ChatGPT and Legal Writing: The Perfect Union?

What Legal Writers Need to Know About GPT.

Chat GPT’s Strengths Out of the Box

• Improving the style in your sentences: This is one of the easiest ways to start using GPT. You don’t need GPT to know the right answer, or carry out complex analysis. You’re leveraging something it’s great at: Looking at tons of sentences and paragraphs and coming up with different ways you can approach your writing goals. You can have GPT rewrite legalese or formal text into readable plain language. Or you can use GPT to fine-tune a sentence or paragraph to improve your style. 
• Summarizing defined text: Summarizing cases, briefs, motions or any other snippets of text—especially facts—to help you quickly figure out the major topics and points. Other tools are good at this, too, including paid products that have been on the market for years. But GPT may be even better (and cheaper).  
• Brainstorming themes, storylines, and other high-level, creative ideas for your writing: Billions of documents fuel GPT, including much of the great creative and nonfiction writing. If you’re looking for storylines, themes, pithy headlines for your brief—GPT can be a fantastic brainstorming partner. Creative ideas are a great way to use GPT because you aren’t asking for hard facts, and often we legal writers just need a little inspiration to come up with effective ways to connect with our readers. 
• Drafting simple or formulaic starter text for a procedural section of a brief, an email, or other common legal documents: Legal writers constantly complain about blank-page syndrome. The power of getting some starter text, headings, or general ideas on the page can do wonders. So while you shouldn’t yet rely on the case law, facts, or analysis GPT will come up with, it’s great at giving you a quick outline for a motion, some starter text for formal sections like procedural standards, or a simple template for documents you’ve never written before. Don’t be deterred that the tool won’t get everything right—having a couple of pages of starter text that hits on the right points can get you started, which is often half the battle. 
• Extracting information from defined text and organizing, classifying, or analyzing it: GPT works great with defined text. If you give it a page of text from a brief and ask it to extract information or data from it, GPT knows what you want it to focus on so it won’t stray as much as with open-ended tasks. GPT can do just about anything you can think of with some defined text
• Creating or organizing tables of data: If you’re working with data, numbers, or other classifiable sets of information, GPT can help organize, classify, or summarize it all. You’ll want to double-check its work, but again, working with defined text is easy for this AI. Like any good legal tech tool, the time savings here can be significant. 
• Getting quick answers to simple factual or legal research questions: As many have noted, you don’t want to rely on GPT for critical facts, especially complex ones. Because GPT doesn’t think like us, and (at least without a lot of guidance) may make things up that sound more trustworthy than they are. But to get you started on a topic, or as you are thinking about a topic, GPT can give you quick answers to start your writing, particularly if the question is specific and targeted. 
• Translating or explaining text: GPT is a wonderful text translator because the task is so well-defined. If you need to translate text into a different language, this can be a handy tool. The same goes for esoteric or complex text (like a science article). GPT can help you quickly wrap your head around esoteric or complex terminology—and give you ideas for explaining it well to others. 
• Other tasks that involve text, facts, or data you can easily identify for GPT: The great thing about generative AI is that if you work with it enough, the possibilities are nearly endless. You just need to get a sense of its limitations and the writing tasks it can help with, and you’ll see more and more ways to use it in your practice. But remember: The more well-defined the task, and the more finite the data or information you want GPT to work from—the better results you’ll get. And as we’ll see, the more you iterate, the better you will learn to work well with GPT.

Chat GPT’s Current Weaknesses and Limitations

Getting Started with Chat GPT

• Set the language model, if you prefer something other than the current, most-powerful model used by ChatGPT, which right now is GPT (for paid access, the less-powerful models are cheaper); 
• Control the temperature of the AI, which regulates how many diverse answers it provides. This is helpful if you want GPT to be more deterministic and confabulate less. If there is only one correct answer, set the temperature low; if there are many possible answers, set the temperature higher; 
• Control the amount of text you get back from GPT (which is particularly important if you are using a paid version), or have GPT run multiple searches and provide you the single best answer; and,  
• Train your own GPT models (which OpenAI calls Fine Tuning). This training allows you to teach the AI what sort of answers you prefer, drastically improving how well it works for your particular needs. You train by creating lists of example prompts and outputs you would like to see, and then converting this data into a file type GPT can learn from (called a JSON file). Training is powerful because it narrows the world for the AI to the type of information you’re looking for. But this is an extensive process: OpenAI says you need hundreds, or preferably thousands of entries before you see benefits from training. And in our experience, while that’s right, the benefits are outstanding. 

