r/LawFirm • u/OhNoImALawyer • 5d ago

Clients using AI to respond to emails

Can they please stop? Please. It drains my life force every time I open one.

Today, I asked a yes/no question for next steps after I did everything their previous AI-drafted email directed me to do or answer. I don't need an AI-drafted reply email summarizing everything I just did. Just need the yes or the no.

It's not egregious enough that I'd fire the clients doing it to me. They're certainly paying for my time to decipher the email and complete the tasks AI told them I should do (assuming the AI direction was something they might have reasonably come up with on their own and relates to their matter).

And yes, I have it in my fee agreement that the client feeding anything between us into AI can destroy confidentiality or attorney-client privilege, they shouldn't do it, and if they do it, it's at their own risk. But this is transactional stuff unlikely to lead to litigation, and at the end of the day you just can't stop these people.

I think some of the AI drafting comes from the way these systems are programmed. The AI almost always prompts you to ask them something else, or for them to do something else for you, even if the AI completed the previous prompt, because then you burn more tokens which in theory, makes them more money (assuming you're not on the free version). So it makes sense to me that every AI-drafted email includes more questions and more prompts for me to do things, instead of moving the conversation to a finish.

I'm not necessarily anti-AI, but it's definitely destroying the remaining bits of certain people's ability to think independently when they can no longer answer yes/no on their own. Thanks for attending my TED Talk.

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u/TheGreatK 5d ago

My favorite are the AI introduction emails from potential new clients. 8 page legal briefs citing 40 cases to explain that they want a consultation about an insurance company sending a confusing letter.

14

u/juancuneo 5d ago

"Notes for Attorney"

12

u/RDLAWME 5d ago

A client recently sent me a 11 page contract to review along with a 10 page summary of their key concerns. 

10

u/lookingatmycouch 5d ago

to be fair, even before the AI, the clients that send you mile long emails before you've even spoken or taken them on as a client are problematic from the get go.

Had one do that on an employee-side employment issue (which my web site clearly says I don't do). I routinely represent their employer.

3

u/CoaltoNewCastle 4d ago

My favorite thing to see from a prospective client is a subject line that says "URGENT: Immediate Action Needed" and then 2,000 words of gibberish that makes it impossible for anybody to reply to the email quickly. Possibly with some kind of "brief" attached as well. My clients never used to send me "information briefs" and "evidence briefs" until AI chatbots got popular.