An AI agent does more than answer questions: it plans and executes complete tasks using tools — searching case law, reading files, drafting documents — until it reaches a defined goal. In legal work, this changes the economics of the profession.
What a legal agent can do today
- Research: track relevant case law and doctrine, with verifiable citations.
- Due diligence: review hundreds of contracts and flag risk clauses.
- Assisted drafting: prepare drafts of briefs, agreements and responses.
- First-line support: resolve frequent queries and escalate complex ones.
Human oversight is not optional
Professional responsibility cannot be delegated. Well-designed agents operate with a human in the loop: the lawyer reviews, corrects and approves. The architecture must log every source consulted and every decision the agent makes, enabling full audits.
How to implement it well
- Define the agent’s scope: what it can and cannot do.
- Connect trusted sources (legislation, case law, internal repositories).
- Evaluate with real cases before production, measuring accuracy and hallucinations.
- Deploy with limits, activity logging and mandatory human review.
AI agents are the next step in legal automation. Want to evaluate a use case for your team? Write to me.