Law firms · Where to start with AI
Is your firm ready for AI?
For partners deciding where AI should start in the firm. List up to five tasks, answer six questions for each, and see which ones to start with and what holds the others back.
How this check works
- The first five questions are the three tests and the two things left for later of AI automation in the UAE: what to automate first, with its verdicts and its words. A task that passes all three tests and neither flag is one to start with; the hours you type only rank those.
- The sixth question is a law-firm flag: client confidential material going into the AI tool. It does not change the verdict. It adds a condition before you start, with what the Gulf texts say about it.
- Up to 5 tasks. The suggestions in the task name are examples: type any task.
- Your answers stay in your browser: nothing you type or tick is sent.
Not covered here
- Which tool to use for a task: Harvey, Legora or a private AI? compares what the vendors document.
- The firm's full set of rules on AI: the AI policy generator lists them by jurisdiction.
- Savings in hours or money: the check shows no figure of its own.
Sources
arelion.dev guides
- AI automation in the UAE: what to automate first, guide of 7 October 2026
- Company brain: AI that answers from your own documents, guide of 6 October 2026
Texts on client confidential material
- DIFC Courts, Practical Guidance Note No. 2 of 2023, s 4.5 (guidance only, for proceedings before the DIFC Courts), checked 8 October 2026
- QFC Court, Practice Direction No. 1 of 2026, para 12, checked 8 October 2026
- UAE Code of Ethics for the Legal Profession, Art 8(2), checked 8 October 2026
- Saudi Rules of Professional Conduct for Lawyers, Rule 21(4), translated from Arabic, checked 8 October 2026
Questions
Which law firm tasks should go to AI first?
Tasks that come back every week or every month in the same shape, whose output a person can check in a few minutes, and whose data already sits in the firm's tools. Decisions with legal or financial weight that nobody reviews come later, and so do processes nobody has written down.
Can client confidential documents go into an AI tool?
It depends on where you practise and on the tool. For work in DIFC Courts proceedings, the Courts' guidance asks for the client's consent before confidential information goes into a generative AI tool, and the QFC Court allows confidential information only in private, secure AI platforms. The Saudi conduct rules allow disclosure with the client's written consent, and the UAE Code of Ethics with the written consent of the owner of the information, who is not always the client. Whether an AI provider counts as disclosure is unclear.