From legal research to first draft

Legal drafting rarely begins with writing.

Before an attorney creates the first paragraph of an argument, there may be hours of work involved in searching prior briefs, identifying relevant issues, reviewing authorities, locating useful arguments, analysing case documents and organising research. Only then does drafting begin.

The traditional research-to-draft workflow

Each step is important. But much of the attorney’s time is consumed by information discovery, document navigation and organisation before substantive drafting begins.

1. Start with the legal question

Instead of beginning with folders and keyword combinations, an attorney can begin with a natural-language research question:

• Find prior briefs addressing this legal issue.
• Find arguments involving similar factual circumstances.
• What arguments have we previously made regarding this issue?

2. Find relevant arguments from prior work

A significant amount of valuable legal knowledge may already exist within an organisation’s previous work. Instead of starting every matter with a blank page, attorneys can first ask what the organisation already knows about the issue.

3. Analyse the relevant material

Finding a potentially relevant brief is not the same as understanding why it matters. LexGeni can summarise legal issues and surface relevant arguments and sections from retrieved documents, refined through follow-up questions.

4. Keep the research connected to the source

AI-generated legal text should not be accepted simply because it sounds persuasive. The workflow is designed around grounded responses, citation grounding and document linking.

5. Move from research to an initial draft

Once relevant arguments and source materials have been identified, the next challenge is organising them into a coherent first draft.

6. Draft using uploaded case documents

Legal drafting often requires more than historical research. The argument must reflect the facts and documents associated with the current matter, so drafting can run on a set of uploaded case documents alongside prior knowledge.

The AI-generated draft is a starting point, not the final legal product.

7. Reduce the blank-page problem

One of the most time-consuming parts of drafting is simply creating the initial structure. The attorney may already know the issue but still needs to organise:

• The argument
• Relevant facts
• Prior reasoning
• Supporting sources
• Potential counterarguments
• Overall structure

Instead of beginning with a blank page, the attorney begins with a research-driven starting draft, and focuses on the work where professional expertise matters most.

8. Analyse the opposition before drafting

AI should accelerate the attorney, not replace them

AI can assist with finding information, organising research, identifying prior work, summarising material and producing an initial draft. Attorneys remain responsible for reviewing facts, authorities, citations, source materials, reasoning, applicability, final language and strategic decisions.