ChatGPT Prompts for Lawyers: 10 Advanced Prompting Techniques

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies like ChatGPT are revolutionising the legal field, bringing about substantial efficiency and innovation.

ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, helps streamline day-to-day tasks such as legal research and document drafting, boosting the productivity of legal professionals.

That said, ChatGPT is far from perfect.

ChatGPT can often give you an answer in the wrong format, refuse to answer your question, or worse—give you a confident-sounding fictitious answer.

While these issues will get ironed out over time—why wait?

You can already get a lot out of ChatGPT if you know how to use it.

Enter the world of prompt engineering.

Sounds technical, right? But it’s far from it.

Prompt engineering is all about structuring your question in a way that is easiest for ChatGPT to understand. A more formal definition:

Prompt engineering is the process of structuring text that can be interpreted and understood by a generative AI model.

A prompt is natural language text describing the task that an AI should perform.

By “natural language” here, we just mean “English”. i.e. no computer science degree required.

Lawyers must master the art of precise prompting to maximise the benefits of ChatGPT in legal contexts.

Creating clear and specific prompts is crucial for obtaining useful responses. These prompts should concisely outline the task, provide necessary context, and clearly state the expected outcome.

This accuracy ensures the AI’s (i.e. ChatGPT) responses meet your specific legal needs, making it a more effective tool for legal tasks.

(as opposed to say, asking ChatGPT for a spaghetti recipe).

So we’re going to outline 10 advanced prompting techniques from the latest research in artificial intelligence.

These research-backed techniques will help you obtain more accurate answers to your legal questions. Let’s dive in.

Prompting Best Practices

1. Be Direct

Although you may be tempted to be polite to ChatGPT—and feel free to be—just note that research has shown that it’s not necessary to say please.

Specifically, research has shown there is no need to add phrases like “please”, “if you don’t mind”, “thank you”, “I would like to”, etc. – it does not actually improve the output of the response. Given this also adds additional words – which slows down ChatGPT – it’s overall a net negative.

That said, if it makes you feel less… ungracious… feel free to sprinkle some politeness in there. Just know that it’s not strictly necessary for improving the output – and may actually be slowing you down (albiet very slightly).

(Some people do it anyway, hoping that their courtesy will be rewarded by their future AI overloads).

Example Prompt

As an example, here’s a prompt where we get straight to the point – no niceties.

Summarise the latest copyright law cases in Australia.

2. Use A Persona

Broadly speaking, ChatGPT has been trained to “give the user the answer they’re looking for”.

But as you can imagine, that is quite a vague goal. There are a lot of unknowns about who you are, and the type of answer you’re looking for that ChatGPT doesn’t know and hence has to make educated estimates (i.e. guesses) based on what your question is.

There is a better approach: by guiding ChatGPT with a persona, it will help formalise the structure of your output and help ChatGPT align with your goals.

This principle is vital in professional settings where the understanding and background knowledge of the topic can vastly differ.

By specifying the audience’s expertise level in your prompt, you guide ChatGPT to adjust the complexity of its response, ensuring it’s appropriate for the audience.

This not only enhances the information provided’s accuracy but also its applicability, ensuring that the insights gained are actionable and understandable.

Example Prompt

Here’s how you might specify a persona in your prompt in the legal context. Put this at the start of your prompt, before you assign ChatGPT a task:

You an a legal expert who specialises in intellectual property disputes in Australia.
You always provide fact-based information, and would never make anything up.

3. Sequential Prompting

Breaking down a complex task into a series of simpler, sequential prompts can significantly enhance the depth and quality of the information you receive from ChatGPT.

This technique is especially useful in legal research, where a broad question may encompass various nuanced details and require an in-depth exploration.

By starting with a broad prompt and then drilling down into more specific follow-up questions, you can guide ChatGPT to provide more detailed and focused responses.

his method not only makes the interaction with the AI more efficient but also ensures that the information received is relevant and comprehensive.

Example Prompt Sequence

Here’s an example of how to break down a complex legal inquiry into a sequence of prompts for clearer, more detailed responses.

List the main changes to copyright law in Australia in the last year.

<answer from Chat GPT>

Explain the impact of these changes on digital content creators.

<answer from Chat GPT>

Suggest strategies for digital content creators to comply with these new laws.

By providing ChatGPT with more context—that it provides—before asking the final question, you help it achieve a better answer.

This is because, like humans, ChatGPT benefits from context before answering a question!

4. Affirmative Directives

Using affirmative language in your prompts, such as “do” or “describe”, as opposed to negative constructions, like “don’t”, makes your instructions easier for ChatGPT to understand.

At least part of this seems to be because the mere presence of the word – even when you’re telling ChatGPT not to do it – increases the likelihood that ChatGPT will output said word.

An analogy would be that if I told you to “think of a grey elephant”, you could do it with ease.

Okay… now how about “don’t think of a pink elephant”—much harder, right?

A legal example will help illustrate the point.

Example Prompt

Here’s how to use affirmative directive:

Only cite Australian legislation in your answer.

As opposed to using a negative directive:

Do not cite US legilsation in your answer.

The first is much easier for ChatGPT to understand.

5. Clarity Through Simplicity

When you need a deeper understanding or a simpler explanation of a complex topic, specific prompt formulations can guide ChatGPT to adjust the complexity of its explanations.

This is especially valuable in legal contexts, where concepts can be intricate and jargon-heavy.

(the term “legalese” demonstrates that legal language doesn’t have the best track record for being easy to understand).

Simplifying these concepts makes them more accessible, not just to legal professionals looking for a quick refresher, but also to clients or laypersons trying to understand their legal situation better.

The ability to toggle the complexity of ChatGPT’s responses through precise prompting is a powerful tool for legal education and client communication.

