1. Identify and Understand the Laws and Regulations Pertinent to a Topic 
  2. Review Primary Sources for Recent Developments
  3. Summarize Lengthy Regulations
  4. Perform Comparative Analysis of Laws Across Jurisdictions
  5. Identify Potential Legal Issues
  6. Draft Practical Content (e.g. checklists, client letters, etc.)
  7. Perform Case Law Analysis
  8. Check Regulatory Compliance
  9. Synthesize Multiple Secondary Sources
  10. Generate Materials for Business Development
  11. Find Case Law to Support an Argument

 

1 - Identify and Understand the Laws and Regulations Pertinent to a Topic          

Description

Quickly find and comprehend relevant laws and regulations for a specific legal topic.

Benefit

Save time and ensure comprehensive coverage of applicable laws, reducing the risk of overlooking crucial regulations.

How it works

VitalLaw® AI scans primary content to identify pertinent laws and regulations based on your query, providing a comprehensive overview with explanations.

Sample Prompt 

From any practice area dashboard, ask:

"What are the key laws and regulations governing [specific topic] in [jurisdiction]? Please provide a list with brief explanations."

Example for Tax: "What are the key laws and regulations governing business expense deductions for U.S. federal income tax purposes? Please provide a list with brief explanations."

Example for Labor & Employment: "What are the key laws and regulations governing workplace safety in California? Generate a client letter from this."

 

2 - Review Primary Sources for Recent Developments

Description

Stay up to date with the latest changes in primary legal sources.

Benefit

Ensure your legal knowledge and advice are current, avoiding potential oversights due to recent legal changes.

How it works

VitalLaw® AI scans Primary Content for recent changes or additions relevant to your area of interest.

Sample Prompt 

From any practice area dashboard, select a relevant primary source and ask: "How has [selected statute/regulation] changed over the past [timeframe]? What are the most significant recent changes to [specific aspect of the law]?"

Example for Tax

  1. Navigate to Laws & Regulations under Primary Source.
  2. Navigate to 26 U.S.C. Sec. 30D. Open the document and engage the AI Assistant.
  3. Ask the following prompt: “How has Sec. 30D changed over time?”
  4. A follow-up question might be: “What changes have been made to the credit amount over time?”

 

3 - Summarize Lengthy Regulations

Description

Create concise yet accurate summaries of complex, lengthy regulations.

Benefit

Quickly grasp the essence of extensive regulations, saving time and improving comprehension.

How it works

VitalLaw® AI processes long documents (both primary and secondary content types), identifies key points, and generates summaries that capture the essential information without losing critical details, including dates, financial amounts, filing deadlines, etc.  

Sample Prompt 

Select a complex regulation (and associated documents) in your field and ask: "Provide a summary of [selected regulation], highlighting the key requirements for [specific aspect or compliance]."

Example for Tax

  1. On the Tax-Federal dashboard, search for “QDOT regulations.”
  2. Select the primary source to be summarized, “Federal Tax Regulations, §20.2056A-3, QDOT election,” and launch the AI Assistant.
  3. Ask the following prompt: “Provide a summary of the regulations, highlighting the key requirements for making the QDOT election.”

 

4 - Perform Comparative Analysis of Laws Across Jurisdictions

Description

Compare and contrast laws or regulations across different jurisdictions.

Benefit

Gain insights into legal variations across regions, essential for multi-jurisdictional practice or clients.

How it works

VitalLaw® AI analyzes primary content from multiple jurisdictions, highlighting similarities, differences, and unique aspects of each.

Sample Prompt 

From any practice area dashboard, "How do [Jurisdiction A]'s rules on [legal topic] differ from [Jurisdiction B]'s and federal rules? Provide the response in a chart titled '[Legal Topic] Rules Comparison.'"

Example for Labor & Employment

  1. Search for “age discrimination in California”.
  2. Select all documents from the first page of the search results list
  3. Activate AI Assistant and prompt for “How do California's age discrimination rules differ from New York's age discrimination rules and Federal rules?”

 

5 - Identify Potential Legal Issues

Description

Spot possible legal challenges or risks in a given scenario.

Benefit

Proactively address potential legal problems, enhancing risk management and client service.

How it works

By analyzing the details of a situation against VitalLaw’s large Primary Content base, VitalLaw® AI flags potential legal issues that may require attention.

Sample Prompt 

From any practice area dashboard, search for the core topic, select the relevant documents, launch AI Assistant, and prompt for "Review the following [policy/scenario; copy the text of what you want to analyze here] and identify potential legal issues or risks in [relevant practice area]. Suggest improvements to ensure compliance with relevant laws."

Example for Employment Law: "Review the following remote work policy [copy the policy text below this prompt] and identify potential legal issues or risks in employment law. Suggest improvements to ensure compliance with relevant laws."

Example for Data Privacy: "Review the following data collection practices and identify potential legal issues or risks in data privacy law. Suggest improvements to ensure compliance with relevant laws."

 

6 - Draft Practical Content (e.g. checklists, client letters, etc.)

Description

You can use the AI Assistant to generate a suite of actionable, practical content including Checklists, Client Letters, Client Memos, etc.

Benefit

Practical content offers several benefits:

  1. It fits the learning style of many associates better – shorter, action-oriented, and ‘prescriptive’
  2. Can be repurposed for end client consumption efficiently (great for business development and general case information sharing and collaboration)
  3. Streamlines research processes to bring long-term research efficiencies

How it works

VitalLaw® AI creates drafts of various legal documents based on the information and parameters you provide. It bases this information from both – primary and secondary content types. This is a great way for you to combine insights from leading practitioners along with the current law as applicable.

