First Draft to Final: How to Use AI to Accelerate Legal Drafting Workflows

Discover how LexisNexis Protégé™ transforms legal drafting into a strategic collaboration between lawyers and AI—enhancing quality, speed, and defensibility. 

In this article:  

• From Steps to Strategy with AI for Legal Drafting 

• Step 1: Prepare with Clarity 

• Step 2: Draft with Authority  

• Step 3: Finalize with Confidence 

• Deliver Outstanding Work 

Legal drafting is now a flexible collaboration between a lawyer and AI. With LexisNexis Protégé™, the AI assistant in Lexis+ AI® and Lexis® Create+, you can connect preparation, drafting, and finalization to strengthen quality, defensibility, and consistency in your drafts.  

The payoff: fewer manual steps, clear links to authority, and documents that align with your expertise and standards. 

From Steps to Strategy 

Intake and scoping, information gathering, document review and annotations, legal research, strategizing and outlining, precedent hunting, and then the first draft. Legal drafting without AI requires numerous steps, many of which are repetitive, administrative, and arguably not the highest-value use of lawyer time.  

With innovations in legal AI, lawyers can reduce repetitive, manual tasks while keeping expertise and judgment at the center.  

Protégé, the personalized AI assistant in Lexis+ AI and Lexis Create+, supports a connected drafting workflow that is anchored in authoritative content and organization precedent, protected in a secure, private workspace. With Protégé, lawyers can spend less time on steps and focus more on strategy.  

“When you’re drafting documents and AI suggests counter arguments, or if you ask [Lexis+ AI] how to make a brief more persuasive or how to make the clause in a contract more buyer-friendly or seller-friendly to be prepared for negotiation, I think that contributes to higher quality client service.” – Director of knowledge for research, law firm with $3 billion annual revenue  

The Total Economic Impact of Lexis+ AI for Large Law Firms, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of LexisNexis, May 2025 

This post will explore the three stages of legal drafting with Protégé, ensuring that human expertise and judgement are in-the-loop at all stages.  

Step 1: Prepare with Clarity  

Before drafting, clarify objectives, define the fact base, frame research questions, and identify exposure. 

How Protégé helps:  

• Ask targeted legal questions in Lexis+ AI and see linked sources, definitions, and suggested next steps. 

• Rely on visible legal authority verified with Shepard’s® Citations Service so you can build confidence in the analysis. 

• Upload related documents to Lexis+ AI and store them in Protégé Vault. Summarize key details to prioritize follow-up. 

• Use prompt suggestions to craft well-structured instructions or to spark alternatives. 

Example: A clothing company plans to hire social media influencers. You need an agreement that protects IP and complies with FTC rules. With Protégé in Lexis+ AI, you can: 

• Surface influencer obligations by jurisdiction with linked citations. 

• Identify potential penalties for non-compliance with FTC requirements. 

• Prepare a short client memo highlighting endorsement rules, IP ownership, disclosures, and jurisdictional nuances—each tied to citable authority. 

Outcome: a shared factual and legal baseline the team trusts, with risks and assumptions documented up front. 

Step 2: Draft with Authority  

With objectives and facts organized, select the structure, calibrate your prompt, and align to playbooks and client preferences.  

How Protégé helps: 

• Generate a starting point for a motion, brief, or agreement grounded in current authority. 

• Iterate sections, tighten language, stress-test positions, and request alternatives (e.g., pro-seller vs. pro-buyer; plaintiff vs. defense). 

• Benchmark clauses against organization standards via DMS connections; preserve house style and required terms directly in Word with Lexis Create+. 

• Keep citations and rationale visible so positions remain defensible. 

For the clothing company, you would next create the first draft of an FTC-compliant agreement that reflects the client’s goals and relevant jurisdictions. With Protégé in Lexis+ AI, you can:  

• Generate a first draft in a prompt outlining the company’s goals, key agreement and jurisdiction details, and IP requirements to guide the initial draft. 

• Refine specific clauses to strengthen language or adjust terms.  

• Export to Microsoft Word to continue work and finalize. 

Outcome: a first draft that reflects both external authority and your organization’s best work product, improving coherence and negotiation posture. 

Step 3: Finalize with Confidence 

In Microsoft Word, refine to organization precedent, customize terms, confirm standards, and package for delivery. 

How Protégé helps:  

• Benchmark clauses against your firm’s internal precedent. 

• Analyze provisions for alignment with industry practice. 

• Cross-check authorities for compliance as edits are made. 

For the clothing company, finalize and adjust language directly in Word while staying aligned with the fact base and your firm’s other agreements. 

With Protégé on Lexis Create+, you can:  

• Compare IP clauses to prior agreements. 

• Confirm changes remain in line with FTC requirements. 

• Redline and track changes to preserve visibility as you iterate. 

Outcome: consistent documents that meet organization standards and present a clear record of sources and reasoning. 

Deliver Outstanding Work 

With Protégé in Lexis+ AI and Lexis Create+, lawyers prepare with clarity, draft with authority, and finalize with confidence—and deliver polished, defensible work product. 

Read about how Protégé in Lexis Create+ now supports AI-powered legal drafting starting from your Microsoft Outlook Inbox. 

By collaborating with AI, lawyers can reduce repetitive steps and produce high quality first-drafts in the applications that suit them best.  

Explore LexisNexis legal drafting solutions