You’re likely reading this blog for more than overhyped generative AI tools. You want to skip past unbillable lawyers’ work and focus on:
solving real legal issues,
giving sound counsel, and
moving needles that make both you and your clients happy.
The ‘why’ for legal automation is about returning to the very essence of legal practice.
Even the rest of the fraternity in the legal industry demonstrates a tangible commitment to automating work that isn’t work. See how the numbers are turning in your favor:
79% of law firm professionals report using AI tools at work in 2024, a 415% increase from 2023
The legal AI software market (valued at USD 1.20 billion in 2024) is expected to grow from USD 1.55 billion in 2025 to reach USD 12.12 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 29.27%
61% of general counsels expect budget growth in 2025, with technology investments taking priority at 12%, as Gartner projects
If that’s you, this blog gives you more than another wishlist of legal AI tools. Learn where routine tasks can be automated, find tools for them, and make sure it makes sense for the rest of your organization in the long run.
Let’s dive in.
25 Leading legal AI tools
Choosing the right AI-powered legal tools cannot be done blindfolded. This section categorizes them and lists out the ones that lead in each area of legal practice.
With generative AI, we have this new wave coming in. We’re going to give you 40% of your hours back. What are you going to do with that headspace?
Category 1: Manage documents smartly
Document management systems help write, store, analyze, and make sense of files. Some platforms excel at contract analysis, risk assessment, and automated legal brief writing. AI capabilities identify potential issues, suggest improvements, and streamline the review process that traditionally consumed countless billable hours.
1. Legal Robot
An AI-powered analysis tool that automatically extracts key details, simplifies, and visualizes legal data quickly and compliantly.
Features:
Contract analytics: Extracts data from complex documents, carefully analyzes them, and spotlights potential issues
Legal simplifier: Translates complex jargon into plain language
Compliance tools: Manages GDPR, DMCA, and compliance-related tasks
Legal graph data: Offers a multi-dimensional analysis of documents
2. CoCounsel
A speech-to-text engine that replaces the traditional stenographic.
Features:
Legally formatted real-time transcripts
Unlimited hookups per deposition
Audio synced with text, audio/video records
Exportable recordings for eDiscovery
3. Diligen
Diligen is a machine learning powered analysis tool used by lawyers to spot key provisions, summarize, and review documents.
Features:
Imports contracts for review
Automatically identify key provisions
Filter contracts by metadata
Collaborate with your team and assign for review
Train system to identify new clauses
Automatically summarize contracts in Word or Excel
Category 2: Legal Research
“AI may cause the ‘80/20 inversion; 80 percent of time was spent collecting information, and 20 percent was strategic analysis and implications. We’re trying to flip those timeframes.”
Another category of automation tools is revolutionizing how lawyers conduct research. They come with AI-powered search capabilities, case law identification, and comprehensive legal analytics that deliver insights in minutes.
4. Westlaw Edge
Expedites complex legal research tasks with strategic levels of insight.
Features:
Analyzes briefs intelligently and identifies relevant authorities or bad law
Litigation analytics that compiles legal information to build the case strategy
AI-Search that helps you get to the heart of the matter, and citation safeguards that warn against risk
Acquired by Thomson Reuters, Casetext is a legal research technology with AI-powered contextual search that helps you find on-point authorities faster. Currency with CoCounsel automates all the mundane aspects of legal research.
Acquired by Thomson Reuters, Casetext is a legal research technology with AI-powered contextual search that helps you find on-point authorities faster. Currency with CoCounsel automates all the mundane aspects of legal research.
5. Perplexity AI
Adaptable AI search that enhances legal research with real-time data, gives relevant case law insights, and interprets statutes.
Features:
Iteratively searches, reads documents, and reasons about what to do next as it learns more about the subject area
Synthesize research into a clear and comprehensive report
Export the final report or convert it into a Perplexity page and share it
Category 3: Draft legal documents and correspondence
Client communications also get an upgrade. These tools do the heavy lifting of drafting briefs and formatting them. Complemented with AI assistants, they can also produce structured summaries, memos, correspondences, key details, and action items.
6. Lexis+ AI
A LexisNexis tool that drafts legal questions, requests, and other legal correspondence.
Features
Prepare deposition questions
Draft discovery request
Draft personalized documents and correspondence
7. ClauseBase
A legal drafting platform that makes drafting, negotiations, and reviews faster.
Features
Draft contracts, pull intelligent clauses into them, and automatically style them
Negotiate with all the information you need, redraft with AI, and browse precedents
Review faster with contract overviews and AI analysis
8. Harvey AI
A platform developed by the Counsel AI Corporation to draft documents, analyze complex datasets, and support legal workflows.