Sample Prompt 

From any practice area dashboard, search for the core topic, select the relevant documents, launch AI Assistant, and prompt for “Draft a [content type, such as ‘client memo’ or ‘checklist’] that I can send to my client to inform them about the various federal and state laws, regulations, and compliance requirements that their company is now subject to related to [topic]”

Example for a multi-practice current topic of ‘Artificial Intelligence’:

  1. Start from the All Content dashboard
  2. Search for “artificial intelligence” AND “legislation”.
  3. Select all docs from the first screen of search results (the first 25 docs).
  4. Launch AI Assistant and prompt the following “I am with a law firm serving as outside counsel for a software company headquartered in California with operations across the United States. Draft a memo that I can send to my client (the inhouse counsel) for use with the company’s executive team to inform them about the various federal and state laws, regulations, and compliance requirements that their company is now subject to related to artificial intelligence. Include the related laws, regulations, and requirements for all states – in a chart format.”

 

7 - Perform Case Law Analysis

Description

Analyzing relevant case law for its implications for future actions, or its application to a specific scenario.

Benefit

Quickly understand legal precedents and their implications for your case.

How it works

VitalLaw® AI searches through VitalLaw’s extensive case law databases, identifies relevant cases, and provides summaries and key takeaways.

Sample Prompt 

"Analyze the case of [case name] and its impact on [relevant legal principle or practice]. What should practitioners in [practice area] be discussing with their clients, given this decision? Please provide this information in a list."

  1. From the All Content dashboard, search for the case, e.g., “Loper Bright”.
  2. Select the case and launch the AI Assistant.
  3. Ask the following prompt “Analyze the case of Loper Bright and its impact on judicial review of agency decisions.”
  4. A follow-up question could be "What should banking law practitioners be talking to their clients about, given this decision? Please provide this information in a list.”

 

8 - Check Regulatory Compliance

Description

Assess compliance with specific regulations or standards.

Benefit

Reduce compliance risks and ensure adherence to relevant regulations.

How it works

VitalLaw® AI compares given scenarios or practices against regulatory requirements, identifying areas of compliance and potential violations.

Sample Prompt 

"Are [specific practices or scenarios] compliant with current regulations in [jurisdiction]? Draft a memo explaining why or why not, including references to relevant laws, regulations, or guidance."

Example from Tax

  1. From the Tax – Federal dashboard, search for “business expense”.
  2. Select all docs from the first screen of search results.
  3. Launch AI Assistant, and prompt “Are expenses incurred by a spouse on a business trip, such as personal activities like a massage, manicure, or visiting a museum, deductible business expenses under IRS rules? Draft a memo I can send to my client explaining why or why not, including references to authority such as Internal Revenue Code, Federal Tax Regulations, or IRS guidance.”

 

9 - Synthesize Multiple Secondary Sources

Description

Combining information from various secondary sources to create a comprehensive overview.

Benefit

Gain a comprehensive understanding of a topic from multiple perspectives, saving time on manual research and synthesis. Secondary content on VitalLaw® is developed by leading practitioners at some of the best law firms in America, and expert Wolters Kluwer editorial staff.

How it works

VitalLaw® AI analyzes multiple secondary sources (as selected by you) simultaneously, extracting key information and can summarize each source individually or create a comprehensive summary that integrates insights from all provided materials.

Sample Prompt 

"Please summarize the analysis provided by [selected secondary sources] about [legal topic] and highlight recent developments or areas of debate among experts."

  1. From the All Content dashboard, search for the topic, e.g., "Clean Air Act”.
  2. Filter to Treatises and/or Explanations and Annotations.
  3. Select the documents desired (e.g., all docs from the first screen of search results or specific docs).
  4. Engage with the AI Assistant and ask the following prompt “Please summarize the analysis provided by these documents about the Clean Air Act and highlight recent developments.”

 

10 – Generate Materials for Business Development

Description

Assist in identifying potential business opportunities and trends in the legal sector.

Benefit

Stay ahead of market trends and identify new service areas to grow your practice.

How it works

VitalLaw® covers emerging areas of law comprehensively through its Reporters, Dailies, and Treatises amongst other. In the recent years, some of the emerging areas that have been covered comprehensively across practice areas are – Cannabis Law, cryptocurrency, and Non-compete Agreements. Your firm can analyze these comprehensively and generate cross-functional insights to generate awareness and for business development.

Sample Prompt 

"I am a law firm that wants to understand the emerging area of [new legal topic]. Generate a brief blog post aimed at our clients that identifies the key areas they need to be aware of, including implications for [related practice area 1] and [related practice area 2]."

Example for Cannabis regulation

 “I am a law firm partner that wants to understand the emerging area of Cannabis law and write a blog post aimed at my clients that identifies the key areas they need to be aware of - including in the areas of labor law and tax. Can you generate a brief blog post.”

 

11 - Find Case Law to Support an Argument

Description

Locate relevant case law that supports a specific legal argument or position.

Benefit

Strengthen your legal arguments with pertinent case law, improving the persuasiveness of your position.

How it works

Based on the argument or position you provide, VitalLaw® AI searches through case law databases to find supportive precedents and relevant judicial opinions.

Sample Prompt 

"Find recent [jurisdiction] court decisions supporting the argument that [legal position] in cases involving [specific scenario or industry]. Provide a brief summary of each case and its relevance to the argument."

Example: "Find recent federal court decisions supporting the argument that online platforms are not liable for user-generated content under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act."