Harvey: The Complete Guide to AI-Powered Legal Work

Legal work has traditionally been measured in billable hours—associates spending days researching case law, partners reviewing contracts line-by-line, entire teams conducting due diligence on hundreds of documents. This time-intensive approach doesn't just cost clients money; it burns out attorneys, creates bottlenecks, and limits how many matters your firm can handle. Harvey represents a fundamental transformation in how legal work gets done.

Harvey is an AI legal assistant specifically trained on legal documents, precedents, and jurisdiction-specific requirements. Unlike general-purpose AI tools, Harvey understands legal terminology, can cite relevant case law, drafts documents in proper legal format, and provides analysis grounded in actual legal principles. It's being used by top law firms globally to handle contract analysis, legal research, document drafting, due diligence, and case preparation—tasks that consume the majority of billable hours.

In this comprehensive guide, you'll learn exactly how to implement Harvey in your law firm or legal department, integrate it into your existing workflows, and build practices that dramatically reduce research and review time while maintaining the high quality standards clients expect from legal professionals.

Before implementing Harvey in your practice, it's essential to understand what this AI legal assistant can actually do and where it delivers the most value:

Legal Research with Citations

Harvey's most powerful capability is conducting comprehensive legal research that would traditionally take hours or days. Ask Harvey a complex legal question, and it searches through case law, statutes, regulations, and legal commentary to provide detailed answers with proper citations. Unlike general AI that might hallucinate legal precedents, Harvey is specifically trained on legal corpus and understands the importance of accurate citation.

For example, an associate researching whether a non-compete clause is enforceable in California can ask Harvey to analyze the specific language, compare it against relevant case law, and identify potential challenges—receiving a comprehensive memo in minutes instead of spending half a day in legal databases. Harvey not only finds relevant cases but explains how they apply to your specific situation.

Contract Analysis and Review

Contract review is where Harvey delivers immediate, measurable ROI. Upload an agreement—whether it's a merger agreement, employment contract, NDA, or licensing deal—and Harvey analyzes it for risks, unusual provisions, missing standard clauses, and unfavorable terms. It compares the contract against market standards and your firm's typical positions, flagging items that need attorney attention.

Instead of associates spending 3-4 hours reviewing a 50-page contract line by line, Harvey completes the initial review in minutes, allowing attorneys to focus their time on the issues that actually matter. This doesn't replace attorney judgment—it enhances it by ensuring nothing important is missed while eliminating the tedium of checking every standard provision.

Document Drafting and Customization

Harvey can draft legal documents from scratch or customize existing templates based on specific deal terms. Provide Harvey with deal parameters—parties, jurisdiction, key terms, special provisions—and it generates properly formatted legal documents that incorporate relevant legal language, standard clauses, and jurisdiction-specific requirements.

For routine matters like NDAs, service agreements, or employment offer letters, Harvey can produce first drafts in minutes that previously would have taken an associate an hour or more. For complex documents, Harvey generates comprehensive first drafts that capture all key terms, which partners can then refine based on negotiation strategy and client needs.

Due Diligence and Document Analysis

M&A due diligence traditionally requires armies of associates reviewing hundreds or thousands of documents. Harvey can analyze entire data rooms, identifying key risks, extracting relevant information, flagging concerning provisions, and summarizing findings. It understands what to look for in different document types—corporate governance issues in bylaws, liability exposure in contracts, regulatory compliance in permits.

This doesn't eliminate the need for attorney oversight, but it transforms the process from manual document review to strategic risk assessment. Associates spend their time analyzing the issues Harvey identifies rather than reading every page of every document.

Jurisdiction-Specific Legal Analysis

Legal requirements vary significantly by jurisdiction, and Harvey is trained to understand these differences. Whether you're analyzing employment law across different states, corporate formation requirements in various countries, or regulatory compliance in specific industries, Harvey provides jurisdiction-specific guidance that accounts for local laws, regulations, and legal standards.

