Industries / Legal
AI in Legal
AI clearly saves time on first drafts, document review and summarising, and firms such as CMS and Ashurst report measured gains. Accuracy in legal research is still contested, and fake citations keep reaching courts.
- US court filings with AI-fabricated content in Damien Charlotin's tracker by 27 July 2026
- 1,240
- reports of potential AI misuse received by the SRA in the 12 months to July 2026
- 42
- a year saved per lawyer at CMS after rolling out Harvey (firm-reported)
- 118 hours
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Where AI works today
The clearest gains are in drafting, review and summarising, where a lawyer still checks the result. In controlled trials with 411 partners, lawyers and staff, Ashurst measured time savings of about 80% on drafting UK corporate filings and about 45% on first-draft legal briefings (firm-reported, 2024). CMS says each of its lawyers saves about 118 hours a year on average after it rolled Harvey out to more than 7,000 lawyers (firm-reported, December 2025). Courts are testing assistive tools too: in a 98-day pilot, 22 judges of the Superior Court of Québec used AI agents for writing, translation and research, and 89% said they wanted to keep using them. Buyers are spending: Legora says more than 140,000 legal professionals at over 2,400 firms and in-house teams use its platform.
Still unproven
Legal research is where AI is least settled. A 2024 Stanford study found leading legal research tools gave hallucinated answers to between 17% and 34% of test queries. A 2025 Vals benchmark had AI tools scoring about 80% against a 71% lawyer baseline, but Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis did not take part, and lawyers still did better on about a third of question types. Many productivity figures are self-reported or vendor-commissioned, and Microsoft has published only its own evaluations for Copilot for Legal. Fake citations keep reaching courts: researcher Damien Charlotin’s tracker counted 1,240 US instances by 27 July 2026, and courts have sanctioned lawyers repeatedly since the 2023 Mata v. Avianca case.
Regulation
United States: ABA Formal Opinion 512 (29 July 2024) says lawyers using generative AI keep their usual duties of competence, confidentiality, client communication and reasonable fees. New York’s court rule Part 161 (in force 1 June 2026) lets lawyers use AI without disclosing it, but they must check filings for invented cases or statutes. A proposed federal evidence rule on machine-generated evidence (Rule 707) was paused in May 2026 for more study. England and Wales: The judiciary updated its AI guidance for judicial office holders in October 2025. On 17 August 2026 the Solicitors Regulation Authority published a warning notice on AI misuse, after 42 reports of potential misuse in the year to July 2026. European Union: The AI Act treats AI that helps judicial authorities research and interpret facts and law as high-risk; since the July 2026 amendments those duties start on 2 December 2027. Others: Singapore’s courts issued a guide on generative AI for court users in 2024, and in June 2026 the AI Committee of India’s Supreme Court published draft rules that keep AI in a supporting role.
Proven deployments
Named organisations, measured results, linked sources only
- About 118 hours per lawyer a yearCMSRolled Harvey out to more than 7,000 lawyers in over 50 countries; its internal analysis puts the average time saved at about 118 hours per lawyer a year. Firm-reported.Global Legal Post (December 2025)
- About 80%AshurstControlled trials with 411 staff in 23 offices measured time savings of about 80% on drafting UK corporate filings, 59% on sector research reports and 45% on first-draft briefings. Firm-reported.Ashurst (June 2024)
- 89%Superior Court of Québec22 volunteer judges used AI agents for writing, translation, research and citation checks over 98 days; 89% wanted to continue and no judge said AI influenced a decision. Court-reported.Superior Court of Québec (April 2026)
- 60%Inspired Thinking Group (in-house legal)A pilot of an AI contract tool inside Microsoft Word cut contract review time by 60%. Company-reported, published by the vendor.Legal Futures (February 2026)
- About 7 in 10Microsoft Legal Agent early usersMore than 1,800 early users generated nearly 100,000 contract edits and kept about seven in ten suggestions. Microsoft's own figures.LawSites (October 2026)
Who’s putting AI to work
- HarveyLegal AI platform · raised $550m at a $15.5bn valuation in September 2026
- LegoraLegal AI platform · Swedish firm, raised $550m at an $8.8bn valuation in October 2026
- Thomson Reuters (CoCounsel)Legal research and AI assistant · the company says 1 million professionals use CoCounsel
- LexisNexis (Protégé)Legal research and AI assistant · main rival to Westlaw
- Microsoft (Copilot for Legal)Workplace AI · legal skills built into Word, launched October 2026
- Solicitors Regulation AuthorityRegulator, England and Wales · warning notice on AI misuse, consulting on competence rules
- Advisory Committee on Evidence RulesUS federal rule-maker · drafting rules on AI evidence and deepfakes
- Damien CharlotinResearcher · tracks court filings with AI-invented content
What to watch
- 3 Dec 2026: the SRA consultation on adding technology and AI to solicitor competence closes; changes are due to take effect in September 2027
- Late 2026: the Civil Justice Council’s final report on using AI to prepare court documents in England and Wales
- After the 15 Oct 2026 meeting: whether the US evidence rules committee republishes Rule 707 on AI evidence
- Undated: India’s Supreme Court finalises its rules on AI in courts
- From late Oct 2026: partner plugins for Microsoft Copilot for Legal, and whether independent benchmarks appear
- 2 Dec 2027: EU AI Act high-risk duties start for AI that assists judges
Sources
- Legora raises $550 million Series E (Legora, October 2026)
- Microsoft launches Copilot for Legal (LawSites, October 2026)
- Review of the Statement of Solicitor Competence, consultation (SRA, October 2026)
- Evidence Rules agenda book, October 2026 (US Courts, September 2026)
- The hard numbers behind lawyers, AI and phantom precedents (Maryland State Bar Association, July 2026)
- SRA warning notice on the misuse of AI (HSF Kramer, August 2026)
- New York Part 161 AI rule (NYSBA, June 2026)
- AI Act timeline under the AI Omnibus (Future of Privacy Forum, July 2026)
- AI Pilot Project summary of results (Superior Court of Québec, April 2026)
- CMS expands Harvey rollout (Global Legal Post, December 2025)
- Legal models hallucinate in 1 out of 6 or more queries (Stanford HAI, May 2024)
- Vals AI legal research benchmark (LawSites, October 2025)
Keep exploring
ExplainerAI agents explainedWhat an AI agent is, and why law firms are testing them.
IndustryAI in Finance and bankingAnother regulated profession adopting AI with caution.
CountryAI in the United KingdomRules and guidance from UK regulators.
CountryAI in the United StatesCourt rules and ethics opinions on AI.
SectionTimelineKey moments in AI, including the first fake-citation sanctions.
Legal on the timeline
Full timeline →- Mata v. Avianca sanctions over ChatGPT-invented cases
- ABA issues first ethics opinion on generative AI
- High Court warns lawyers over fake citations in Ayinde and Al-Haroun
- New York courts’ AI rule takes effect
- Solicitors regulator issues warning notice on AI misuse
- Microsoft launches Copilot for Legal