How can corporate and transactional lawyers use AI?
By Chandler Harris ·
Short answer
Transactional lawyers get the most from AI in diligence, agreement review and comparison, and drafting from the firm’s own templates. The key is to build reusable workflows around the firm’s existing precedents and preferred clause formulations and to set review points where a lawyer makes every judgment call.
Deal work is well suited to AI because so much of it involves reading large volumes of documents against a known standard: diligence checklists, the firm’s preferred positions, or a prior version of an agreement. Common uses include:
- Diligence summaries that flag issues against a checklist the team defines.
- Comparing a counterparty’s draft against the firm’s form and listing every substantive deviation.
- First drafts built from the firm’s own templates and clause library.
- Issues lists and closing checklists kept current as drafts turn.
What separates useful AI adoption from experimentation is structure: a library of templates and reusable instructions the whole team draws on, and defined review points so the output is dependable enough to use.
Chandler Harris leads Showalter AI Consulting’s work with corporate and transactional teams.
Showalter AI Consulting is not a law firm and does not provide legal services or legal advice. Our services do not create an attorney-client relationship.