Can an AI draft your next contract, summarize a regulation, or flag risks faster than your legal team? Only if you know how to ask. In the age of legal tech, simply using AI tools isn’t enough—getting value from them depends on your ability to communicate with them effectively. That’s where legal prompt engineering becomes essential in shaping effective interactions with AI.
Dazza Greenwood, an in-house counsel and thought leader in legal AI with a research affiliation at MIT’s Computational Law Program. Dazza explains how mastering prompt design can transform AI from a novelty into a powerful tool for legal productivity through prompt engineering tailored specifically for legal purposes. Emphasizing how legal context is integrated into prompt engineering makes this practice a significant part of the process.
Watch the full conversation with Dazza Greenwood here:
What Is Legal Prompt Engineering?
Legal prompt engineering is the practice of crafting structured, strategic inputs to get high-quality outputs from AI systems like ChatGPT, Claude, or Bard. It’s not about asking generic questions—it’s about guiding AI to act like a reliable assistant.
Dazza likens a prompt to a set of legal instructions: it should include clear context, define the task, and reference relevant materials such as laws or case language. Formatting tools like delimiters (—, ###) help separate elements of the prompt and ensure that the AI responds with more coherent, focused content.
Think Commands, Not Questions
One of Dazza’s top recommendations is to stop treating AI like a search engine. Instead, treat it like a junior colleague. Direct the AI with clear tasks such as “Draft a short memo summarizing the key liability clauses from this agreement,” or “Rewrite the following clause for a consumer contract.” Contact your team about the opportunities in engineering legal prompts effectively for optimal outputs.
Starting or ending your prompt with the task—rather than burying it in the middle—ensures the AI captures your intent. The more direct and task-specific the instruction, the more useful the result. This method is part of a broader discipline, often referred to as legal prompt engineering.
Provide Context to Guide Output
AI doesn’t know the law unless you teach it what’s relevant in the moment. Dazza emphasizes embedding legal context directly into the prompt—such as copying a statute, paragraph, or excerpt from a contract that you want the model to analyze. This allows the AI to generate responses grounded in actual content rather than assumptions.
If you’re working with a large knowledge base, Dazza suggests using a vector database to make that information searchable and retrievable by AI. This expands your prompt’s intelligence by giving it factual grounding to draw from and enhances the impact of legal prompt engineering.
AI Is a Tool—You Are the Lawyer
As powerful as it is, AI still makes mistakes. Dazza cautions against relying on outputs without review. AI can hallucinate facts, invent citations, or present biased conclusions. That’s why getting the prompts right and engaging in proper engineering is crucial.
Confidentiality is another major consideration. Lawyers should avoid exposing sensitive data to external systems unless they’re operating within a secure environment or using privacy-preserving tools designed for legal prompt engineering.
Prompt Engineering as a Lasting Skill
Will prompt engineering still matter as AI becomes more advanced? According to Dazza, the fundamentals—clear thinking, structured communication, and the ability to frame legal tasks precisely—will only become more valuable. Tools may evolve, but lawyers who learn to collaborate with AI effectively through careful engineering of prompts will have a competitive edge in legal settings.
Legal prompt engineering is more than a tech trick—it’s a 21st-century legal skill. By investing in it now, in-house counsel can drive better results, reduce repetitive work, and deliver faster, smarter legal support through prompt engineering mastery.
Watch the full conversation here: Â Notes to My (Legal) Self: Season 6, Episode 2 (ft.Dazza Greenwood)
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