Prompt Engineering for Legal Writers

• You can tell GPT what tone it should use in its responses. 
• You can control how long its response is. 
• You can require a certain number of responses (like a list of reasons or examples). 
• You can tell GPT to assume roles, which will help it contextualize your instructions. 
• You can give GPT ground truths that overwrite what it may otherwise think, ensuring that it treats key facts for your task as true.
• You can tell GPT to use step-by-step reasoning. This is often called chain-of-thought, or COT prompting. Note that this is a powerful tool for many instructions, as shared in some exciting new research out this year. If you ask GPT to carry out tasks that require a few steps in reasoning, telling the AI to simply “think about it step by step” will help it know you don’t want a simple answer that results from crunching mass data. 
• Any parameters you add will likely help. And as with all prompt engineering, you should play around until you find the best approaches for different tasks. 

Legal Writing Prompts You Can Use with GPT

• “Be specific”
• “Provide x specific reasons” 
• “Provide x specific examples of ___”
• “You are [specific role that is authoritative on a subject]”
• “Let's work this out it in a step-by-step way to be sure we have the right answer.” In recent research, this particular wording performed excellently compared to similar prompts. These chain-of-thought prompts, called COT, encourage GPT to use reasoning instead of just crunching the mass data and weighing the answer based on what’s popular or most common.
• Explain the steps you’d like GPT to take. For example: “First, search cases about defamation. Second, summarize the rule for defamation.” This is even better than a blanket COT prompt because you’re showing GPT how to reason.
• "You are the world's leading expert in whatever I am about to ask you about." This actually improved the quality of a number of responses, with fascinating research to back that up.
• “Confine your answers to [insert confining paramenters.]” For example: “Confine your analysis to these cases [list cases].”
• “[Insert jargon or term of art] is defined as [insert definition].” If you are using language that GPT may not have much data on, defining it will help keep it on task so it doesn’t need to guess. 
• “Write concisely.” 
• Or get more specific with length: “Keep your response to [insert length, like a paragraph, a sentence, and so on].”
• “Use an [insert preference, like ‘academic’] tone” 
• “If you don’t know the answer, respond ‘I don’t know.’” This will help reduce false answers. Even better: You can train the tool by offering a few examples of silly, unknowable things and then show GPT to respond by saying “I don’t know.” Like priming with a prompt: “What is a Snorrglex?” Response: “I don’t know.” 
• Provide context, then follow up with a task: “For context, here are the facts of my case [list general facts].” Then follow up with “Write a motion based on these facts.” Or “Write a summary based on these facts.” 
• The following facts are true [insert facts or points; or alternatively, you can create a list of examples with these ground-truths]. This will ensure GPT treats some ground-rules as true in its work. 
• “Focus on the answers and don’t include conversational text.”
• Use formatting guides like: “Write the following as an email” or “Write the following as a letter” or “Write the following as a blog post” or “Write the following as a cover letter”
• The “act as” hack: You can tell GPT to embody a persona to help improve the quality of its results. For example “Act as a grammar checker” or “Act as an environment lawyer.” 
• Parameters are flexible: If you are getting some annoying tangents, clutter, or false information, use parameters to limit GPT work. 

