AI agents for email handling and legal support at a law firm

1. Legal triage

Analyses emails arriving in the authorised mailboxes and identifies sender, client, legal subject, request type, practice area, urgency, related matter, responsible lawyer, attachments, relevant dates, potential deadlines and missing information. It then routes to the right lawyer or department.

• New prospective client
• Existing client
• Consultation request
• Contract for review
• Court proceedings
• Notification
• Employment matter
• Tax matter
• Corporate matter
• Real estate transaction
• Debt recovery
• Administrative request
• Partner communication
• Billing and fees

2. Client and matter identification

Compares the sender, the subject and the attachments against the authorised information held in SharePoint and Exchange Online to identify the client, the internal matter number, the counterparty, the responsible lawyer and the associated documentation. Where it finds a confident match, it files the email and attachments against the matter — where it does not, the email waits for human validation.

3. Attachment analysis

Claude analyses contracts, notifications, minutes, certificates, deeds, powers of attorney, court decisions and tax or employment documentation, extracting the parties involved, dates, amounts, obligations, deadlines, relevant clauses, renewal conditions, grounds for termination, penalties and missing documentation. The analysis is presented as support for the lawyer, never as a final legal decision.

4. Deadline tracking

When an email or document contains a potentially relevant date — a deadline to respond, a hearing date, a contract renewal, a notice period, a completion date, a tender closing date — the agent identifies it and creates a proposed task or alert, subject to confirmation. Once validated, it is recorded in the management system, in Planner, in Lists or in the internal calendar.

5. Internal legal search

Allows the documentation the firm already held in SharePoint to be searched in natural language: earlier opinions, contracts, precedents, letter templates, powers of attorney, fee proposals, memoranda and previous answers to similar situations. It returns the relevant documents, the related excerpts, the SharePoint location and the associated matter.

• Example: «Find service agreements containing exclusivity, automatic renewal and early termination clauses»

6. Matter summaries

Before a meeting or on taking over a matter, a lawyer can ask for a summary of what exists: client identification, background, parties involved, key events, documentation received, current position, most recent communications, identified deadlines, pending tasks and questions requiring a decision. It cuts the time needed to reconstruct a matter's history by hand.

7. Drafting replies

Prepares a draft adapted to the client, the practice area, the matter, the level of formality, the language and the firm's own templates — acknowledgement of receipt, request for missing documentation, clarification of procedures, proposal of a meeting, status update or a preliminary reply. Replies containing legal advice, legal conclusions or commitments on behalf of the firm are always subject to a lawyer's approval.

8. Document preparation and client onboarding

From approved templates, it prepares first drafts of contracts, addenda, letters, notifications, powers of attorney, minutes, memoranda, opinions and fee proposals — always for review. For a prospective client enquiry, it structures the initial information and prepares the checklist for identification, missing documentation, conflict checks and engagement terms. No client is accepted automatically.