In case your authorized workforce is exploring tips on how to use generative AI in observe, and let’s be trustworthy, most are not less than testing the waters, the dialog usually jumps straight to instruments and outputs. Which chatbot ought to we use? Can we belief it to draft one thing actual? How will we management hallucinations?
However earlier than you even get there, there’s a extra primary query that many authorized departments overlook. What are we feeding the AI within the first place?
In a latest episode of “Notes to My (Authorized) Self,” Linsey Krolik, a legislation professor at Santa Clara College and longtime in-house counsel at corporations like PayPal and Arm, made a compelling case for what she calls AI literacy. However the larger perception was between the strains: you may’t use AI successfully in a authorized setting with out understanding the inputs, and which means contracts.
Watch the episode right here:
The AI Second Isn’t Coming. It’s Already Right here.
“We’re utilizing generative AI at this time, whether or not we need to admit it or not,” Linsey mentioned in the course of the interview. “It’s taking place. So get on board and we will be taught collectively.”
That sense of collective studying, and the hole between curiosity and confidence, is one thing many in-house groups are experiencing firsthand. There’s strain to maneuver rapidly, cut back turnaround time, and do extra with much less. AI guarantees all of that. However as Linsey identified, we have to begin with the fundamentals.
She’s coaching legislation college students to construct real-world authorized paperwork like phrases of service and privateness insurance policies for early-stage startups. These college students are already experimenting with AI. They’re studying the place it helps, the place it fails, and tips on how to critically assess its output. They’re growing muscle reminiscence not simply in drafting, however in understanding why contracts are structured the best way they’re.
That foundational talent, contract literacy, is what too many training groups are lacking.
AI Is A Mirror. If Your Contract Knowledge Is A Mess, It Will Present.
When legal professionals take into consideration AI instruments, it’s simple to give attention to the output. What can it draft? What questions can it reply?
However what issues simply as a lot is the underlying knowledge. In case your workforce can’t simply reply questions like “What are our commonplace fee phrases throughout all NDAs?” or “Which vendor contracts auto-renew within the subsequent 90 days?” then any AI resolution you implement will probably be looking for patterns in chaos.
Linsey emphasised that in-house groups are more and more being requested, “Did you utilize AI for this?” And when the reply isn’t any, the follow-up is commonly, “Why not?” That strain to discover and undertake is rising. However AI isn’t magic. It gained’t clear up your contract portfolio for you. It’s going to solely floor what’s already there, or worse, what’s lacking.
Contract Literacy Isn’t Simply Realizing Authorized Phrases. It’s Realizing The Enterprise.
One of many sharpest observations Linsey made in the course of the dialog was about how contract training has developed. She’s moved past conventional authorized writing assignments to incorporate issues like AI-assisted drafting and brief business-style displays.
Why? As a result of she understands that legal professionals at this time don’t simply write contracts. They clarify them. They negotiate them. They implement them. And more and more, they design workflows and knowledge techniques round them.
AI can help that work, however solely when the lawyer understands what the enterprise wants from the contract. When you can’t articulate the distinction between what a procurement supervisor needs to know and what your finance lead must see, no AI software will bridge that hole for you.
The Actual Threat Isn’t AI. It’s Staying Unprepared.
Linsey acknowledged the moral considerations round AI, confidentiality, accuracy, and unauthorized reliance, however she additionally made it clear that the larger danger is paralysis.
“There’s lots of uncertainty now,” she mentioned. “However I believe we have to begin being extra curious and fewer scared.”
She teaches her college students to reveal after they use AI, to mirror on why they used it, and to judge the standard of the output. In doing so, they discover ways to construct belief within the instruments and in their very own judgment.
That very same framework applies to in-house authorized groups. As an alternative of asking whether or not AI is ideal, begin asking whether or not your workforce is prepared. Are you able to clarify what your commonplace indemnity clause appears to be like like? Are you able to audit vendor agreements for renewal triggers? Do you might have a structured technique to evaluate phrases throughout contracts?
These are contract literacy questions. And till you may reply them confidently, AI will stay a shiny resolution in search of an issue.
Need To Get AI-Prepared? Begin With Your Contracts.
Linsey Krolik is coaching the following era of legal professionals to suppose critically, use rising instruments responsibly, and work immediately with the enterprise. If at this time’s legislation college students are studying to draft, construction, and analyze contracts with AI as a companion, then the remainder of the authorized world must catch up quick.
AI readiness begins with realizing what you might have, what it means, and tips on how to use it. That begins not with software program, however with talent. Not with automation, however with understanding.
Contract literacy isn’t the tip objective. It’s the beginning line.
Watch the total interview with Linsey right here.
Olga V. Mack is the CEO of TermScout, an AI-powered contract certification platform that accelerates income and eliminates friction by certifying contracts as honest, balanced, and market-ready. A serial CEO and authorized tech govt, she beforehand led an organization via a profitable acquisition by LexisNexis. Olga can also be a Fellow at CodeX, The Stanford Heart for Authorized Informatics, and the Generative AI Editor at legislation.MIT. She is a visionary govt reshaping how we legislation—how authorized techniques are constructed, skilled, and trusted. Olga teaches at Berkeley Legislation, lectures broadly, and advises corporations of all sizes, in addition to boards and establishments. An award-winning normal counsel turned builder, she additionally leads early-stage ventures together with Digital Gabby (Higher Parenting Plan), Product Legislation Hub, ESI Stream, and Notes to My (Authorized) Self, every rethinking the observe and enterprise of legislation via expertise, knowledge, and human-centered design. She has authored The Rise of Product Legal professionals, Authorized Operations within the Age of AI and Knowledge, Blockchain Worth, and Get on Board, with Visible IQ for Legal professionals (ABA) forthcoming. Olga is a 6x TEDx speaker and has been acknowledged as a Silicon Valley Girl of Affect and an ABA Girl in Authorized Tech. Her work reimagines folks’s relationship with legislation—making it extra accessible, inclusive, data-driven, and aligned with how the world truly works. She can also be the host of the Notes to My (Authorized) Self podcast (streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube), and her insights repeatedly seem in Forbes, Bloomberg Legislation, Newsweek, VentureBeat, ACC Docket, and Above the Legislation. She earned her B.A. and J.D. from UC Berkeley. Observe her on LinkedIn and X @olgavmack.
