Checking the work · for legal and compliance professionals
Checking AI output in legal and compliance work
AI writes in a confident legal register, and that makes its errors easy to miss. The errors that matter are specific. A case citation that does not exist. A quote from a statute that differs from the real text. A summary that omits the exemption your company relies on. A redline that changes the meaning of a defined term.
Checking the work means reading AI output as a supervising lawyer reads a junior’s draft. You open every authority it cites. You compare every quote with the source. You confirm the summary keeps the conditions and exceptions. And you look for what the output left out.
Where it comes up
Verifying citations in a research memo
Every case, statute, and regulation cited in an AI draft must be found in a primary source you have opened. Confirm it exists, says what the draft claims, and remains current.
Checking a clause comparison
Compare the model’s table with both documents. Confirm each quoted clause matches the text exactly and that no relevant clause was skipped, such as a liability cap restated in a schedule.
Reviewing a regulation summary
Read the summary against the rule itself. Check scope, thresholds, deadlines, and exemptions. These are the details a summary most often drops or softens.
What it looks like at each band
E1 · Foundational
Reads output for sense and catches obvious errors. Tends to accept citations and quotes that look plausible. May pass on a summary without comparing it with the source.
E2 · Proficient
Opens every cited authority and confirms it exists and supports the point. Compares quotes with the source text. Removes anything that cannot be verified rather than leaving it in.
E3 · Distinguished
Checks in proportion to risk: an internal note gets a careful read, a memo the business will rely on gets line-by-line verification. Looks for omissions as well as errors, such as a missing carve-out. Asks the model to list the points it is least sure of, then checks those first.
E4 · Exceptional
Sets the team’s review standard, such as which outputs need a second reviewer and which need primary-source checks. Can explain why an output is wrong, not only that it is. Catches subtle errors others miss, such as a real case cited for a proposition it does not support.
Common mistakes
Trusting a citation because it looks real
Models can produce case names, reporters, and page numbers that look correct and do not exist. Find each authority in a primary source before anyone relies on it.
Checking the quote but not the context
A real passage can be quoted accurately and still misrepresent the holding or the rule. Read the surrounding text.
Missing what the summary left out
A summary that is accurate line by line can still omit the exception that matters. Compare its scope with the source, not only its sentences.
A worked example
Reviewing an AI-drafted research memo on whether a contractual notice provision can be satisfied by email.
Read the memo, tidy the structure, and send it to the business lead. The memo cites three cases in support of its conclusion and quotes one of them.
Nobody has confirmed the cases exist or say what the memo claims. If one is invented or misquoted, the business acts on a conclusion with no real support, and the legal team’s credibility suffers.
List every authority the memo cites. Find each one in a primary source. Confirm it exists, read the relevant passage, and check that it supports the stated point. One case cannot be found, so remove it and the reasoning that depends on it. Compare the quoted passage with the original. Then check the memo’s reading of the notice clause against the contract itself before editing for style.
The reviewer verifies every authority and quote before editing, removes what cannot be supported, and checks the conclusion against the contract. The memo that goes out rests on sources the reviewer has read.
The full study guide for this skill, for every role, is Checking the work. The other five skills for legal and compliance professionals are on the AI skills for legal and compliance professionals page. A one-page summary is in the AI fact-checking checklist.
See where you stand
The free check grades checking the work and the other five skills in about fifteen minutes. Nobody sees the grade but you.
Then build the skills and prove it. The three steps for legal and compliance professionals list the courses and templates that fit the work.