Legal edition
On 15 October, Microsoft launched Copilot for Legal, a legal feature that works in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams.
Microsoft brings legal help to Word, Excel and Teams
On 15 October, Microsoft launched Copilot for Legal. It is a legal feature inside Copilot, the AI assistant in Microsoft 365. If you have Copilot, you get the features automatically. That means more than 30 million people worldwide. Some regions have restrictions.
It is not only useful for lawyers. HR managers, compliance experts and procurement staff also sometimes need legal help. The help works with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams. For example, you can keep working on a table that was made during a contract check.
There are three core functions: answering questions, reviewing contracts and editing texts. On top of that come 20 extra skills, such as an overview of obligations or drafting playbooks.
Microsoft says that in a review, 70% or more of the suggested changes are accepted. The company also tests whether reviews with the same playbook give the same result. More public benchmarking will come later.
What does this mean for you? If you have a Copilot license, legal help can appear in programs you already use. This also applies to colleagues outside the legal department, in HR or procurement. For a first contract check, you do not need to go to a separate legal program.
Background for subscribersIf you have a Copilot license, the legal features are automatically available in programs such as Word and Teams, with no separate legal program needed. You can have questions answered, have contracts reviewed and have texts edited. Colleagues in HR or procurement can also use them, although in some regions there are restrictions.
101 reports of AI errors in British court cases
A British overview of AI errors in court cases now lists 101 reports. The latest is about a CPS prosecutor who cited a case that does not exist at the High Court. The overview shows that this is no longer an isolated slip. British lawyer Matthew Lee points to a less obvious effect: AI also creates extra work. Lawyers have to check whether the sources in other people's documents really exist. So it is not only about what you submit yourself, but also about what the other side submits.
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