamlessly with your existing document management systems and can handle high volumes of contracts, from NDAs and procurement agreements to vendor contracts. Additionally, Lawgeex prioritizes security with ISO/IEC 27001 certification, layered security architecture, and stringent data isolation measures, making it a trusted choice for businesses seeking to streamline contract review while maintaining confidentiality.

Key features:

• Digital playbook: Ensure consistency by standardizing your organization’s legal concepts into a custom legal playbook.
• Powerful analytics: Gain valuable insights into contractual risk factors, empowering informed decisions about legal policies and streamlining negotiations.
• Collaboration tools: Collaborate efficiently on contract negotiations by adding comments, assigning tasks, and tracking changes.

Price: Available upon request

8. Blue J L&E

Best for: Employment law

Blue J L&E is an AI tool for employment law that leverages predictive analytics to deliver litigation insights. By examining historical cases and extracting key legal nuances, Blue J L&E forecasts case outcomes and quantifies risks. Its ability to identify precedent based on substantive factors rather than keywords enables lawyers to conduct faster, more precise legal research.

Rather than overwhelm you with technical jargon and dense legalese, Blue J L&E demystifies complex legal concepts and presents actionable insights in plain language. This user-friendly approach enhances productivity and decision-making, allowing you to position your firm as a trusted authority in employment law — a valuable asset when it comes to attracting and retaining clients. 

Key features:

• Predictive analytics: Blue J L&E predicts litigation outcomes and quantifies legal risks by analyzing historical case data.
• Outcome-based legal research: Unlike traditional keyword-based research methods, Blue J L&E identifies and analyzes similar legal decisions based on intricate factors, outcomes, and contextual nuances.
• Risk assessment: Blue J L&E helps lawyers accurately evaluate potential risks and opportunities associated with legal decisions.

Price: Available upon request

9. Corvum

Best for: Cloud phone solution

Corvum is the leading VoIP service designed specifically for lawyers and law firms. As a legal professional, your time is extremely valuable, and Corvum helps you maximize your productivity by automating many tedious communication tasks. The platform's built-in time-tracking functionality allows you to effortlessly capture billable call time, and its virtual faxing capabilities eliminate the need for physical fax machines, streamlining your document workflows.

Corvum's AI-powered features set it apart from generic VoIP solutions. The platform's smart call routing and auto-attendant functionalities ensure incoming calls are efficiently directed to the right person or team, reducing the burden on your staff. Corvum's visual voicemail and voicemail-to-text transcription features allow you to access and respond to messages quickly, even when you're away from your desk. With Corvum's multi-platform support, you can access your business communications from any device, ensuring you stay connected and productive no matter where you're working.

Key features:

• Smart texting capabilities: Features include the ability to choose which phone number displays when texting, share numbers among team members for responding to client messages, and track all text communications for billing purposes through Clio.
• Advanced call management features: Features like auto-attendant, custom call routing, visual voicemail, and voicemail-to-text services are included.
• Security: Corvum emphasizes secure communications with independent servers to ensure call and message security.

‍Price: From $12.95/month

Corvum integration: You can forward calls from your Corvum account to Smith.ai, and we'll handle the answering and quick call routing so you can focus on your law practice.

Tips for choosing the right legal AI tools

The right tool can transform how you practice law and serve your clients. With so many AI tools available, it's essential to choose those that best fit your firm's unique needs and goals. The following tips will help you find legal AI software that fits just right.

Identify the needs of your firm

Assess which areas of your practice could benefit most from AI assistance to determine what specific tasks you want to automate. Is contract review eating up too much of your time? Do you struggle to keep up with legal research? Prioritize tools that address your biggest pain points.

Assess data security and compliance

We don't need to tell you that client data and privacy are crucial considerations for any law firm. Carefully evaluate each tool’s data security and compliance safeguards to ensure they meet industry standards and regulations. Look for features like data encryption, multifactor authentication, and compliance with confidentiality laws. If the tool stores or transfers client data, it’s best to avoid those that aren’t transparent about security practices or haven’t obtained proper certifications.

Evaluate integration capabilities

The ability to integrate with other software you already use can amplify a tool’s usefulness and help you get the most bang for your buck. See if the platform can integrate with your existing systems, like your practice management software and document storage platforms. This will allow you to automatically sync data between systems and reduce the need to enter information multiple times.

Assess your budget

Legal AI tools vary widely in cost, from affordable monthly subscriptions to significant upfront investments. Assess your budget and look for tools that offer the best value for your firm's needs. Keep in mind that increased productivity can often offset the cost over time.

Read reviews

Research user feedback and real-world results about the AI tools you're considering. User reviews can provide valuable insights into a tool's strengths, weaknesses, and overall value. Reviews from firms similar to your own may be the most relevant.

Try a demo

Many legal AI tools offer free demos and trials so you can test-drive features before committing. This is the best way to determine if the tool's capabilities meet your needs and get a sense of the learning curve for you and your staff.

Boost your law firm’s efficiency with Smith.ai

While legal AI tools can significantly improve your firm's efficiency, they work best in collaboration with human support. Smith.ai's 24/7 virtual receptionists provide friendly, professional support to help your law firm capture and convert more leads, deliver excellent client service, and simplify day-to-day operations.

With Smith.ai, you can:

• Ensure every call is answered, 24/7
• Qualify and intake new leads
• Schedule appointments and send reminders
• Collect client feedback and reviews
• Filter out spam calls
• Respond to live website chats
• Conduct outreach campaigns

Our receptionists act as an extension of your team, using your custom instructions to handle calls and chats exactly as you would. Plus, we integrate with many popular practice management systems, so all client interactions are logged directly into your software.

By combining the power of other legal AI tools with Smith.ai's reliable, around-the-clock support, you can supercharge your law firm's efficiency and growth. Book a free consultation to learn more about our services for law firms.