Copilot AI for Summarizing Local Rules and Statutes for Lawyers

Professionals in the legal field must always keep up with local laws and rules in today’s ever-changing environment. Copilot is an AI-based tool that can facilitate the understanding and application of legal frameworks for lawyers. Lawyers can efficiently manage and interpret vast amounts of legal texts, ranging from local regulations to complex case law, by integrating Copilot into their daily practices.

In this article, we will explore how Copilot AI summarizes local rules and statutes, drafts documents, assists in meetings, automates Excel operations, and more.

How Can Lawyers Use a Copilot AI?

Legal professionals must be able to understand complex documents quickly. Using Microsoft Copilot, lawyers can summarize documents quickly, accurately, and efficiently.

Additionally, this tool helps lawyers have access to the latest legal information at their fingertips, facilitating better-informed legal decisions and strategies. Therefore, Microsoft Copilot is becoming an essential tool, especially when it comes to summarizing local laws.

Here are some of how lawyers can use Copilot AI:

• Summarizing Legal Documents with Copilot

  Microsoft 365 Copilot makes it easy for lawyers to summarize detailed legal documents like court briefs and contracts. Lawyers can start the summary with a simple command: “Summarize this legal document” This tool works well with both formatted documents and plain text incorporating all critical information into the summary.

  For instance, when summarizing a 16-page Supreme Court brief, whether formatted with headings or just plain text, Copilot managed to provide informative summaries. Interestingly, the plain text brief’s summary included more details about the opposing arguments and legal issues than the formatted version. This shows Copilot’s ability to pick out important details no matter how the document is presented.

  Copilot also handled a complex operational agreement that was 16 pages long and divided into eight sections. It initially summarized only the first half, but after further prompts, it summarized the rest as well. This shows how Copilot can be directed to focus on specific parts of a document as needed.

• Summarizing Emails with Copilot

  Copilot summarizes the content of individual emails or entire threads of emails to help lawyers manage their emails efficiently. You can use this to keep up with a large number of emails without having to read every one individually. Although Copilot summarises the content of emails, it does not currently summarize attachments or include links to documents mentioned within the emails. Generally, it provides accurate summaries, but some details were omitted, showing that while helpful, human oversight is still required to capture the finer points.

  For managing a larger batch of emails, lawyers can use Copilot through Microsoft Teams to get summaries of communications from the past week. This feature helps lawyers stay informed about key discussions and decisions, although it may vary which emails are included in the summary.

• Drafting Documents

  Copilot will be able to draft an article about its value for small law firms. Although the initial output might be off-target, with further prompting, it will be able to produce a good one. This illustrates the importance of clearly specifying the task to Copilot.

  Copilot can help draft marketing content like blog posts. For instance, when tasked with writing about estate planning for blended families, Copilot’s initial draft was generic. It required further prompts to tailor the content more precisely to blended families’ needs.

• Meeting Assistance

  In Team meetings, Copilot can transcribe discussions, identify action items, and summarize conversations. It helps capture commitments made during meetings, although it may miss specific agreed-upon dates.

  Copilot can prepare you for upcoming meetings by listing necessary documents and summarizing recent communications, although its ability to identify relevant attachments can be hit-or-miss.

• Excel Automation

  Copilot excels at automating Excel tasks. It can suggest formulas and transform data efficiently, significantly speeding up document preparation.

Important Prompts for Lawyers

For lawyers considering integrating Copilot into their practice, here are some prompt examples to maximize its utility:

• Case Law Summaries:

  • Summarize the key legal principles from [specific case name].
  • Extract and summarize the rationale behind the court’s decision in [case citation].

• Contract Review:

  • Identify and summarize the obligations of each party under this contract.
  • Highlight any clauses related to termination in the attached agreement.

• Legislation and Regulation Analysis:

  • Summarize the main provisions of [specific law or regulation] relevant to [specific industry or issue].
  • Provide an overview of the compliance requirements introduced in the latest amendment of [law/regulation].

• Client Advisory Notes:

  • Draft a summary of the legal implications for a client involved in [specific scenario].
  • Outline the potential legal risks for [specific business action] based on current laws.

• Legal Research Briefs:

  • Summarize the findings from articles related to [specific legal issue or theory].
  • Generate a brief overview of historical judgments pertaining to [specific legal topic].

• Internal Law Firm Communications:

  • Create a summary of the key points from today’s team meeting on [specific case or project].
  • Summarize the updates to the firm’s compliance policies sent last week.

Conclusion

Microsoft Copilot has significantly improved the way legal professionals handle large volumes of documents and emails. Automating the summarization of complex texts saves time and ensures that important information is accessible. As technology advances, Copilot’s role in boosting productivity and aiding decision-making for lawyers continues to grow.