Field guides for lawyers who actually have to use AI
Large language models, explained for lawyers who have real work to do.
Hands-on guides, copy-paste prompts and hard-won rules for ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and the legal AI platforms — written by a law-firm partner who has spent thousands of hours in the tools.
4.8/5 from 328 course reviews · lawyers from hundreds of firms, including Norton Rose Fulbright, Paul Hastings, Pillsbury, Taylor Wessing, Withers and Simmons & Simmons
Start here, by what you do
Litigators
Research, chronologies and briefs — without joining the sanctions database.
- AI for litigation lawyers: the workflows that work, the ones that get you sanctioned, and how to tell them apart
- How to Verify AI Legal Citations: A Six-Step Protocol That Survives a Standing Order
- AI Legal Research Without Getting Sanctioned: The Research-Verify-Cite Workflow
- AI Hallucination Sanctions Timeline: Every Major Case from Mata to 2026
Transactional lawyers
Contract review against a playbook, first drafts and data rooms.
- AI Contract Review Against Your Playbook: The Complete Workflow
- AI Contract Drafting: Ask for Building Blocks, Not a Whole Agreement
- AI Due Diligence: The Five-Day Data-Room Workflow (and the Small-Firm Version)
- Long Document Prompting for Lawyers: How to Work a 100-Page Contract Without Losing the Middle
In-house counsel
Capacity, not billable hours: where AI pays off inside a legal department.
- AI for In-House Counsel: From Shallow Lake to Working Workflows
- Microsoft Copilot for Lawyers: What It Is Actually Good At, and the Oversharing Problem
- AI Clauses in Outside Counsel Guidelines: What Clients Require and How to Respond
- AI Vendor Due Diligence for Law Firms: 25 Questions and the Answers You Should Expect
Solo and small firms
The 30-day plan, the tools that are worth paying for, and the confidentiality settings.
- AI for Solo Law Firms and Small Practices: The 30-Day Plan That Costs Less Than $100 a Month
- Is ChatGPT Confidential for Lawyers? The Tier-by-Tier Answer for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot
- The Best AI Tools for Lawyers in 2026: Every Major Tool, Priced and Placed
- 40 ChatGPT Prompts for Lawyers (Claude Too), With the Output to Expect and What to Fix
Partners and firm leaders
Policy, rollout, pricing and the questions clients are now asking.
- The Law Firm AI Implementation Playbook: From Shadow AI to a Governed Rollout in 90 Days
- Law Firm AI Policy Template: The Traffic-Light Model, Clause by Clause
- AI and the Billable Hour: Can You Bill for Time AI Saved, and How to Price Instead
- AI for Law Firm Business Development: The Workflows That Win Work and the Ones That Cost It
European and UK lawyers
The EU AI Act, professional secrecy in DACH, the SRA warning notice and EU data residency.
- The EU AI Act for Law Firms: Article 4 AI Literacy, Timelines and What to Document
- KI in der Kanzlei: Was BRAK, DAV und ÖRAK von Anwältinnen und Anwälten verlangen
- The SRA AI Warning Notice and UK Guidance: What Solicitors and Barristers Must Do Now
- EU Data Residency for AI in Law Firms: Where ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot and the Legal Platforms Actually Process Data
The guides, by topic
- 01LLM Fundamentals for LawyersHow large language models work, why they hallucinate, what context windows and RAG mean, and how to read benchmarks - the mental model every other cluster assumes.7 guides
- 02Prompting for Legal WorkFrameworks, prompt libraries, reasoning-model rules, long-document handling, Projects/custom GPTs and the mistakes lawyers make when talking to models.8 guides
- 03Use Cases by Legal TaskTask-level workflows with prompts and failure modes: research, contract review and drafting, due diligence, depositions, chronologies, summarisation, translation, e-discovery and client communication.12 guides
- 04AI by Practice AreaWhat works and what breaks for in-house, employment, IP, real estate, tax, family, criminal, estate and personal-injury lawyers.12 guides
- 05Tools and ComparisonsVendor-neutral guides to ChatGPT, Claude, NotebookLM, Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity, head-to-head comparisons of the legal platforms, pricing and DACH tools.12 guides
- 06Confidentiality and SecurityConsumer vs commercial tiers, training and retention settings, privilege rulings, litigation holds, anonymisation, local models, EU residency and vendor due diligence.9 guides
- 07Verification and Quality ControlThe citation-verification protocol, sanctions timelines in the US and Europe, citation checkers, what to do when a fake cite is filed and how to handle AI-drafted pro se filings.6 guides
- 08Ethics and Regulation by JurisdictionABA 512, state opinions, court standing orders, SRA, EU AI Act Article 4, BRAK/DAV/ÖRAK guidance, note-taker ethics and malpractice insurance.10 guides
- 09Business Development and PricingAI for BD, LinkedIn, RFPs, generative engine optimisation, billable-hour pricing, outside counsel guidelines and advertising rules.7 guides
- 10Careers, Agents and the FutureWhether AI replaces lawyers and juniors, the skills that matter, agents, Claude-native firms, vibe coding, sentiment and the statistics page.9 guides
- 11Firm Implementation and PolicyThe 90-day implementation playbook, policy template, shadow AI, tool bake-offs, MCP connectors, no-code automation and a plan for solos and small firms.7 guides
- 12Learning Paths and TrainingWhat AI training works, course comparisons, CLE requirements and what law schools teach - the cluster that leads directly to AI Lab for Lawyers.5 guides
Start with the pillar guides
Who writes this
Dr. Niklas Schmidt
Partner at Wolf Theiss Attorneys-at-Law in Vienna, where he heads the firm-wide tax team; admitted as a lawyer and as a tax adviser; author, TEDx speaker and technologist. He has invested thousands of hours in researching practical AI for legal work, has tried out hundreds of AI apps and runs an armada of AI agents in his daily practice. He founded the WT Crypto Academy (1,000+ participating lawyers), has given around 450 talks over 20 years, and teaches the live course AI Lab for Lawyers on Maven.