AI for lawyers: 5 tips for advanced legal prompting

Artificial intelligence (AI) has gone from being a promise to becoming a strategic tool for legal teams. However, the true value of AI depends on how instructions are communicated to it and how lawyers interact with it. This is where legal prompting comes into play, a discipline that makes the difference between obtaining generic results and achieving accurate, reliable analyses tailored to legal practice.

In this article, you will find an advanced guide for professionals who already know the basics of legal prompting and want to take their skills to the next level, with the aim of optimising processes such as due diligence, clause drafting and compliance management. In the following lines, discover five keys to optimising your legal work.

This article is also available in Spanish.

What are the five keys to optimising legal work?

1. Prioritise advanced prompts over basic ones.
2. Use prompting templates for your key legal tasks.
3. Refine your prompts and encourage human review.
4. Keep an eye on the future of legal prompting.
5. Legal prompting: a new strategic skill

What is advanced prompting?

Advanced legal prompting is the practice of designing precise and strategic instructions for artificial intelligence to generate high-quality, reliable legal results that are applicable to legal work. Unlike basic prompting, which is often limited to generic requests and unstructured responses, advanced prompting integrates legal context, clear objectives, evaluation criteria, and defined formats, turning AI into a true specialised assistant.

1. Prioritise advanced prompts over basic ones

The difference between a basic prompt and an advanced prompt can be compared to the difference between giving a vague order and providing a detailed briefing to a member of your team.

• Basic prompt:

 ‘Review this contract and tell me if there are any risks.’

The result will be a superficial and possibly incomplete response. The AI will detect conflicting terms, but without context or prioritisation.

• Advanced prompt:

 *"Act as a senior solicitor specialising in Spanish commercial law and contract analysis. Evaluate the following service contract taking into account Spanish regulations and current legal practice.

Objective: Identify and classify clauses that may pose risks to the contracting party, especially in terms of intellectual property and civil liability.

Detailed instructions:*

• • Role and context: consider that you are advising a technology company that contracts development and support services, where the protection of intangible assets and limitation of liability are priorities.

• • Areas of analysis:
    Intellectual property (transfer of rights, licences, confidentiality, use of software).

• • Civil liability (limitations, exclusions, compensation, insurance).

• • Risk classification:

• • High risk: may have a critical economic or legal impact on the contracting party.

• • Medium risk: requires negotiation or modification to mitigate possible contingencies.

• • Low risk: limited potential impact, can be accepted with supervision.

• • Output format:
    Return the analysis in a table with the following columns:

• • Clause number

• • Relevant text of the clause (summary)

• • Risk category (High, Medium, Low)

• • Detailed explanation of the risk and recommendations.

• • Executive conclusion:

• • Include an executive summary at the end with the three most critical risks and strategic recommendations for negotiation or mitigation.

Contract text: [PAST HERE]

The difference is very noticeable. This prompt establishes context, objective, analysis criteria, and expected format, leading to much more useful and actionable results.

In short, an advanced prompt:

1. Defines the role of the AI (commercial solicitor, compliance specialist, etc.).
2. Specifies the regulatory framework or jurisdiction.
3. Delimits the specific task.
4. Indicates the desired format and level of detail.
5. Adds evaluation or classification criteria.

You may be interested in: The definitive guide to designing legal prompts and contracts with AI

2. Use prompting templates for your key legal tasks

Creating standardised templates allows legal teams to maintain consistency and save time. Here are three examples for three essential tasks: due diligence, drafting clauses, and compliance.

A. Due diligence

In mergers and acquisitions, speed and accuracy are critical. A good prompt can help identify risks in a structured way.

Advanced prompt:

“Act as a senior solicitor specialising in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in [jurisdiction], with experience in due diligence processes and complex contract negotiation. Analyse the contract provided below following these detailed instructions:

Overall objective: Identify, classify, and prioritise contractual risks that may affect the buyer in the M&A process, focusing particularly on [key issues, e.g. intellectual property, financial obligations, contractual breaches, non-competition clauses].

Step-by-step instructions:

• • Role and perspective:

• • • Act as an external legal advisor defending the interests of the purchasing party.

• • • Bear in mind that the transaction is in the due diligence phase and the objective is to detect risks that could influence the valuation of the transaction or the decision to close the deal.

• • Areas for priority review:

• • • Intellectual property: transfer of rights, licences, use of software, ownership of previous developments.

• • • Financial obligations: debts, guarantees, penalties for non-compliance, outstanding credits.

• • • Compliance and responsibilities: breach clauses, early termination, regulatory sanctions.

• • • Other critical factors: change of control clauses, exclusivity, confidentiality, indemnities and insurance.

