AI for lawyers: top tools, common pitfalls, and practical tips

From drafting a first contract to sorting inbox chaos, AI for lawyers now shares the workload of legal professionals and law firms in Canada. However, there are practical and legal considerations that users need to keep in mind. In this article, we will discuss the different AI tools available for lawyers and some cautionary points that every user should be aware of.

Types of AI tools available for Canadian lawyers

Whether the goal is to increase your firm’s revenue or automate repetitive tasks, AI for lawyers has emerged as a tool to support your practice management.

Here are some of the types of AI for lawyers:

• AI-powered legal research platforms
• document review and drafting tools
• AI for client intake and communication

We will discuss them each below, highlighting the features that your AI tools should have to be effective, as well as some commonly used prompts.

Listen to this CL Talk podcast from Canadian Lawyer, one of our sister publications, which talks about the significant growth in AI usage in the legal profession:

You can also read this article, which outlines the different legal resources for lawyers and law firms working in Ontario.

Legal research platforms

For lawyers, conducting research has grown from reading countless book pages to sorting out several webpages. Nowadays, it has evolved to include AI tools for lawyers, which can help you find and analyze cases faster.

When looking at AI platforms for legal research that fits your needs and practice, here are the features that you should look for:

• an all-in-one package to analyze legal documents, summarize cases, and generate citations
• can review large numbers of legal documents and pull information from several sources
• a large legal library that has cited research, document analysis, and case strategy

Document review and drafting tools

While there’s no escaping the eyes of a lawyer when it comes to document drafting and review, AI continues the broader shift in law office technology, reshaping how lawyers work on these black-and-white matters.

To speed up your document review, here are some features that your AI tool must have:

• produce and automate first drafts, which can be edited later by the lawyer
• identify and extract clauses, especially for proforma documents
• protect the confidentiality of the contract, its terms, and the parties
• those that can centralize and automate the entire contract lifecycle

AI for client intake and communication

While nothing replaces a real, in-person receptionist, some aspects of client intake and communication can be handled by AI. To benefit more from an AI for lawyers dedicated for intake and communication, the best features include the following:

• uses human receptionists to answer calls, triage enquiries, and handle messages for firms
• has an AI chat to qualify leads, handle intake, and automate client processes afterwards

Popular prompts when using AI for lawyers

Prompts work best when they mirror real legal tasks. Here are some examples of prompts that you can refer to when using AI tools for lawyers:

Research-style prompts

• case overview prompt: “Summarize this Canadian decision in 200 words for a busy in-house counsel reader”
• key points prompt: “List the main issues, holding, and reasons in this judgment in plain language”
• compare cases prompt: “Compare these two decisions and explain how they treat the same legal test”
• checklist prompt: “Create a short checklist of factors from this case that a court or litigant must consider”

Contract drafting prompts

• first-draft email prompt: “Draft a short update email explaining this settlement offer in plain language for a corporate client”
• clause check prompt: “Review this clause and flag any terms that are unusual for a standard supplier agreement”
• rewrite prompt: “Rewrite this indemnity clause in clearer language without changing the legal effect”
• summary prompt: “Summarize this 20–page contract into a one-page brief for a partner review”

Legal considerations when using AI for lawyers

AI for lawyers can speed up research, drafting, intake, and timelines, but it does not carry a license to practice law. As such, lawyers must stay responsible for the quality of their own work, even when an AI helps with it in any capacity.

LSO’s white paper on AI use

In addition to its Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) and By-Laws, the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) has issued a white paper on AI use titled “Licensee use of generative artificial intelligence.”

