Twelve questions to ask before your firm buys legal AI in 2027
A demo shows what a product can do. These questions show what it will do for your firm. Ask every vendor, including us.
About the work
1. Does it hold the matter, or only the question? Ask what it knows about a case you did not paste into it.
2. Which stages of a matter does it cover? Intake, the engagement letter, the client's documents, drafting, review, dates, closing. Ask for each one, and ask which are not built.
3. Does it draft to your forms? Or to its own?
4. What does it do when it does not know? Ask for an example where it said so.
About trust
5. Can you see what it read? Every answer should cite the document and the clause.
6. What does it do on its own? Ask exactly what it can send, file or sign without a person, and how you would know.
7. Where is your data, and is it used to train anything? Get it in writing.
8. What is recorded? Who did what, and when, should be on the record.
About fit
9. Does it work where your lawyers already are? Word, Claude, ChatGPT.
10. What does it connect to? Your document system and practice management, if you have them.
11. Who sets it up? You, or someone who stays with you.
12. Can you try it on your own matter? One you already know the answer to.
Our own answers
Volares holds the matter from the first lead to closing and back, and drafts to the firm's own Standard. A value the draft does not have is left as a visible gap, not invented. Incoming contracts are reviewed against the firm's playbook, and every finding cites the clause it came from.
It does not connect to iManage, NetDocuments or Clio today, and it does not search case law yet. We set it up with each firm. Every run we describe here was on a demonstration matter, and a pilot runs on yours.
Further reading
The products these questions apply to, compared: The best AI for law practices in 2027.