Update a firm precedent after a change in United States law
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- Mark each citation and defined term in the precedent and list the new instrument the lawyer supplies beside the old one. Do not rewrite a clause.
- What the lawyer must review
- You decide whether the law has changed and you edit the precedent. Model Rule 1.1 and Comment 8 require competence, including the benefits and risks of relevant technology. Formal Opinion 512 requires independent verification of generated output and warns that tools produce citations to nonexistent opinions. Open the new statute, rule or opinion in an official source. Model Rules 5.1 and 5.3, as discussed in Opinion 512, require managerial lawyers to set policies on permissible use of generative tools and supervisory lawyers to train lawyers and nonlawyers who use them. A precedent that will be filed or signed later is still your work. Do not publish an unreviewed clause into the bank.
- Written for / version
- United States versionUS
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | Potential support includes preparing preliminary structure or wording. Confirm the tool’s capability and permitted scope. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Open each relied-on authority independently. Confirm its existence, current status, proposition and any quotation or pinpoint reference.
- Check the current court or regulator requirements, prescribed form and attachments for the intended document and filing.
- Review operative clauses in the complete document, including definitions, cross-references, schedules and inconsistencies with the instructions.
- Verify the applicable jurisdiction and the version of each relevant law, rule or instrument in force at the material time.
- Confirm the output against the client’s instructions and the complete relevant source material, including omissions or contradictions.
- Resolve exceptions and record the responsible lawyer’s approval of the exact output and intended use.