The quality of AI outputs depends on users’ skill in inputting good prompts.
That’s the premise of John Lande’s article: The Art of AI Prompting in Law and Dispute Resolution Practice. It provides practical guidance about how to use AI tools responsibly, ethically, and effectively. It describes core skills including:
It’s important to choose the right AI tool. A brilliant prompt to the wrong tool is a bad prompt. The article includes a list of specialized legal AI tools for legal and dispute resolution practice.
You shouldn’t just take the first response – it’s important to ask follow-up questions. This article offers a long list of suggested follow-up prompts.
It also provides examples of prompts across the life of a case – before, during, and after mediation.
It cites ABA Ethics Opinion 512, which describes lawyers’ ethical duty of technological competence under the ABA Model Rules.
If you would like to see some hands-on demonstrations, John Lande also posted two short SSRN articles with companion 30-minute videos:
AI won’t do your work for you. But it can help you to do it better and faster.
The Art of AI Prompting in Law and Dispute Resolution Practice by John Lande
How to Write Effective Prompts
Prompting is the process of telling an AI platform what you want. It involves the same precision that mediators apply in crafting questions generally, giving instructions or preparing participant guidance.
Prompting is a professional skill that improves with practice. This article explains prompting techniques in more depth.
The basics include identifying your role, the specific task, the audience, and your preferred format or tone. Here’s an example of a prompt that tells an AI platform who you are, what you need, and who it is for:
I’m a mediator preparing for a mediation session in an intellectual property dispute between two large corporations. Draft an email to the lawyers instructing them what to include in a pre-session mediation memo.
Susan Guthrie, 2024-25 ABA DR Section Chair,
has led the way on effectively using AI in mediation
In my first article in this series I asked whether we facilitators might be a part of the “flavor of the month” syndrome that I’ve heard reported in company after...
By Sterling NewberryTerrorists holding 20 people hostage in the Bataclan concert hall spoke to police negotiators five times on a mobile phone before officers finally stormed their hideout and brought the siege...
By Jeff ThompsonSelf-determination (volition), sometimes, means mediation participants get to make ‘bad’ decisions There’s nothing else like mediation! Arbitration is not like mediation. In arbitration, like litigation, someone ultimately imposes a decision...
By Randy Drew