Features
Assistant: A domain-specific personal assistant that does complex tasks conversationally
Vault: A repository that lets you store documents safely and analyze them smartly
Knowledge: Gives you answers to complex research questions across legal, regulatory, and tax domains
Workflows: Agentic models designed to collaborate with legal experts
Category 4: Automate contracts from start to finish
Two sub-categories here. Comprehensive CLM platforms automate contract creation, negotiation, approval, execution, and management into one unified workspace. Others focus on specific aspects of contract management for targeted improvements to contract phases like clause analysis, drafting, or obligation tracking.
9. HyperStart CLM
An end-to-end AI-powered contract management software to draft, review, agree, store, and track contracts.
Features
Create: No-code compliant workflows to draft contracts
Review: AI-redlining and suggestions
Sign: Native and eSignature integration options
Store: Contract repository with AI filters and contract families
Track: Extractive AI that reads, understands, and tracks contract metadata
InFlight: A dashboard that tracks contracts from draft to execution
Also read: 13 Best Contract Management Software for Your Business
10. Spellbook
An unbundled contract drafting, redlining, and review tool.
Features
Review Redlining capabilities to catch risks
Draft: Contract creation tools to start from scratch or build on saved libraries
Ask: Contract search for quick answers to complex questions
Benchmarks: Compare and match contracts to market standards
Associate: An AI agent that works through multiple document legal matters with human oversight
11. LinkSquares
An AI-powered CLM and legal project management capabilities.
Features
Analyze: AI-powered repository to organize contracts and automate workflows
Finalize: A contract creation module to draft, review, and approve contracts
Sign: The native eSignature tool to manage and track agreements in one place
Category 5: Manage legal projects
Legal project management tools offer more than productivity gains. They are essential to firms handling complex, multi-phase litigation or large-scale corporate transactions. Law firms can automate how cases are tracked and deadlines are managed while allocating resources better and predicting project timelines.
12. PracticePanther
An all-in-one legal project, case, and document management software.
Features:
Case and matter management
Time tracking, billing, and invoicing integrations
Task automation and deadline tracking
13. Actionstep
A cloud-based law firm operations platform built for law firms to manage projects, workflows, clients, and tasks.
Features:
Matter and client management
Workflows for litigation and transactional matters
Document automation with template libraries
Time and project tracking, billing, and calendaring
14. Rocket Matter
Legal practice management tool designed to make small to mid-sized law firms productive and profitable.
Features:
Legal case management with matter templates and dashboards
Streamlined task management
Time and expertise tracking that is mobile-optimized
Law firm billing that can be done in batches, as retainers, and more
Document management with customizable templates and auto-populated fields
Analytics and reports to drive up productivity, revenue, and collections
Category 6: Get litigation analytics
These large language models use vast quantities of historical litigation outcomes, judicial rulings, and attorney performance. They aim to empower legal professionals with predictive insights and redeem billable hours. They support better decisions, settlement negotiations, and save precious legal resources.
15. Lex Machina
A machine learning powered platform that extracts industry-leading litigation data from court documents to elevate decision-making.
Features:
A legal research tool with case law collection, editorial analysis, and data visualization
A legal operations solution with analytics and proprietary AI financial software
Litigation analytics for damages, timing, and other key factors
16. Premonition
Premonition is a platform that analyzes court records to rate judges and attorneys based on past performance and win rates.
Features:
Judge ratings based on court decisions
Attorney performance analytics and win rates
Court jurisdiction analysis and venue selection
Litigation risk assessment and outcome prediction
Category 7: eDiscovery and data analytics
These tools simplify litigation and investigations. They help find, organize, and act on information that matters in legal cases. They sift through large and complex datasets to save cost, reduce review time, and retrieve data precisely and quickly.
17. CS Disco
Cloud-based eDiscovery platform for legal teams to manage large-scale data efficiently.
Features:
eDiscovery: Faster eDiscovery of complex case matters to streamline the litigation lifecycle
Case builder: Early case assessment tool
Cecilia AI: Investigate and query documents better to build stronger cases
Request: Legal request process automation
Hold: Enterprise legal hold platform that automates manual processes necessary to comply
18. Everlaw
eDiscovery platform that combines AI and real-time collaboration in one intuitive interface.
Features:
Cloud-native eDiscovery and early case assessment
Internal investigations in cyber breaches, whistleblower actions, etc
Deposition and trial preparation tools
19. Relativity
An eDiscovery platform for managing complex legal and compliance matters. It organizes data, discovers insight, and helps you act on it.
Features:
Streamlined eDiscovery process from collection through production
First pass review and privilege review with AI
Case strategy and preparation from depositions and trial
Category 8: Search and retrieve from vast databases
The next generation of search engines goes beyond keyword matching. They use natural language processing and ML models to understand and query documents, pointing you to pertinent information that helps you build arguments and advise clients effectively. This replaces traditional research that is time-consuming, which fails to catch crucial precedents.
20. LegitQuest
A genAI assistant built specifically to enable attorneys in government operations, the judiciary, and elite law firms.
