April Eudy, research specialist at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, said that she focuses her use of generative AI around "pain points" in her job like summarizing news articles for firm newsletters and reformatting a multiple-word search.
Eudy added that creating firm newsletters manually takes her about two hours per newsletter, and she saves about 30 to 45 minutes per newsletter using generative AI.
"Pain points make you frustrated and dissatisfied with your job, and we want to eliminate those as much as possible," she said.
During the panel, law librarians shared how they are using generative AI in their jobs and offered advice for how their peers can also leverage the technology. The panel was moderated by Aaron Eberle, subject matter adviser at LexisNexis, the parent company of Law360.
Roger Skalbeck, associate dean and law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said that he uses generative AI to rewrite content like emails or hypotheticals and edit images by adding or altering details to better fit his presentations.
Skalbeck recommended that audience members look for repetitive tasks in their jobs and experiment with generative AI on those tasks.
He suggested that generative AI could also be used to clean up data formatting, write office memos, create meeting agendas and draft letters of recommendation.
One use case that Leanna Simon, director of research and knowledge management at Honigman LLP, was particularly excited to share was using generative AI to analyze when practice groups were busy to create customized training schedules.
Simon said that she used generative AI to analyze data from the firm's management system to figure out when practice groups are less busy and schedule training sessions at those times.
"For 26 different practice groups, I know exactly what months to go to their practice and say, 'Hey, I know you're slow right now, let's build your skills for when you're not slow,'" she said.
Simon noted that she also used generative AI to create new job descriptions and develop core competencies for the updated roles.
Andre Davison, director at the Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library, said that he uses a custom-built generative AI chatbot tentatively named LibBot to analyze data and create charts.
For example, Davison had LibBot create a chart of the top subject matter requests for May, he said. He also asked the chatbot to make a graph of library visits over a three-month period.
Davison said that using generative AI can be overwhelming with all the new terminology, but urged audience members not to complicate it.
"It doesn't have to be as complicated as you think," he said. "Don't overthink it. It could be as simple as possible."
--Editing by Daniel King.
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