Prompt Playbook: AI Legal Assistant PART 3

Remember that AI Workshop Kit license agreement I mentioned in Part 1? Well, there's more to that story.

After I'd used AI to create the first draft, I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself. Ready to send it straight out to license holders and crack on with business.

Thank goodness I didn't.

Because here's the thing about legal documents - they're not for when everything's going great. They're for when shit hits the fan. And let me tell you, in business, that fan gets messy more often than you'd think.

It wasn't enough to have a document that worked when everyone played nice. I needed one that would protect all parties when things went sideways.

What if a license holder started teaching outside their territory? What if they modified the materials in a way that damaged our brand? What if they disappeared off the face of the earth mid-contract?

Good intentions aren't enough in business. And the whole purpose of contracts and legal documents is to prepare for when those good intentions go out the window.

Now, this isn't about being aggressive or pessimistic. It's about being thorough.It's about safety - for you AND the other party.

Because a solid legal document actually makes business relationships better. Everyone knows where they stand, what happens in different scenarios, and how issues will be resolved.

To do this properly, you need to look at the document from both sides of the table. Not just your own perspective.

Let’s get started

Punching holes

Just The Draft Isn't Enough

You know what's funny? After I posted about this AI legal document process on TikTok, a lawyer hopped into the comments:

100% agree!

Having a well-drafted document is great, but it's just the starting point.

What really matters is making sure it holds up when things go wrong. And to do that we’re going to continue refining.

The Review Process

Think of this like a safety inspection. Just like you wouldn't drive a car without checking the brakes, you shouldn't use a legal document without thoroughly testing it. This first review helps us spot the obvious issues before they become real-world problems.

Here's how we do it

Review this [type of document]. Analyse it for:

Missing clauses or gaps in coverage
Ambiguous language that could be interpreted multiple ways
Scenarios not properly addressed
Potential loopholes or weaknesses
Imbalanced or unfair provisions

Provide specific examples and suggestions for improvement. 

This basic review prompt will give the document a review and spit out suggestions for improvement.

You can then select which improvements you want it to apply or simply ask it to apply all improvements.

You can repeat this process multiple times. Also, you can try using a different AI to run the analysis. Ie. if you had Claude prepare the document then have ChatGPT run a review. And vice-versa.

Finding Edge Cases

Most legal disputes don't arise from the obvious scenarios - they come from the unexpected. That's why we need to think about edge cases. It's like stress-testing a product - we're not just checking if it works in perfect conditions, we're throwing everything we can at it to see where it might break.

Because if we can break it in testing, someone else could break it in real life.

And if we can break it first then we can apply fixes.

Here's the prompt

You are a legal analyst. Review this document and identify potential edge cases and scenarios that aren't adequately covered. 

For each scenario identified, explain why it's important and suggest specific language to address it.

This will run a scenario analysis and come up with different events that could cause problems down the line.

After this run a prompt like

Using the scenarios identified, help me strengthen this document. For each point:

Draft specific clause language to address the issue
Explain why this language works
Consider potential counterarguments
Suggest alternative approaches if needed

This will provide potential fixes for the edge case scenarios and you can apply those that make sense (or at least have them handy for if/when you go to a lawyer for finalisation).

Making it Fair

Here's something counter-intuitive: the more one-sided your agreement is, the less likely it is to actually protect you. Why? Because heavily one-sided agreements either don't get signed in the first place, or they get fought tooth and nail if things go wrong.

We’ll talk more about negotiation in the next Part but for now let’s make sure that our draft is even-handed. Here’s a prompt:

Review this document from both parties' perspectives. For each major clause:

Analyze the balance of rights and obligations
Identify any unfair advantages
Suggest modifications to make it more equitable

What's Next?

In Part 4, we're going to take this even further with combative analysis. We'll get AI to actively try to break our document, looking at it from an opponent's perspective in a negotiation or dispute. This is where it gets really interesting!

We’ll also prepare you for negotiation by identifying potential issues the other party will raise as well as your responses.

Keep Prompting,

Kyle