First, it identifies risks that lawyers should consider when using generative AI:

• unanticipated spread of confidential client or proprietary law firm information
• providing hallucinations, fabricated, or inaccurate information, but appears to be authentic
• perpetuating existing biases in the data used to train it
• when AI chatbots develop a lawyer-client relationship without the lawyer’s knowledge
• reliance of clients to the advice given by generative AI

More importantly, the white paper outlines the relevant RPC provisions that lawyers must consider when using generative AI tools, and the best practices to address some of its concerns:

• competence: setting an organizational policy when using generative AI, learning about the AI tools you’re using, such as taking a CPD or training module about it, and verifying its output
• confidentiality: understand the privacy and data security settings of the AI tool and prevent putting confidential or privileged information into the AI tool
• fees and disbursements: only charge for the time actually spent on the file, even if the generative AI tool made the task much more efficient or contributed to it

CBA’s AI ethics toolkit

The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) has released its AI ethics toolkit called “Ethics of Artificial Intelligence for the Legal Practitioner.” As applied to the Model Code, this toolkit provides additional guidelines when lawyers use generative AI:

• using AI responsibly and mitigating risks associated with it, in relation to the rule that lawyers must be competent in the delivery of their legal services
• understanding the benefits and risks associated with AI tools for lawyers, especially its limitations, as applied in their own legal practice
• being mindful of the lawyer’s duty to maintain confidentiality to prevent the improper, negligent, and unethical disclosure of confidential information

Challenges and solutions when using AI for lawyers

While it’s clear as the day that lawyers will not be replaced by AI, there are tools that legal professionals can use to improve daily tasks. Below, we will discuss some challenges and their solutions when lawyers use AI in their work.

If you’re a medical malpractice lawyer, check out this video from Canadian Lawyer on the legal challenges of AI in medical malpractice and patient safety:

Feb 24, 2026

Bookmark our Practice Management page for more legal resources tailored to Ontario lawyers and law firms to improve the way you do your daily work.

Protection of confidentiality and client data

The CBA warns that AI is already built into many tools, including browsers and legal research databases, so lawyers may use AI without realizing it. That means confidential details can move through systems that use machine learning in the background.

Firms are also reminded that they should not paste sensitive client information into public AI tools, unless they are sure about where the data goes and how it is stored.

Solution: Using the tool with confidentiality features

Choosing the right AI tool that gives clear guarantees on data use is part of managing legal risk, especially given the number of options on the market. If a tool shares data too widely, stores it in risky locations, or mixes it into public models, that can expose you or your firm to privacy complaints and professional discipline.

AI hallucinations in legal documents

One of the ongoing concerns when using AI tools for lawyers is hallucination on its output. These hallucinations can manifest in certain ways, such as:

• citing jurisprudence which are entirely nonexistent,
• using nonexistent quotes from actual case law, or
• misinterpreting statements from jurisprudence

This occurs because many AI systems are designed to generate an answer to a prompt rather than indicate that they do not know.

Courts have already sanctioned litigants and lawyers for inadvertent use of AI that led to hallucinated citations in submissions. In RSR Road Surface Recycling v. Bonnechere Excavating et al., 2026 ONSC 698, counsel for plaintiff admitted using an AI software to prepare the factum, which:

• used a nonexistent quote from a Court of Appeal case it cited
• inserted principles which did not match the court’s findings in a separate case it cited

In that case, the court said that the misuse of AI will be factored into the costs after receiving the submissions of the parties.

Solution: Double check and verify

Experts in the legal field have put up one basic solution to AI hallucinations: proofread what you wrote. In addition, firms should use AI tools as drafting aids, and not as legal authorities. It is then important to verify every citation, statute, and summary against trusted Canadian sources before relying on it.

AI for lawyers: Lawful use for a smarter future

Technological advancements in the legal profession can now help with drafting, intake, timelines, and billing, so that lawyers and firms can focus on more important matters instead. However, law societies and legal organizations continue to warn of potential violations of client rights and other ethical and regulatory concerns when it comes to AI for lawyers. Used with clear ethics and in line with the law, AI can become one more way to serve clients well.

Check out our Events page for the upcoming conferences and other gatherings for legal professionals across Canada, where AI for lawyers is also a frequent topic.