Embracing Copilot in the legal profession

Legal departments are navigating an increasingly dynamic and complex legal, regulatory, and compliance landscape. The workload is growing not just in volume, but in speed and complexity. By harnessing the power of Microsoft Copilot, legal departments can fundamentally reshape the way they work to meet these demands. This is not just inevitable – it is already happening.

At Microsoft, our legal teams adopted GenAI early, integrating products like Microsoft Copilot into our daily workflows. And the impact has far exceeded our expectations. Yes, GenAI helps us work faster and be more productive. But, more importantly, it enables us to be more effective as lawyers. It gives us the headspace for complex legal challenges, allows us to focus on strategic thinking, and ultimately makes our work more impactful and more enjoyable.

Breaking down complexity and jargon

Translating intricate legal and regulatory language into something business leaders can quickly grasp is one of our daily challenges. We don’t just work with contracts, laws, and policies – we work with people who need clear, actionable information to enable effective risk management and decision making.

With Copilot, my team and I can transform lengthy contracts, regulatory frameworks, and policy documents into concise summaries that highlight key risks and obligations for our business. This provides clarity and confidence to our stakeholders while allowing us to focus on advising on strategic implications and sound decision-making. Simplifying complexity without losing nuance ensures our guidance remains clear, actionable, and impactful.

AI as our research and strategy partner

As legal professionals, we often engage in regulatory discussions, client meetings, and industry panels requiring deep expertise. Traditionally, staying ahead of evolving legal landscapes demanded significant time for research and cross-referencing.

GenAI-driven capabilities have revolutionized this process. Instead of manually sifting through reports, legislative documents, and legal updates, we use Copilot to generate tailored insights on specific topics – summarizing regulatory changes, breaking down key arguments, or providing relevant case law – which we can then validate through our own knowledge and more targeted checks. This initial automation of research saves significant time and enhances our preparedness.

Copilot’s conversational nature further refines our work. By adjusting queries, exploring specific aspects, and considering counterarguments, we gain a well-rounded perspective, ensuring clarity on the latest developments and confidence in our external engagements.

Built-in legal safeguards

Confidentiality is a cornerstone of our profession, and protecting privileged, confidential, and sensitive information is non-negotiable. With AI now integrated into our workflows, we can also use it to ensure that security measures remain robust and uncompromising.

Copilot operates within Microsoft 365’s secure environment, ensuring that the appropriate confidentiality labels are applied to all documents. AI-generated insights are protected by enterprise-grade security protocols, meaning access is restricted to authorized personnel only. This allows us to collaborate efficiently without compromising confidentiality or exposing privileged information.

Beyond document protection, Copilot assists in maintaining compliance by ensuring that all data handling aligns with internal governance policies and regulatory requirements. With AI streamlining our legal workflows, we can trust that security is embedded at every level, allowing us to focus on delivering high-value legal services while maintaining the strictest confidentiality standards.

Smarter, Faster, Stronger – AI-powered legal analysis

GenAI is revolutionizing how we provide legal analysis, legal drafting, and legal risk management. For example, contract review is one of the most time-intensive tasks in the legal practice, requiring careful analysis to mitigate risks, clarify obligations, and align clauses with business objectives. Traditionally, this has involved hours of manual work, cross-referencing past agreements and multiple versions, and collaborating across multiple teams and stakeholders.

AI-powered tools now streamline this process by comparing agreements to historical contracts and parallel versions, identifying potential concerns, and suggesting real-time amendments. This frees us to focus on the high-value aspects of a project, ensuring its contracts are both legally sound and strategically aligned.

Copilot also drafts revisions with language consistent with applicable regulatory frameworks and company policies, reducing turnaround times and ensuring document consistency. By leveraging AI, we improve efficiency, eliminate bottlenecks, and deliver timely, actionable legal guidance.

Embracing AI for a more strategic legal practice

Our profession is undergoing a significant transformation, and AI is at the center of it.

There is a lot of talk about AI replacing jobs, but my experience tells a different story. AI is not here to replace us, it is here to work with us, enhancing how we practice law. In today’s complex legal and regulatory landscape, human judgment, accountability, and expertise are indispensable. And Microsoft Copilot is no substitute for that: instead, it scales our capabilities, streamlines processes, and amplifies our impact as legal professionals.

While AI will not replace lawyers or legal professionals, those of us who embrace its potential will have a significant advantage. By embracing tools like Microsoft Copilot, we are not only improving efficiency but also reinforcing the value of our unique insights, allowing us to focus on the high-value work that truly makes a difference.