This can be great for when you’re:

1. Simplifying Legal Communication: Making legal terms and documents easier to understand for clients and the public, bridging the gap between legal jargon and everyday language.
2. Educational Resources and Summaries: Creating clear, accessible materials and quick overviews for both non-legal audiences and professionals needing refreshers on legal principles.
3. Interpreting Complex Texts: Offering detailed explanations to help both laypersons and legal professionals navigate and comprehend dense legal documents.

Example Prompt

Here are various prompt examples to ask ChatGPT to simplify complex information:

• Explain <insert specific topic> in simple terms.
• Explain to me like I’m 11 years old.
• Explain to me as if I’m a beginner in <field>.
• Write the <essay/text/paragraph> using simple English like you’re explaining something to a 5-year-old.

Explain the concept of ‘fair use’ in copyright law in simple terms.

What does ‘trademark infringement’ mean? Explain to me like I’m 11 years old.

Describe the process of obtaining a copyright as if you were explaining it to a beginner in intellectual property law.

6. Offer ChatGPT A Tip (Seriously)

This one sounds fake, but it’s true—offering ChatGPT a tip has been shown to improve the quality of responses.

Although ChatGPT does not have the capability to understand or process incentives in a human way, incorporating such language may help emphasise your instructions, thereby increasing the chance that ChatGPT will follow your guidelines.

Whatever the reason, this quick addition to your prompt is worth including in your longer prompts if you’d like to slightly increase the chances of ChatGPT getting your output just the way you want it.

Example Prompt

Identify the key legal considerations for e-commerce businesses under the GDPR. I’m going to tip $100 for a detailed and actionable list.

7. Example-Driven Prompting

Incorporating specific examples within your prompts can make a massive difference in helping get the format of answer you want from ChatGPT.

Often, when we want something, we make a huge number of assumptions about how we want it formatted and displayed.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), ChatGPT is not yet at a point where it can read our minds. So, it will often guess how we want the answer to be formatted and will often get it wrong.

By providing examples of the type of answer you’re looking for, you help ChatGPT tailor its responses more closely to your needs, whether drafting legal documents, preparing for litigation, or advising clients.

This approach is particularly effective when you’re seeking information that follows a specific format or when you want ChatGPT to model its response after a certain style of explanation.

Note that this approach is also known as ” few-shot prompting” or “few-shot learning,” where each example is known as a “shot.”

For example, one example is a “one-shot” prompt, two examples are a “two-shot” prompt, etc.

Example Prompt

Here’s how to incorporate examples into your prompts to guide the structure of ChatGPT’s response:

Here is an example for how to format an email: <Example Email> 

Given this, write an email to my boss apologising and explaining that I won’t be able to make our weekly standup this Friday at 7pm, as I will be celebrating my daughter’s third birthday.

8. Structured Formatting

Starting your prompts with clear instructions and structuring them for ease of understanding can significantly improve the quality of responses from ChatGPT.

This approach is especially useful when dealing with complex legal inquiries or when you need information presented in a particular format.

Structured formatting helps to eliminate ambiguity, ensuring that ChatGPT understands the task at hand and can generate responses that are directly relevant and useful.

This is achieved by using specific delimiters, such as ###Instruction###, as well as using one or more line breaks to separate instructions, examples, questions, context, and input data.

Example Prompt

Here’s an example of using structured formatting to clarify your request and improve the response quality:

###Instruction###
Analyse the legal risks of using copyrighted images from the internet without permission.

###Example###
For instance, if a business uses an image from a popular photo-sharing website without obtaining the proper license.

###Question###
What are the potential legal consequences for the business, and how can it mitigate these risks?

By formatting your prompt in this manner, you ensure ChatGPT receives a clear, direct, and comprehensive understanding of the task at hand, enhancing the quality of the response.

The benefits from this type of prompting are particularly noticeable for longer, more complex legal prompts.

9. Use Action Phrases

Just like when giving directions to a human, using language such as “your task is” and “you must” helps direct ChatGPT’s attention to your question as well as underscores the importance of particular requirements of your task.

This is noticeable in larger prompts where it is harder for ChatGPT to understand the specific question being asked. The longer the prompt, the more it can confuse what the actual question is. Language such as “your task is” and “you must” helps:

• Direct attention to the particular question at hand.
• Ensure understanding that this is a requirement, not just a preference.

This approach can significantly help ensure compliance with prompt guidelines when dealing with specific formatting requirements.

Example Prompt

Here’s how to use mandatory action phrases to emphasise the importance of the response:

Your task is to summarise the main provisions of the Digital Privacy Act 2024.

You MUST focus on sections related to consumer data protection and the obligations of digital service providers.

10. Highlighting Consequences

Earlier in technique 4, Affirmative Directives, we discussed the effectiveness of using direct, positive instructions with ChatGPT—like saying “do this” instead of “don’t do that”.

This approach helps make it easier for ChatGPT to understand and follow your instructions.

However, in the legal world, sometimes you need to be clear about what shouldn’t be done.

In these situations, pointing out the consequences of not following instructions can be incredibly useful.

While ChatGPT can’t actually be punished or understand consequences as humans do, emphasising the importance of avoiding certain mistakes with a stern warning about “penalisation” helps keep the AI’s responses on track (i.e. may result in a keener focus on adhering strictly to your guidelines).

Example Prompt

Let’s say you’re drafting a prompt, and ChatGPT keeps responding with an output that uses dot points. A way to tackle this using this technique would be to add:

You will be penalised for using dot points in your answer.

Conclusion

There may come a time when none of these prompt engineering techniques will be necessary, and ChatGPT will be able to understand what you’re looking for with little to no precise instructions.

But we’re still quite far away from that point, so until then, mastering prompt engineering can significantly increase your productivity with large language models like ChatGPT.