Something going wrong in a brief because of AI is the kind of thing that happens to careful lawyers, not just careless ones. Attorneys across the country are grappling with how to use AI responsibly without getting sanctioned, and many still do not know where to begin. Carolyn Elefant, a solo practitioner since 1993 and one of the country’s most recognized advocates for independent lawyers, lays it out plainly: the tools work, the risks are real, and waiting is no longer a neutral choice.
Start With One Tool and Give It a Real Week
The most common mistake solo attorneys make with AI is sampling too many tools at once and walking away with no real understanding of any of them.
Elefant’s advice: pick one tool and spend a week with it. Get familiar with what it can and cannot do before you add anything else. Then connect it to actual problems in your practice.
Before you start any task, ask yourself:
- Can AI outline the arguments for this motion?
- Can it summarize these discovery documents?
- Can it draft the first version of this client update?
- Can it give me feedback on the approach I am planning to take?
The goal is not to replace your judgment. It is to stop spending time on the parts of your job that do not require it.
Good starting tools for solo attorneys:
- Claude
- ChatGPT
- Google Gemini
- Google NotebookLM
General AI Tools vs. Legal-Specific Platforms
Legal AI tools have gotten a lot of attention. Elefant recommends holding off on them until you have real experience with general platforms first.
| General AI Tools | Legal-Specific AI Tools | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $20 to $100 | Often $100 to $500+ |
| User base | Tens of millions | Thousands to low millions |
| Improvement pace | Rapid, constant | Slower feedback loop |
| Ease of evaluation | Easy to test immediately | Hard to assess value without baseline |
| Best for | Starting out, drafting, research support | Specialized workflows after you know what to expect |
When ChatGPT launched, it reached a million users almost overnight. One of the leading legal AI platforms took three years to reach the same number. That gap in users means a gap in how fast the tools improve. General platforms benefit from more feedback and more investment. Legal tools cannot match that pace yet.
One exception: research and citation tools like Westlaw and Lexis are in their own category. If you are in active practice, you likely already have access to them, and they belong in a separate comparison entirely.
AI Hallucinations in Legal Briefs Are Not Always Obvious
The risk attorneys hear about most is AI making up cases. What they underestimate is how convincing fabricated cases look.
Elefant caught one hallucination only because the case was cited from the Fifth Circuit, and her experience told her that type of case typically does not land there. The case name looked real. The citation format looked real. Nothing flagged it as fake except her own familiarity with the subject matter.
The two hallucination types attorneys need to watch for:
- Fabricated citations – The case name and citation number look real but the case does not exist
- Mischaracterized quotes – The case is real, but the quoted language has been shortened or rearranged in a way that changes the meaning
A verification process worth building:
- Run the brief through a second AI model with a specific instruction to find errors, hallucinated cases, and mischaracterized quotes
- Assign a human, ideally someone who has not read the draft, to manually check every citation
- Require any law clerk or attorney who used AI on the draft to disclose it so you know where to look more carefully
- Trust your instincts when something feels off about a citation’s jurisdiction or procedural posture
The standard of diligence has gone up. These steps are baseline practice now for any filing going to a federal or appellate court.
What the Next Year Looks Like by Firm Size
Elefant’s one-year prediction breaks down differently depending on where you sit.
| Firm Type | What to Expect in the Next Year |
|---|---|
| Large firms | Enterprise AI tools become standard; entry-level hiring classes shrink modestly; rates stay high |
| Solo and small firms (AI adopters) | Competitive advantage grows; able to meet rising client expectations |
| Solo and small firms (non-adopters) | Real pressure begins; clients start choosing elsewhere without fully knowing why |
| All firms | Clients expect faster responses, AI-assisted communication, and document help as a baseline |
Elefant compares where things are headed to how payment works now. Nobody pays legal fees by check anymore. Clients just expect electronic options. Within a year, they will expect AI-level responsiveness in the same quiet, non-negotiable way.
On pricing: do not expect rates to fall fast. Legal pricing culture is informal and self-reinforcing. Attorneys look at what others charge and hold their rates there. AI cuts production time, but without meaningful competition pushing rates down, clients may not see those savings for years.
In five years, Elefant sees no realistic survival path for firms that have not adopted at all.
Key Takeaways
- Pick one AI tool and spend a full week with it before adding anything else
- Start with general platforms like Claude or ChatGPT before paying for legal-specific AI
- Legal AI tools are hard to evaluate accurately without a baseline for comparison
- AI hallucinations in briefs rarely look like hallucinations, which is what makes them dangerous
- Running a brief through a second AI model with an explicit instruction to find errors catches more problems than a single review
- Require disclosure from anyone who used AI in a draft so you know where to apply extra scrutiny
- Solo firms that reach the end of 2025 without meaningful AI adoption will face real competitive pressure
- Clients will begin expecting AI-level service even when they cannot name what they are expecting
The attorneys seeing the biggest benefit from AI right now are not the ones who jumped on every new tool. They are the ones who learned one tool well, connected it to a real problem, and built from there. If you want legal guidance from a firm that stays ahead of what is changing, Modern Law is at mymodernlaw.com or call 480-649-2905.
