The Generative AI newsletter for legal pros everywhere.

🚀 Hello! We have reached 580+ subscribers in 18 days! I cannot thank you enough for subscribing!! 🎉🔥

My goal is to reach 1000 subscribers. Do you think I can make it? With your help, I can, so please share this newsletter with as many people as you can if you are finding it useful.

To read previous posts, go here.

This is day 19 of 100 (our goal - 100 consecutive days!) and today we will:

1. ask if Apple has something up their sleeve

2. put ChatGPT in the role of our trainer

3. practice talking to a client about rate increases

4. create a letter that details a budget for our client

5. talk news you can use on being polite to ChatGPT

Has Open AI (developer of ChatGPT) just pulled off the Apple deathblow?

How many of you reading this use Apple products? How many think Apple can’t be beaten? Perhaps they can. Perhaps they will resist. One thing is clear-the dominant Apple App Store is under threat. 👇

Why would I write about this in Brainyacts? Because. Generative AI (the kind that drives ChatGPT) is so intuitive, so good, so easy . . . it just works. Does this sound familiar? It should. It was Apple’s main competitive advantage for so long. They got you hooked because their stuff “just worked” compared to the clunky and less “cool” PC.

ChatGPT is cool enough, but tether it to specific apps, and you have a whole new level of “it just works” - perhaps it will be “it just does (everything).”

We will see.

Apple’s next main event is in September. Will they release a Generative AI product or service?

If they do, my bet is this will 100x the use of Generative AI in legal. It will literally be creeping into your everyday experience - you will use it knowingly and perhaps not. This will create a habit and craving for more. In your personal and your work lives.

Ok, let's kick this off, shall we?

PROMPTS & USE CASES

Today I want to share with you a certain way to interact with ChatGPT.

Many of you likely have been playing and experimenting with it. Most people are still thinking of it as a Google search bar. Others, notably Brainyacts readers, have tapped into the wealth of ideas on how to use ChatGPT to do a number of tasks by stacking prompts, creating mega-prompts, or using a template for prompts. These are all effective.

Today we are going to use it as a training partner. We will have a conversation about it. It will teach us through question and answer.

Below is the scenario I am using but you can think of any that fits your desires and goals.

Negotiating Fees with Clients

Clients love getting rate increase letters from their law firms; said nobody ever!

The reality is often the individual partner in a firm doesn’t set their own rates, firm leadership together with the finance leader does this. I have talked to way too many partners in my life who are upset, nervous, or even confused as to why their rate increase was forced on them. They know their clients will not like it and will push back. They fear that their longtime clients will be angry or feel resentful.

What I am about to show can help.

You can put ChatGPT into a “training” mode so that it acts as your trainer and walks you through various elements of a scenario.

Here we go.

Step 1:

▶︎▶︎PROMPT: Use all of the following that is in red.

Scenario: I am a lawyer in a regional law firm negotiating with a longtime client for the provision of legal services. You are a negotiation expert with 20 years of experience in legal services working with lawyers and their clients on how to negotiate better and arrive at fair outcomes. My client has expressed concern about the recent rate increases my firm made for my services and is asking for a discount. My goal is to negotiate a fair fee that meets the needs of both parties.

Task: Let’s role-play. You and I will practice and you will lead me through the process.

Prompt: As a lawyer in a regional law firm, I am negotiating a fee with a client who is requesting a discount. How can I respond to the client's request for a discount while ensuring that I am fairly compensated for my services?"

👉 Here is the link to the reply I got back.

ChatGPT replied with a full conversation between a lawyer and their client. It gives some terrific insight that many lawyers might overlook.

But it doesn’t really get me to the point I want it to. So, I am going to prompt it again.

Step 2:

Setting a budget seems like a good idea. But if I didn’t have a lot of experience (like many lawyers don’t) I would prompt it like this.

▶︎▶︎PROMPT:

So it seems like a budget might help my client and I arrive at a great place and address their concerns. Here's the problem, I have no idea on how to construct and explain a budget. Can you tell me how to develop a budget and how to talk about it with my client? 

👉 Here is the link to the reply I got back.

While this reply is decent, telling me how to develop a budget is fine but it sort of glossed over the “estimating your costs” part of it. I need to dig in further.

Step 3:

▶︎▶︎PROMPT

Elaborate on "Estimate your costs." Lawyers who have billed by the hour their whole careers like me struggle with estimating costs as legal representation can have many variables and unknowns, what are proven methods I can use to estimate my services? Please be highly detailed here so I can learn and test these in this scenario.

👉 Here is the reply I got back for mine.

Step 4: PAUSE

I want to pause here to make sure you are seeing how I am interacting with ChatGPT.

I am creating a conversation with it. I am not putting in standalone prompts - I am keeping the logic and flow of the conversation going.

I am literally prompting it as I would have a conversation with someone.

Does this get better more high-quality replies? It depends.

1. ChatGPT is highly unstable and unpredictable. You can copy and paste one prompt and use it multiple times and you will get different responses each time - some similar, some wildly different.

2. Also sometimes just one word can make a huge difference. In my very first prompt, I originally didn’t have “role-play” in the task. When I added it, I got ChatGPT to behave as I wanted.

Step 5+: Wrapping this up

This is step 5+ because you can keep going with this. For this newsletter, I simply want to show you different ways to interact with ChatGPT.

But let’s bring this conversation with ChatGPT to a solid end by asking it for something material that I can take forward with my client as I negotiate with them.

▶︎▶︎PROMPT

Ok, I think I am getting it. But I need something right now to help me through a call I have later today with a real client. Can you give me a highly detailed checklist and guide for how to structure my conversation with them about addressing their concerns over my rate increase by collaborating on a budget? I literally need every step of the process detailed. I also need objections they are likely to have and how I can respond.

I got a great reply but want more. I have one last request for ChatGPT.

Let’s get it to provide me with a draft letter I can send to the client that lays out a budget and explains it clearly.

▶︎▶︎PROMPT

This is truly helpful. What would be truly amazing is if you could give me an example of a finalized and complete budget. Can you draft a letter I can send to the client that shows me how to detail out a budget and explain it clearly?

💣🧨BOOM!

👉 Here is the entire conversation along with the reply I got back to these last prompts..

Remember you can use this method to learn, train, and practice on any topic.

Have fun and as always I would love for you to share with me how you are using it.

Reply to this email - it comes only to me.

News you can use : Being polite to ChatGPT. I kinda feel this. What do we have to lose by not being polite?

Legal AI Couse?

This is from my DMs on Twitter. It has me thinking.

Any thoughts from you on this?

Reply to this email with a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Was this newsletter useful? Help us to improve!

With your feedback, we can improve the letter. Click on a link to vote.
If you click on Meh or Getting bored - please leave me a note so I can improve things for you:

• 👍 This helped me. Thanks

• 😐 Meh - was ok.

• 👎 Getting bored.

Build your own? 👉 FeedLetter.co

That's a wrap for today. Stay thirsty & see ya next time! If you want more, be sure to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

DISCLAIMER: None of this is legal advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not legal advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any legal decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.