Step 1: Identify High-Impact Use Cases

Don't try to implement Harvey across your entire practice on day one. Start by identifying specific, repetitive tasks where AI can deliver immediate value:

• Contract review for specific agreement types (NDAs, vendor agreements, employment contracts)
• Legal research on frequently encountered issues in your practice area
• First-draft document generation for routine matters
• Due diligence review for specific document categories
• Regulatory compliance research for your industry focus

Analyze your time tracking data to identify which tasks consume the most associate hours. Those high-volume, repeatable tasks are where Harvey will deliver the fastest ROI. Start with one or two use cases, perfect the workflow, then expand to additional applications.

Step 2: Train Your Team on Effective Prompting

Harvey is only as effective as the instructions it receives. Your attorneys need training on how to prompt Harvey effectively for legal work:

• Be specific about jurisdiction: "Analyze this employment agreement under California law" produces better results than "Review this employment agreement"
• Specify what you're looking for: "Identify unusual or unfavorable provisions from the buyer's perspective" gives focused results
• Provide context: "We represent a startup in the software industry" helps Harvey tailor its analysis
• Request citations: "Provide case law citations supporting your analysis" ensures legally grounded responses
• Ask follow-up questions: Harvey maintains conversation context, so you can drill into specific issues

Create a training session where associates practice using Harvey on real matters (with appropriate confidentiality safeguards). Share examples of effective prompts and the results they produce. Build a prompt library for common tasks.

Step 3: Establish Review and Quality Control Processes

Harvey is a powerful tool, but it doesn't replace attorney judgment. Establish clear review protocols:

• Never rely on Harvey without review: All Harvey output must be reviewed by a qualified attorney
• Verify citations: Always confirm that cited cases exist and actually support the proposition Harvey claims
• Check for jurisdiction accuracy: Ensure Harvey's analysis correctly applies the relevant jurisdiction's law
• Review for client-specific context: Harvey doesn't know your client's risk tolerance, business goals, or negotiation strategy
• Document Harvey's use: Track which matters used Harvey and for what tasks to measure ROI and address any quality issues

Think of Harvey as a highly skilled legal assistant: it does excellent preliminary work that requires partner or senior associate review and refinement. The time savings come from Harvey handling the initial heavy lifting, not from eliminating attorney review.

Step 4: Integrate Harvey into Existing Workflows

Harvey works best when integrated into your existing tools and processes:

• Document Management Systems: Connect Harvey to your DMS so it can access contracts and documents without manual uploading
• Practice Management Software: Integrate with time tracking and matter management to seamlessly use Harvey on client matters
• Legal Research Platforms: Harvey complements traditional legal research tools—use it for initial research, then verify with Westlaw/LexisNexis
• Template Libraries: Give Harvey access to your firm's standard forms and templates so it can draft consistent with your style
• Client Communication: Use Harvey to help draft client memos and advice letters (with attorney review)

The goal is making Harvey as frictionless to use as possible. If attorneys need to leave their normal workflow to use Harvey, adoption will suffer. Build Harvey into the tools they already use daily.

Step 5: Address Confidentiality and Ethical Considerations

Using AI in legal practice raises important professional responsibility questions that must be addressed:

• Client confidentiality: Understand Harvey's data handling practices and ensure they meet your confidentiality obligations
• Competence requirements: Attorneys must understand how Harvey works and review its output to meet competence standards
• Billing considerations: Determine how to bill time when using Harvey—reduced hours at standard rates, or same hours with efficiency gains?
• Disclosure to clients: Some jurisdictions or clients may require disclosure of AI use in legal work
• Malpractice insurance: Inform your malpractice carrier about AI tool usage to ensure coverage

Consult with your firm's ethics counsel or professional responsibility committee to develop policies around AI usage that comply with your jurisdiction's rules of professional conduct.

Build Custom Legal Playbooks

Create practice-specific playbooks that guide Harvey on your firm's standards and preferences:

• Document your firm's standard positions on common contract provisions
• Define risk tolerance levels for different client types
• Specify preferred legal structures and drafting styles
• Outline jurisdiction-specific considerations for your common practice areas

When you provide Harvey with these playbooks alongside specific tasks, it tailors its analysis and drafting to match your firm's approach, producing output that requires less revision and better serves client needs.