Features:
Legal due diligence, online research, and asset verification
Litigation management
21. Bloomberg Law
Bloomberg Law is a legal research tool that entwines workflow tools, comprehensive primary and secondary sources, trusted news, expert analysis, and business intelligence with genAI. It aims to improve attorney productivity and efficiency.
Features:
Market-leading dockets and research tools
Litigation analytics to visualize trends, advise clients, and predict case outcomes
Practical guidance with pre-built templates, samples, annotated forms, and checklists for your associates
22. Virtually assist clients
The goal of the artificial intelligence lawyer is to provide accurate solutions even before entering the courtroom, without postponing issues “until tomorrow” and relieving lawyers of a heavy bureaucratic burden.
Clients expect better communication and transparency. The ability to handle routine inquiries is a major draw for firms that want to scale. Appointment schedules, updates on case status, and intakes can be managed with AI. Chatbots and virtual assistants gather necessary information through a simple conversation and free up legal admin time.
23. Smith.ai
Legal virtual assistant that takes client inquiries 24/7, blocks spam, and qualifies leads so human expertise can deal with converting them.
Features:
AI Receptionist: Screens leads, schedules appointments, and transfers calls
Virtual Receptionist: A personalized assistant that conversationally tailors plans for callers
Outreach: Business development campaigns with North America-based agents and AI-driven workflows
24. LawDroid
An AI Legal Assistant that answers phones, captures leads, interviews clients, and drafts documents.
Features:
Client intake with chatbots, engaging videos, responsive conversation, and data analytics
Word document that can be automated into dynamic templates with conditional logic
A research assistant who can draft emails and summarize documents
25. Gideon
Now called Case Compass, this tool integrates with your CRM and case management system to support client intake, outreach, engagement, and conversions.
Features:
Lead qualification that engages prospects and boosts conversion rates
Streamlined client onboarding that automates legal document creation and e-signing processes
Connects with your CRM or case management system to support business development
The case for AI adoption in legal work
The robots are undeniably doing repetitive, mundane tasks. Lawyers are genuinely free to do higher-order work. Hype or tipping point, neither extreme is necessarily true. The question is, ‘Will adoption be full and transformational or moderate and incremental?’
An AmLaw100 study interviewing Chief Operating Officers and partners anonymously, which comes at it from different angles. Here’s the crux:
1. Productivity gains
There’s always going to be more work as legal professionals start to automate routine tasks. But pilot projects testing various use cases conclusively show vast amounts of time redeemed from using these tools.
For instance, a complaint response system in litigation matter management brought 16 hours of manual work down to 3-4 minutes.
2. Financial benefits
The productivity gain will free up time so lawyers can focus on the quality of service, analysis, and strategy.
Voila, the billable revenue model survives.
3. Pricing & AI investments
The billable revenue model will continue to dominate with the emergence of fixed-fee work.
The increased value will be recognized and will likely be captured/built into higher rates.
4. Restructuring
Anecdotal accounts have it that there seems to be no reduction or change in staffing numbers. But recent data also shows that law firms will take a measured hiring approach. Meanwhile, headcounts for new positions such as data scientists, AI engineers, and generalist lawyers will increase.
5. Client expectations
Clients care about how AI is going to impact their matters and their confidentiality and accuracy. Here, some use cases have resulted in shared investments between law firms and clients. Other projects that did not yield anticipated results have been abandoned altogether.
Companies often try to fix problems that aren’t real pain points while ignoring critical concerns like security and confidentiality. That’s where adoption stalls.
6. Changes in revenue & profit models
AI whips up conversation around business models and the scale at which law firms can operate. AI-infused practice is likely to
Improve the quality of service
Define practice methodologies that set law firms apart
7. Total impact on the firm
Firms are considering additional work for their clients and sharing work with other firms that specialize in certain practices. This is likely to create more stickiness with clients.
Firms are considering additional work for their clients and sharing work with other firms that specialize in certain practices. This is likely to create more stickiness with clients.
Improve the quality of service
Bottom line: The study reveals that most interviewees are somewhere between cautious optimism and strategic deliberation.
Will AI replace lawyers?
The short answer is ‘no’. Legal matters require human judgment and decisions. Another leader notes,
Legal generative AI is supposed to augment what a lawyer does. It’s not going to do legal reasoning, not going to door case strategy. What it’s supposed to do is repeatable rote tasks much more quickly and efficiently.
Next steps
AI is already reshaping how legal work gets done. Some use cases can be tied back to tangible deltas like hours, dollars, and client satisfaction scores, while some are still in discovery. Either way, transformation is on the move.
Frequently asked questions
- Reduce costs
- Improve quality
- Make work less tedious and more focused
- Protect the confidentiality that clients demand
- Seamless integrations: AI solutions only succeed with practical integrations and organic adoption into existing systems and teams
- Robust security: Adoption won’t be difficult when critical concerns like security and confidentiality are taken care of
