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Agentic AI for Law: The Future of Legal Practice

By
Jeffrey D
Lawyer and Advocate
Last update:
August 28, 2025

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The legal industry has already experienced one seismic shift with the rise of generative AI. Tools that draft contracts, summarize cases, and analyze risk have moved from experimental to essential in only a few years. But the next leap is already underway: agentic AI.

Agentic AI is more than a chatbot or drafting assistant. It is AI that doesn’t just generate text but can autonomously act across systems, execute workflows, and coordinate tasks. For law firms and in-house counsel, this promises to cut hours of administrative overhead and transform how legal work gets done.

At goHeather, we see agentic AI as the natural next step in AI for lawyers—and we’re building toward it.

What Is Agentic AI?

Generative AI (like ChatGPT and other large language models) revolutionized productivity by creating content on demand. But its scope has been limited: a lawyer asks a question, the model answers in a text window. The lawyer then has to copy, paste, edit, and manually apply the output.

Agentic AI changes this.

  • Instead of telling you how to redline a contract, it does the redline itself.

  • Instead of summarizing emails, it drafts the reply, files it in the correct matter, and sets a follow-up reminder.

  • Instead of drafting a clause, it pushes the revision through the entire workflow—from drafting to client communication to document management.

Think of agentic AI as the difference between a research assistant and a project manager who executes tasks for you.

Why Lawyers Should Care

Lawyers, especially at small law firms, spend 30–40% of their time on administrative tasks: version management, billing, copying notes across systems, scheduling updates, and emailing drafts. None of this work directly delivers client value.

Agentic AI directly targets that inefficiency by:

  • Reducing context switching – no more jumping between your DMS, billing, and email.

  • Accelerating deal flow – contracts progress without waiting for manual steps.

  • Boosting consistency – every action is logged, every update synced across systems.

  • Freeing lawyer time – more hours go to strategy, advocacy, and client interaction.

The American Bar Association has already recognized the potential of AI-driven workflow automation in law, noting that “automation will reshape client service models.”

Agentic AI vs. Generative AI in Legal Work

Agentic AI vs. Generative AI in Legal Work

Generative AI Agentic AI
Drafts clauses, summaries, or memos. Drafts, redlines, updates, and files documents across systems.
Produces text in a chat window. Acts across multiple apps (DMS, email, billing, CRM).
Requires manual copy-paste and editing. Automates workflows end-to-end.
Lawyer-driven prompts. System-driven triggers and actions.

In short: generative AI helps lawyers think; agentic AI helps lawyers do.

1. Contract Lifecycle Management

  • AI that not only flags risky clauses but proposes redlines, applies them, and circulates a new draft.

  • Automatic filing into your contract repository with version history tracked.

2. Litigation Support

  • Incoming evidence is tagged, logged, and categorized.

  • AI drafts motions, emails them to the team, and schedules internal reviews.

3. Corporate Governance

  • Board minutes drafted, approved, filed, and distributed to directors.

  • Compliance checklists updated automatically as regulations change.

4. M&A Transactions

  • Data room documents analyzed, red flags escalated, follow-up tasks auto-assigned.

  • Draft NDAs and share purchase agreements circulated without manual intervention.

Challenges and Considerations

Of course, deploying agentic AI in law raises important challenges:

  • Ethical compliance – AI actions must align with professional responsibility rules.

  • Data security – cross-platform automation increases attack surfaces.

  • Human oversight – lawyers must remain the final decision-makers.

  • Adoption curve – lawyers are cautious; trust builds slowly.

The Harvard Journal of Law & Technology notes that legal AI must “balance innovation with accountability.” Agentic AI is no exception.

Where goHeather Fits In

At goHeather, we’ve already built the lawyer-trained AI—a platform that analyzes contracts in real time, flags risks, applies customizable playbooks and creates redlines, and finally generates exportable reports to send to the other side.

The next natural step is making those insights actionable:

  • Imagine AI that not only flags indemnity risk but automatically proposes a safer clause, emails it to opposing counsel, and logs the negotiation history.

  • Imagine AI that detects a missing jurisdiction clause and inserts a model version from your playbook—without you lifting a finger.

  • Imagine a workflow where red flags instantly trigger next steps across your matter management system.

That’s the promise of agentic AI for law—and it’s the direction we’re moving at goHeather.

About the author

Jeff is a lawyer in Toronto and he is a co-founder of goHeather. Jeff is a frequent lecturer on commercial and employment law and AI for law firms, and is the author of a commercial law textbook and various trade journal articles. Jeff is interested in business, technology and law.

By
Jeffrey D
Lawyer and Advocate

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