Using GPT to Improve Your Writing

• “Pick better verbs in this sentence to convey [insert emotion or imagery you’re aiming for in the sentence]: [insert sentence to be improved]”
• “Pick better adjectives in this sentence to convey [insert emotion or imagery you’re aiming for in the sentence]: [insert sentence to be improved]”
• “Improve the transition between these two sentences: [insert text to be transitioned]”
• “Rewrite this paragraph to be more concise but convey the same points: [insert text to be transitioned]”
• “Rewrite this sentence to use only the important part of the quote: [insert sentence with long quote to shorten]”
• “Create an analogy for this sentence: [insert your point]”
• “Create a simile or metaphor for this sentence: [insert your point]”
• “Write a list of present participles for case parentheticals, emphasize [insert your goal]:”
• “Make this writing more creative [or insert any other descriptor]: [insert your text]”
• “I want you to act as a storyteller. You will come up with entertaining stories that are engaging, imaginative and captivating for the audience.”
• “I want you to act as a synonyms provider. I will tell you a word, and you will reply to me with a list of synonym alternatives. Words should exist. Do not write explanations.”

• “Correct the use of “affect” [insert any other word usage you are unsure of] in this sentence: “[insert sentence to be improved]”
• “Correct the punctuation in this sentence: “[insert sentence to be improved]”
• “Correct the [insert other grammatical issue you are unsure of] in this sentence: “[insert sentence to be improved]”
• “What is a [insert grammar or other term that you can never remember, like a present participle]:”

• “Summarize this text for a third grader:” [insert text to be simplified for your readers, especially legal text]
• “Summarize the main arguments in this brief:” [insert key brief text]
• “Create a professional email summary of these notes from my meeting:” [insert meeting notes]
• “Summarize [statute or regulation] and keep it to one paragraph.”
• “Summarize the information in this table using plain language [insert table data]”

• “Paraphrase this quote [insert quotation]” You can also add other parameters, like limiting the length of the paraphrase or suggesting style improvements you’d like to see.
• “Incorporate the most important portion of this quote into the sentence: [Insert sentence with cumbersome quote contained within it]”

• “Write a motion to dismiss a complaint in a car accident case.”
• “Write two paragraphs about the legal standard for summary judgment.”
• “Write a demand letter about [insert factual and legal topics].”
• “Write an email to an attorney regarding [insert factual and legal topics].”
• “Write an outline for [insert whatever sort of document you are writing].”
• “Write a contract about [insert contextual facts].”

• “Brainstorm interview questions for a witness involved in [insert facts].”
• “Brainstorm questions for a deposition of a witness involving [insert facts].”
• “Write a theme for two people fighting over [insert description of the factual disputes in your case].”
• “Write a theme for two people fighting over [insert description of the legal disputes in your case].”
• “Write a metaphor for [insert context].”
• “Brainstorm ideas for [insert whatever you’re struggling with and use follow-ups to get better and better ideas!].”

• “Extract all of the sentences that use passive voice in a table:” [insert your text]
• “Extract all the adverbs in this text in a table:” [insert your text]
• “Extract all [whatever grammar or writing mechanics issue you are working on]: [insert your text]”
• “Create a numbered list of [insert what you would like numbered and formatted into a list]”

• “Create a spreadsheet formula for [insert your goal].”
• “Extract all the numbers from this text: [insert your text]”
• “Extract all the dollar amounts from this text: [insert your text]”
• “Create a table from this data: [insert your data]” It can be helpful to add parameters like “two column table where the first column contains ___ and the other column contains ___.”
• “List every time the word [insert words or language you’re trying to make a point about in another text like a brief] is used in this text: [insert text]”

• “List these cases in alphabetical order:” [insert your cases]
• “List all the statements made by [insert party] in this transcript.”
• “List these cases in order of year:” [insert your cases]
• “List these cases in order of courts that decided them:” [insert your cases]

• “I want you to act as a fallacy finder. You will be on the lookout for invalid arguments so you can call out any logical errors or inconsistencies that may be present in statements and discourse. Your job is to provide evidence-based feedback and point out any fallacies, faulty reasoning, false assumptions, or incorrect conclusions which may have been overlooked by the writer. 

More GPT Legal Writing Examples for Inspiration

• Use shorter transitions (like "but") instead of formal ones. 
• Use the plaintiff's name.
• Refer to the parties by a shorter name after the first time the full name is listed. 

Key GPT Terms to Know

Final Thoughts for GPT and Legal Writers