Use Harvey for Client Business Understanding

Beyond pure legal work, use Harvey to quickly understand client businesses and industries:

• Research industry-specific regulatory requirements before client meetings
• Analyze market terms for deals in unfamiliar sectors
• Understand technical concepts in patent or technology transactions
• Identify industry trends that might affect legal strategy

This background knowledge helps attorneys provide more strategic advice and ask better questions, strengthening client relationships and demonstrating deep understanding of their business context.

Accelerate Associate Training

Harvey can be a powerful training tool for junior attorneys:

• Have associates use Harvey to research issues, then verify the results to learn proper research methodology
• Compare Harvey's draft documents against senior attorney edits to understand quality standards
• Use Harvey's contract analysis to learn what to look for in different agreement types
• Practice legal writing by drafting alongside Harvey and comparing approaches

This combination of AI assistance with human review accelerates learning while maintaining quality. Associates develop judgment faster when they can compare their work against both AI output and senior attorney feedback.

Expand Service Offerings with Fixed-Fee Work

Harvey's efficiency enables new business models that weren't previously economical:

• Offer fixed-fee contract review packages for standard agreements
• Provide subscription-based general counsel services to small businesses
• Create productized legal services for routine matters
• Take on smaller clients who couldn't previously afford your rates

When Harvey reduces the time required for routine work by 50-75%, you can profitably serve clients at lower price points, expanding your market while maintaining healthy margins.

To demonstrate Harvey's ROI and identify optimization opportunities, track these metrics:

• Time Savings per Task: Compare hours required for contract review, research, or drafting with and without Harvey. Target: 50-75% reduction for routine tasks.
• Billable Hour Impact: Track whether time savings translate to more matters handled per attorney or reduced client bills (depending on your strategy).
• Quality Metrics: Monitor error rates, revision frequency, and client feedback on Harvey-assisted work versus traditional work.
• Adoption Rate: Percentage of eligible matters using Harvey. Low adoption suggests training or workflow integration issues.
• Use Case Distribution: Which tasks is Harvey being used for most? This reveals where it provides the most value and where additional training might help.
• Client Satisfaction: Survey clients on responsiveness and value—Harvey should improve both through faster turnaround.
• Attorney Satisfaction: Track whether attorneys feel Harvey makes their work more efficient and interesting (less tedium, more strategy).

Review these metrics quarterly to demonstrate value to firm leadership and identify areas for improvement in your Harvey implementation.

• Insufficient attorney review: Relying on Harvey's output without proper verification violates professional responsibility obligations and risks serious errors.
• Poor prompting: Vague instructions produce vague results. Invest in training attorneys on effective prompting techniques.
• Ignoring confidentiality requirements: Ensure Harvey's data handling meets your ethical obligations before uploading client documents.
• Not verifying citations: Always confirm that cited cases and statutes actually exist and support Harvey's analysis.
• Using Harvey outside its expertise: Harvey excels at analysis, research, and drafting but can't replace strategic judgment, negotiation skills, or client counseling.
• Resistance to workflow changes: If attorneys must completely change how they work to use Harvey, adoption will fail. Integrate Harvey into existing processes.
• Billing without value adjustment: Clients may expect lower fees when AI tools reduce time investment. Develop a billing strategy that reflects value delivered rather than hours spent.
• No quality feedback loop: Track instances where Harvey's output needs significant revision to identify training opportunities and use cases where Harvey isn't effective.

Harvey represents a fundamental shift in how legal work gets done. The firms that embrace this technology now—learning to use it effectively, integrating it into workflows, and building practices around AI-enhanced efficiency—will have a significant competitive advantage over those that cling to traditional time-intensive methods.

The key is thoughtful implementation: starting with high-impact use cases, training attorneys on effective prompting, establishing quality control processes, and continuously optimizing based on results. Done right, Harvey doesn't just reduce hours—it transforms legal practice from time-based billing to value-based delivery, enabling better client service at more competitive prices while improving attorney satisfaction.

Whether you implement Harvey independently or work with specialists like Aiden to maximize the platform's capabilities, the critical thing is to start. Every month you wait is another month of expensive, time-intensive legal work when AI could be handling the heavy lifting for a fraction of the cost and time.