AI for legal professionals: Insights from the authors of "AI for the Rest of Us"

Navigating the AI revolution doesn’t require a computer science degree — just the right guidance. Last week, Nextpoint and Tom O’Connor joined EDRM for an author panel discussion on “Artificial Intelligence for the Rest of Us,” the comprehensive guide we wrote together to help legal professionals confidently embrace AI, no matter their firm size or technical background.

The book that started it all

The journey to “Artificial Intelligence for the Rest of Us” began over a decade ago with a simple question: What can solo practitioners and small firms do with limited technology budgets? In 2010, legal tech pioneer Craig Ball posed the “Edna Challenge,” asking how a solo attorney with just $1,000 could handle ediscovery. This challenge sparked a movement.

Tom O’Connor, co-founder of Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center, and attorney Bruce Olson picked up the mantle in 2011 with a standing-room-only presentation called “eDiscovery for the Rest of Us.” The concept resonated so strongly that the ABA commissioned them to write a book. After several iterations and updates, Nextpoint partnered with Tom to refresh the content for the modern era with “eDiscovery for the Rest of Us” — the first collaboration.

After publishing the updated ediscovery book, they realized something. AI had evolved so rapidly and become so central to legal practice that it deserved its own dedicated resource for AI for legal professionals.

“This was originally supposed to be an addendum to the ediscovery book,” Tom explained during the webinar. “Then ChatGPT came out in November 2022, and it took on a life of its own.”

And just like that, “Artificial Intelligence for the Rest of Us” was born.

This was originally supposed to be an addendum to the ediscovery book, then ChatGPT came out in November 2022, and it took on a life of its own.” ^{Tom O'Connor} _{Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center}

Why “the rest of us” matters

The phrase “the rest of us” isn’t limited to firm size. It represents accessibility. While large AmLaw50 firms have dedicated IT departments and unlimited budgets, most legal professionals work without those resources. Even attorneys at large firms can feel overwhelmed by AI terminology and applications.

“There could be attorneys at all kinds of firms that are just overwhelmed with some of the terminology,” noted Brett Burney, eLaw Evangelist at Nextpoint. “They could be at large firms, and they don’t want to admit a lot of times that they don’t know what they don’t know.”

That’s where this book comes in. It’s a practical, honest guide that assumes no prior technical knowledge and meets legal professionals exactly where they are.

Building your AI foundation

Before diving into legal applications, the book asks a fundamental question: What is AI? In a foreword from Dr. Dave Lewis, Chief Scientific Officer at Nextpoint and founder of BrainSpace, readers learn about the myriad applications of AI that extend back years before the current AI boom.

“Saying I’m using AI is like saying I listen to music,” Tom pointed out. “That doesn’t tell me anything about what you’re doing. Are you listening to Bruce Springsteen or Bad Bunny or country and western? There’s a million genres, and some of them cross over into each other.”

The glossary

One of the book’s standout features is its comprehensive glossary, placed at the beginning, not the end (this wasn’t an accident, by the way).

“Elizabeth was really adamant about making sure that we put a glossary in here because there’s so many phrases floating around,” Tom said. “We’ve got regular AI, we’ve got AGI, we’ve got LLMs, we’ve got small language models. It seems like there’s a new term all the time.”

Elizabeth Guthrie, Content Manager at Nextpoint and the project manager who kept the book on track, ensured the glossary went beyond simple definitions. “It’s not just a list of words because you can find that anywhere,” she explained. “I want it to be geared toward the legal field, with examples about how it ties back to the legal profession.”

It’s not just a list of words because you can find that anywhere. I want it to be geared toward the legal field, with examples about how it ties back to the legal profession.” ^{Elizabeth Guthrie} _Nextpoint

Get your copy today

“Artificial Intelligence for the Rest of Us” is more than a book. It’s your practical guide to navigating AI in legal practice with confidence. Whether you’re at a solo practice, a mid-size firm, a large organization, or anywhere in between, this essential resource on AI for legal professionals provides the foundation you need to understand, evaluate, and implement AI tools effectively.

Ready to demystify AI and put it to work in your practice?

Real-world legal applications

Where GenAI shines

According to research from Doug Austin of eDiscovery Today, AI for legal professionals is already being used for:

• Document review and production (the top use case)
• Document summarization
• Legal research
• Contract analysis and generation
• Case strategy and early case assessment
• Timeline generation
• Knowledge management
• PII identification

One tool that we recently released at Nextpoint is transcript summaries. This is a great use case for generative AI because it performs well at taking one long body of text, summarizing it, and giving you key information, especially once the tool has been tailored to a specific legal task.

The human element remains critical

The panelists emphasized repeatedly, “AI is a tool, not a replacement for human judgment.”

“Think of AI not as artificial intelligence, but as attorney intelligence,” Brett said, crediting Tom with the phrase. “You can’t take that common sense out of the factor. You can’t take your training out of that.”

