3 Ways the New “Source Link” Feature in LexisNexis Protégé Builds Trust in Legal AI

By Deepank Varshney, Senior Product Manager, Lexis+ AI

The practice of law is built on a foundation of verification and accountability, so an attorney’s credibility depends on the accuracy and validation of their sources when they make legal arguments, cite case precedents or advise clients on complex matters. We’ve all been reminded of this fundamental premise in the past couple of years as artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly integrated into legal workflows, leading to some embarrassing errors by lawyers who neglected to verify AI-generated search results. 

The challenge that legal professionals are wrestling with is how they can trust AI-assisted legal research content without spending hours manually validating every piece of information. 

LexisNexis Protégé, a personalized AI assistant that transforms legal work, now offers users access to Source Link, a new feature that addresses this concern head-on by delivering a revolutionary way for legal professionals to verify AI responses instantly. 

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Introducing Source Link 

Source Link is designed to instantly surface the exact language from user-uploaded documents that supports an AI-generated answer. Whether asking a question, generating a draft or summarizing a case file, Source Link pinpoints the specific passage that grounds the AI’s response right where users need it inside the document. So rather than digging manually through long uploads— e.g., pleadings, internal memos or complex case files — to verify whether the AI got it right, legal professionals can use Source Link to validate conclusions and move forward confidently with just one click. 

The new feature makes validating AI-generated responses faster and more reliable. It not only saves significant time, it also builds user confidence by ensuring faster access to precise document excerpts — which is especially valuable when citing information in legal motions or briefs. As a result, legal research responses from Protégé are not only credible, but also instantly verifiable and citable. 

Source Link works across all Protégé’s core functions, including “Upload & Draft” to query documents, and “Upload & Summarize” to distill complex case files. 

3 Ways Source Link Builds Trust 

The rollout of Source Link is an important step forward in establishing Protégé as a trustworthy research partner and makes the entire process of using AI in legal work more efficient, reliable and professionally defensible. 

Here are three important ways that Source Link builds trust in legal AI: 

1. Eliminates the guesswork in AI verification 

The most significant breakthrough is that Source Link eliminates the time-consuming work of manually verifying AI-generated responses. Source Link transforms this dynamic entirely by enabling legal professionals to instantly navigate to the specific passage in a document that supports each AI-generated statement. This immediate access to grounding text means that lawyers can validate conclusions in seconds and cuts out the manual guesswork of AI verification. 

2. Creates transparent legal logic that can be cited 

Trust in legal AI goes beyond knowing that information is accurate and also requires that all parties can understand the reasoning behind each conclusion. Source Link addresses this need by making the AI’s legal logic fully visible and verifiable, creating a transparent chain of reasoning that attorneys can follow, validate and confidently cite in their work. This transparency allows clients, opposing counsel and courts to trace the logical progression from source material to AI conclusion, ensuring that attorneys fully understand and can defend their AI-assisted work product.

 3. Scales trust across the entire legal practice 

When every AI response comes with instant access to supporting documentation, attorneys can confidently integrate AI tools into their most critical workflows without concern for compromising their professional standards. For example, colleagues inside a law firm (e.g., partners reviewing associate work or associates collaborating on large cases) can trust that the materials they are using have been properly verified and grounded. Likewise, when attorneys can quickly provide their clients with specific references and supporting documentation underlying their analysis and recommendations, it reinforces credibility of outside counsel. 

LexisNexis Protégé’s new Source Link feature represents an important advancement in how legal professionals can approach the use of AI tools in legal research. By providing instant access to the exact passages supporting AI-assisted response, the feature helps legal AI become a more transparent and accountable research partner. 

Experience LexisNexis Protégé 

LexisNexis Protégé is our personalized legal AI assistant with agentic AI technology that intelligently powers productivity, drives next-level work quality, and enables legal and business professionals to unlock new economic value. To learn more about Protégé’s capabilities, please visit www.lexisnexis.com/protege.  

To learn more about how LexisNexis leverages the power of AI to help legal professionals achieve better outcomes, or to follow along for the latest in Legal AI educational content, please visit www.lexisnexis.com/ai.