Corporate attorney Zack Shapiro used to spend hours each workday stuck behind his desk drafting legal documents in Microsoft Word.
Now, the founder and managing partner of the boutique AI-native law firm Rains says artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed how he practices law — freeing him from much of the tedious work and even getting him out from behind his desk.
"It's making me dramatically more efficient," Shapiro told Business Insider late last month. "I really automated away basically all of the unpleasant or grunt work that I used to do."
Instead, the Yale Law School alum said he now spends more time doing the types of tasks he trained for: "the strategic thinking, advising my clients on what to do, person-to-person client discussions — the actual meat of being a lawyer."
Shapiro, who said he primarily uses Anthropic's Claude, said that he tends to use the chatbot's voice mode to talk through his legal work while walking around outside.
The New York-based lawyer said during a recent appearance on the livestreamed tech news show MTS, that that's when he does his "most difficult cognitive work."
On walks, Shapiro said, he will "free associate into the microphone for three to four minutes," and by the time he gets back to his desk, he'll have a first draft.
"That's just an awesome way to practice law," he said. "It's made my life so much better."
Shapiro told Business Insider that although his venture capital and M&A deal-focused firm has just three lawyers, it operates like a much bigger one.
"It feels like I have an army of AI agents," said Shapiro. "The real humans are focused on the more human part of the job — the judgment and client advice — and this allows me regularly to compete against much larger firms."
Earlier this year, Shapiro chronicled his AI-driven workflow in an online post titled, "The Claude-Native Law Firm," which garnered millions of views.
Since then, Shapiro said he's been involved in a consulting practice working with some Big Law firms to help them integrate AI into their practices the same way he does at Rains.
"I'm pretty bearish on specific legal tech products like Harvey and Legora," Shapiro said, explaining that he believes the "best way forward" for lawyers is to learn how to use AI tools like Claude directly.
"It's really about the prompts and instructions that lawyers give to the AI," he said.
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Natalie is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Business News team.She was previously on BI's Legal Affairs team where she covered major cases out of state and federal court, as well as bankruptcy. Her coverage often focused on stories at the intersection of law, business, politics and technology. Natalie has covered Donald Trump’s criminal and civil cases, the wave of lawsuits against the second Trump administration, the indictment and criminal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the legal battles facing Elon Musk and his companies. Natalie came to Business Insider in June 2021 as a breaking news reporter, focusing on the most interesting angles around the trending news of the day. Natalie largely drove BI’s coverage around the fatal “Rust” shooting involving Alec Baldwin and the disappearance and murder of Gabby Petito.Prior to joining BI, Natalie worked for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and The Brooklyn Paper. She has an extensive background covering crime and courts. During her more than 12-year journalism career, she did a stint covering the police beat out of the headquarters for the New York Police Department. Natalie, a Brooklyn native, graduated from Brooklyn College in 2012 with a journalism degree. Popular articles
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