New LexisNexis Generative AI Writes Mean Cease & Desist Letters, Becoming The AI We Never Knew We Needed
Finally, an application for AI that we can all get behind.
As the legal industry continues to carrom between giddy enthusiasm and existential dread as it ponders generative artificial intelligence, new proposed applications of the technology keep cropping up to feed the cycle. To be clear, when it comes to legal, GPT is not ready for prime time. It’s not going to replace associates, but it can streamline a number of tasks.
Much like the major search engine companies, a lot of excitement centers on generative AI proving more efficient at generating and processing research, which is why we’ve been waiting on LexisNexis to jump into this space. And today, they announced Lexis+ AI, a conglomeration of multiple large language models trained upon Lexis’s deep repository of information. Per the announcement, this new offering “features conversational search, insightful summarization, and intelligent legal drafting capabilities, all supported by state-of-the-art encryption and privacy technology to keep sensitive data secure.”
But the coolest feature is definitely the ability to ask it to write mean letters.
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The interface tracks the familiar AI bot conversation format, with the user asking a simple, natural language question and the AI responding in real time based on the information in the Lexis database. In a demo shown to the press, the system seeks out and summarizes the law of removal, providing links to relevant caselaw for the attorney to review (click the image to zoom in).
From here, Lexis+ AI offers the attorney a shortcut to the next step in the workflow. Assured that the research is sound, the lawyer needs to run it by the client to get approval to remove the case and Lexis+ AI will go right ahead and do that for you:
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That’s a solid start. But the demo followed up this draft by showing the user asking Lexis+ AI to “Shorten and simplify draft” producing a streamlined version for a busy client.
Sadly, none of these screenshots capture the most entertaining part of the demo, where the AI drafted a cease-and-desist letter directed at someone suspected of infringing on a client’s intellectual property. The letter laid out the request and relevant law providing a significant jump start to drafting.
But then they asked the AI to make the letter more aggressive! No more of the polite boilerplate about maybe possibly infringing on our property, replaced by a scolding tone. The algorithm isn’t going to generate high comedy or lay on the snark, but for lawyers reticent to dial up the aggression, Lexis has a solution. Finally, a tool for lawyers who are too nice, because we have far too many of them.
In all seriousness, these are the little functions that make generative AI useful. For all the deeply serious applications, it’s going to be fun stuff like tweaking aggressiveness or simplicity that will get lawyers playing around with it. We’re already seeing with ChatGPT that it’s the appetite to experiment with goofy stuff that builds adoption and putting this front and center at the demo shows that LexisNexis understands this.
For now, these capabilities are reserved for a handful of Am Law 50 partners, though the company also announced a Lexis+ AI Insider program for customers to sign up to get some early perks too. Speaking at the demo, Jeff Pfeifer, chief product officer for LexisNexis US/Canada/UK/Ireland, said that the company will open up the product to the masses when its partners let them know it’s ready.
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In the meantime, if you start seeing some extra curt cease-and-desist letters from Am Law 50 firms, you know why.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
