How to Use AI to Write Legal Memos More Effectively

This post details a five-step workflow for lawyers to use AI more effectively in drafting legal memos. It emphasizes treating AI as a junior drafter, not a research source, and outlines a prompt structure including role, context, source material, and output specification. The workflow highlights the lawyer's role in assembling inputs, drafting prompts, reviewing AI-generated drafts, and performing final verification. It also discusses the limitations of general-purpose AI in legal memo work, particularly regarding citation grounding and matter-level isolation.