How AI Helps Paralegals & Legal Assistants
Paralegals spend hours on first drafts, document summaries, intake and chronologies. 12² builds a firm-private drafting setup on the firm's templates and practice software, with attorney review gates and an AI-use policy aligned to ABA Op. 512.
Paralegal Drafting & Intake Desk · From $4,500 + $495/mo, by team size · proposed estimate · It says it is an automated assistant whenever it talks to someone directly, and your team reviews what it drafts before it goes out.
Ai for paralegals: the short answer.
AI can help a paralegal draft routine letters and discovery from firm templates, summarize depositions and records into chronologies, turn intake forms into matter summaries, and track deadlines for attorney review. A randomized study found GPT-4 sped up legal drafting without harming quality. An attorney still verifies every output.
Sources
- RCT: GPT-4 access sped up legal drafting tasks (memo, contract, complaint, handbook) without harming quality (Choi, Monahan, Schwarcz)law.umn.edu
- ABA Formal Opinion 512 (July 29, 2024): informed client consent before inputting client info into self-learning AI tools; lawyers must verify outputacc.com
- Clio practice management from $49/user/mo; AI on higher plans, some pricing quote-onlyclio.com
Where the hours go now.
Drafting first versions of routine letters, pleadings and discovery requests from firm templates
Paralegals spend hours on first drafts, document summaries, intake and chronologies.
Depositions and records
Hours go to reading and re-reading before the real work starts.
Turning intake forms into a matter summary and conflict-check list
Rebuilt from scratch each time, usually at the end of the day.
What it handles, and what it never does.
What it handles
- Drafting first versions of routine letters, pleadings and discovery requests from firm templatesIt drafts first versions of routine letters, pleadings and discovery requests from firm templates.
- Depositions and recordsIt summarizes depositions and records into chronologies.
- Turning intake forms into a matter summary and conflict-check listIt turns intake forms into a matter summary and conflict-check list.
- Tracking deadlines from documentsIt tracks deadlines from documents for attorney review.
- Hand-off to your teamAnything that needs a person goes to the right person, with the details attached.
What it never does
- Make up a price or a factIt works only from the documents, records and price lists you give it. Anything it can't find goes to your team.
- Promise a resultQuestions about outcomes go to the person who does the work.
- Pretend to be a personIt says it is an automated assistant whenever it talks to someone directly.
- Give legal adviceAnything that needs a lawyer's judgment goes to a lawyer.
- Send anything on its ownDrafts wait for your team's approval before anything goes out.
Built and tested on your own work.
Before handoff, we run your build on your own real examples and fix anything that misses.
- Tested on your own workBefore handoff, we run your build on your own real examples and fix anything that misses.
- Retainer, then balance on deliveryRetainer up front. Work starts once the retainer is paid; the balance is due on delivery when the agreed test cases pass.
- Fixed price, scope and timelineAll three in writing before work starts. The timeline is set in your quote.
- What 12² buildsA firm-private drafting setup on the firm's templates and practice software, with attorney review gates and an AI-use policy aligned to ABA Op. 512.
- How it connectsWe confirm how it connects to the tools you already use on the first call and write it into your quote.
Related solutions: Lawyer First-Draft Workbench · Executive Assistant Copilot Desk · Admin Assistant Workflow Kit · all solutions
See also: AI intake for law firms · pricing
From $4,500 + $495/moSetup + monthly, by size. The monthly fee covers monitoring, fixes and re-tests for your package as your templates, documents and staff change. AI and software usage is billed at cost. Proposed starting estimates by team size, not fixed prices; the final price is in a written quote.
- Small: Small firm (1-4 staff, one location)From $4,500 + $495/mo. The core build for 1-4 staff, one location: a firm-private drafting setup on the firm's templates and practice software, with attorney review gates and an AI-use policy aligned to ABA Op. 512. Proposed estimate. Small tier is about the size of a 12squared.ai Proof build; monthly covers hosting, monitoring and fixes.
- Mid-size: Mid-size firm (5-19 staff)From $7,500 + $750/mo. Everything in Small firm, for more users, inboxes and calendars, with hand-off rules set for each role. Proposed estimate. Mid tier is about the size of a Core build (more users, more integrations).
- Enterprise: Enterprise (20+ staff or several locations)From $12,500 + $1,250/mo, custom quote. Everything in Mid-size firm, across locations or departments, with system integrations and a security review scoped in your custom quote. Proposed estimate. Starts near the Product build range; scope, integrations and security review set the final number. No cap. Matches the live 12squared.ai ladder for this industry.
- Retainer up front Work starts once the retainer is paid; the balance is due on delivery when the agreed test cases pass. Scope, price and timeline are agreed in writing before work starts.
- You own itThe accounts, scripts, templates and data sit in your name. You can leave at any time.
- Compliance and dataABA Formal Op. 512 and state bar rules: confidentiality, informed consent for self-learning tools, attorney verification of all output. No unsupervised legal advice.
Straight answers.
Is client data used to train a model?
No. We configure tools that do not train on your data and document it for your consent and policy file.
How does payment work?
Retainer up front. Work starts once the retainer is paid; the balance is due on delivery when the agreed test cases pass.
How long does it take?
Timelines are set per project in the quote, after we see your systems and volume.
Are these prices final?
No. They are proposed starting estimates. You get a written custom quote after a short scoping call.
Tell us how you handle depositions and records now.
A few lines is enough. If it's a fit we'll say so, and if it isn't we'll tell you why.
- A real replyWritten for you by 12², within one business day. Never an autoresponder.
- A free 20-minute callHow the work runs now, what gets missed, and what your team needs from it.
- A fixed quoteYour size, scope, date and price in writing before any work starts.
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