How Ropes & Gray is developing AI for transactional diligence

Ropes & Gray, an early adopter of AI in the legal industry, has partnered with OpenAI to develop a proprietary AI tool for transactional diligence. The tool takes a first pass by combing through thousands of pages, identifying relevant documents, grouping them by themes and issues, and producing summaries and a completed report in the firm's signature format. It inventories and categorizes a data room so lawyers can review full relationships rather than isolated documents. Initial development focused on material commercial contracts, with lawyers comparing test outputs to human-authored reports to refine the rubric. The tool mimics the work of a capable junior-to-mid-level associate, but lawyers still review everything before delivering to clients. Ropes & Gray aims to produce detailed, issue-level diligence reports in hours rather than weeks. Leadership lessons include experimenting with AI for everything and putting clients first. Looking ahead, the firm sees AI creating collective knowledge by making every person's knowledge accessible to better solve client problems.

(Source：OpenAI)