Tom drew parallels to earlier technology adoption: “Computers are fast and people are slow, but computers are dumb and people are smart. We’re the ones who see the big picture and draw the conclusions and make an analysis of what this all means. Let’s not forget that.”

Navigating risks and ethics

The hallucination problem

AI hallucinations — when tools confidently generate false information — pose serious risks in legal practice. The book dedicates an entire chapter to the risks and ethics of using AI, especially after multiple cases where attorneys faced sanctions for submitting briefs with fabricated case citations.

“One way we’ve seen this play out so far in the legal field is there’s been several folks in many different jurisdictions who have faced sanctions and other consequences for submitting materials to the court that had fake citations,” Elizabeth explained. “It’s just super important to remember that that is a possibility. Always, always verify the output that you get.”

Ethics opinions are emerging

While still limited, several states and the ABA have issued ethics opinions on AI use in legal practice. The book provides resources for finding these opinions and understanding your jurisdiction’s requirements — essential knowledge on AI for legal professionals navigating this evolving landscape.

Practical implementation: Getting started

Five key steps

The book’s implementation chapter offers actionable guidance for AI for legal professionals:

1. Start with what you want to do: Identify specific pain points or inefficiencies in your workflows before shopping for tools
2. Understand what AI is and isn’t: It’s not a full replacement for human intelligence, and it’s not an “easy button”
3. Get your team on board: This includes both colleagues and clients, ensuring everyone understands capabilities, limitations, and security measures
4. Ask vendors the right questions: The book provides a detailed list of questions about security, pricing, training, and implementation
5. Understand pricing models: Pricing models are typically subscription-based or usage-based, involving factors that are unique to AI, like tokens

Questions for AI vendors

The book includes two full pages of questions to ask potential AI vendors, covering:

• What AI model powers the tool?
• How is data secured and encrypted?
• Where is data stored?
• How is the tool trained?
• What are the pricing structures?
• What happens to your data after processing?

“We wanted to include as many practical, tactical resources as we could,” Elizabeth said.

Looking ahead: Future trends

What’s coming

The panelists identified several emerging trends in AI for legal professionals:

• Lower costs: Like all technology, AI tools will become more affordable over time
• Better integration: Microsoft and Google are already working toward seamless connections between AI tools and document management systems, case management platforms, and other legal tech
• More sophisticated applications: Beyond basic summarization and research, AI will handle increasingly complex analytical tasks
• Deepfakes in litigation: As AI-generated content becomes more sophisticated, courts will grapple with authenticating evidence
• Increased regulation: Following the EU’s lead with the AI Act, U.S. states will likely introduce their own AI regulations

“Microsoft just announced something with a document management system where if you set it up properly, incoming email comes in and it will file it in your document management system,” Tom shared. “You don’t have to take it out, save it to the DMS, type in the profile card — it will start to do that. That’s amazing.”

The regulatory landscape

Elizabeth predicted we’ll see more regulation, particularly at the state level: “The EU has passed the EU AI Act, and similar to how they were big initiators in data privacy regulation with the GDPR, I think we’re going to see similar things arise.”

Tom agreed, though with tempered expectations: “I hope you’re right on that, because obviously we traditionally in the U.S. have lagged behind Europe in concern for privacy and confidentiality. This is not something we can lean on Congress to do — it’s going to be state level regulation.”

A resource for every legal professional

What makes “Artificial Intelligence for the Rest of Us” unique is its practical, accessible approach tailored specifically for AI for legal professionals.

The book includes:

• Visual diagrams and graphics to explain complex concepts
• Sidebars with quick tips and key takeaways
• Executive summaries at the end of each chapter
• Real examples from legal AI tools
• A comparison of responses from different AI models (ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot) to the same legal question
• A timeline of AI development, including “AI winters”

“We compared four different generative AI models to identify the top five use cases for AI in the legal field, and we published exactly what each one said,” Brett shared. “It’s interesting how they had slightly different answers.”

Be cautious, be curious, be vigilant, be brave

Tom’s guiding principle for AI adoption captures the book’s philosophy perfectly. Approach AI with appropriate caution about its limitations, curiosity about its capabilities, vigilance about security and ethics, and bravery to embrace new tools.

“This can be so daunting,” Tom reflected. “You look at all the history of humanity, and it’s not until the 1600s that René Descartes comes out with calculus. Thousands of years, then 1622 to the late 1940s with big iron computers, and then we get into PCs. Everything keeps getting squashed together. You have to be vigilant here, and you have to be kind of brave to take it on.”

Want more insights on AI in legal practice?

This blog only scratches the surface of the valuable insights shared during our author panel. Watch the complete webinar to hear Tom O’Connor, Brett Burney, and Elizabeth Guthrie dive deeper into AI implementation strategies, answer audience questions, and share additional practical tips for adopting AI in your firm.