From Prompts to Practice: Using Generative AI Effectively as Defense Counsel
Generative AI can assist defense lawyers in meaningful ways—but only when it is directed with precision. In practice, the quality, reliability, and defensibility of GenAI output depend far more on how lawyers prompt the tool than on the technology itself.
This session is a practical discussion of how defense counsel can put GenAI to good use by developing clear personas, disciplined prompts, and legally informed constraints tailored to real litigation tasks. Rather than generic drafting or experimentation, the discussion will demonstrate how thoughtfully designed prompts—such as instructing AI to adopt specific defense roles, anticipate judicial scrutiny, or pressure test arguments—can enhance issue spotting, early case assessment, discovery strategy, expert preparation, and written advocacy.
TAKEAWAYS:
Key takeaways for the audience include:
- why prompting skill matters more than model choice;
- how to create and deploy effective AI personas aligned with defense work;
- how small changes in prompt structure can materially improve accuracy and usefulness;
- common prompting mistakes that lead to unreliable or overconfident output;
- and how defense lawyers can develop repeatable GenAI workflows that improve efficiency while preserving professional judgment, confidentiality, and accountability.
The emphasis is not on automation, but on better lawyering.
PRESENTERS:
Vincent Montalto, Midea Group, Florham Park, New Jersey USA
George Wray, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Toronto, Ontario Canada
Michael C. Zogby, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, Morristown, New Jersey USA
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