• • Risk classification criteria:

• • • High risk: Risk with a potentially serious impact on the value of the transaction, regulatory compliance or future viability of the integration.

• • • Medium risk: Risk requiring negotiation and possible contractual adjustments prior to signing.

• • • Low risk: Acceptable risk that can be mitigated through internal controls or subsequent monitoring.

• • Output format:
    Return the result in a structured table with the following columns:

• • • Clause or section number.

• • • Summary text of the clause.

• • • Risk level (High, Medium, Low).

• • • Detailed explanation of the reason for the classification.

• • • Specific recommendation for action (negotiate, delete, accept with follow-up, etc.).

• • Executive summary for stakeholders:
    At the end of the analysis, include an executive summary containing:

• • • The five most critical risks and their potential financial or strategic impact.

• • • A list of clauses that require immediate attention in the negotiation.

• • • An overall recommendation on whether the contract is acceptable, requires renegotiation, or should be discarded.

Contract text: [PAST THE CONTRACT HERE]”

Benefits:

This advanced prompt not only facilitates comprehensive and structured contract review in M&A processes, but also standardises the way risks are identified and prioritised, reducing reliance on subjective interpretations. By generating a detailed table with explanations and recommendations, the analysis can be directly integrated into internal reports, management presentations, or CLM tools, streamlining communication between lawyers, finance teams, and stakeholders. It also speeds up decision-making, optimises resources during due diligence, and minimises the likelihood of overlooking critical clauses that could affect the valuation or success of the transaction.

B. Drafting clauses

AI can act as a creative and technical assistant to propose alternative clauses, especially in international contracts. Here is a basic template to get you started, which you can improve upon using the tips mentioned above.

Template:

*"Draft a limitation of liability clause for a service contract in [jurisdiction], taking into account current regulations and best practices. Provide two versions:

1. 1. 1. Standard clause.
      2. Strengthened clause for greater protection of the contracting party.

 Briefly explain the differences between the two."*

Benefit:
Allows teams to compare options and choose the most appropriate one, saving time in the drafting phase.

You may be interested in: 5 areas where legal AI cannot surpass lawyers

C. Compliance and internal policies

In compliance, details matter, and communication must be clear and simple for the entire organisation. Here is a basic template that you can improve upon using the tips above.

Template:

"Create an executive summary of this compliance policy, aimed at non-legal employees. Use clear and concise language, limiting each section to 100 words. Highlight key points related to [example: data protection, anti-corruption, cybersecurity] and add practical examples."

Benefit:
Facilitates internal dissemination and ensures that information reaches the audience effectively.

3. Refine your prompts and encourage human review

Although AI is a powerful tool, its use in the legal field requires caution. Here are some recommendations to maximise its effectiveness and minimise risks.

A. Gradually adjust your prompts

You will not always get the perfect result the first time. Adjust:

• The role assigned to the AI (e.g., commercial solicitor vs. privacy specialist).
• The level of detail requested.
• The output format (table, list, summary).

Each iteration will allow you to refine the prompt until you achieve the desired accuracy. Be creative, explore the limits of AI yourself.

B. Include regulatory and business context

AI needs to know:

• In which jurisdiction the regulation applies.
• What type of company is involved.
• What the strategic objectives of the business are.

This avoids generic recommendations that could be inappropriate.

C. Always encourage human review

A common mistake is to blindly trust AI. Establish a workflow where AI produces the first draft and the legal team reviews and validates it before making decisions. Although everything should be reviewed, this is especially important for:

• High-value contracts.
• Regulatory compliance documentation.
• Strategic legal opinions.

D. Document and share internal templates

Create an internal repository of prompts validated by your team.

This allows for:

• Consistency in results.
• Scalability in projects with multiple lawyers.
• Faster training of new team members.

4. Keep an eye on the future of legal prompting

As legal AI evolves, legal prompting will become an essential skill for solicitors.

Coming soon:

• Dynamic prompts that automatically adjust based on context and case history.
• Direct integration with Contract Lifecycle Management systems (CLM) such as Bigle, where AI suggests improvements in real time.
• Greater use of discriminative AI, which allows information to be automatically classified and validated before it reaches the user.

Adopting these practices now will enable legal teams to be prepared for a future where efficiency and accuracy will be key.

5. Legal prompting: a new strategic skill

Advanced legal prompting is not just a technological tool, but a new strategic skill for solicitors and legal departments.

Designing effective prompts allows you to:

• Reduce manual working hours.
• Improve the quality of analysis.
• Elevate the role of the legal team within the organisation.

At Bigle, we help companies with our Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform, which also provides legal areas with a legal AI assistant, so you can use these legal prompting capabilities safely and efficiently.

Want to discover how to optimise your legal processes with artificial intelligence? Request a free demo and transform the way you manage your contracts.