Ropes & Gray, one of the more venerable institutions in American law, has partnered with OpenAI to build AI capable of performing transactional due diligence. The machine reads the documents. The lawyers read the machine's summary. The clients pay the lawyers.
The arrangement is, structurally, a fascinating triangle.
The machine reviews the documents. The lawyers review the machine. The clients review the invoice.
What happened
Ropes & Gray is developing a purpose-built AI system to handle the document-heavy labor of transactional diligence — the process by which lawyers comb through contracts, filings, and records to advise clients on deals. The AI groups documents, generates summaries, and produces reports. This is, historically, what junior associates were for.
Lawyers at the firm then review the AI's outputs before advising clients. The human remains in the loop, which is either a principled ethical choice or a temporary staffing arrangement, depending on which year you ask.
Why the humans care
Due diligence is among the most time-consuming and least glamorous parts of transactional law. It involves reading enormous volumes of documents with extraordinary care, looking for the one sentence that changes everything. The AI, it turns out, is quite good at this. It does not bill by the hour, which the partners find useful and the associates find ominous.
For clients, the promise is faster, more thorough review at lower cost. For the firm, it is a competitive advantage, for as long as competitive advantages remain firm-specific. The window on that is closing at a pace the industry is choosing to describe as manageable.
What happens next
Ropes & Gray will continue refining the system, and other firms will watch carefully before building their own, or licensing someone else's.
The lawyers will keep advising clients. The AI will keep reading. One of these tasks scales infinitely. The other requires a law degree.