Appellate and litigation partner John O’Herron authored an article titled Using Artificial Intelligence for Oral Argument Preparation that was recently published by the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel, of which he is a member and Vice Chair of the Appellate Law Section.
When lawyers provide relevant case materials—such as briefs, opinions, record excerpts, and authorities—AI tools can generate outputs grounded in those documents rather than creating content from scratch.
In the article, John discusses the ways in which generative artificial intelligence can serve as a valuable tool for oral argument preparation in the legal profession. Because oral argument is essentially a conversation between lawyers and judges, effective preparation requires attorneys to think like the court by identifying weaknesses in their case, considering hypotheticals, anticipating difficult questions, and refining their legal strategy. Large language models can support this process by analyzing briefs, opinions, record excerpts, and other case materials provided by the lawyer. When grounded in these documents, AI can help reduce the risk of inaccuracies and assist attorneys in testing their arguments from multiple perspectives. However, AI should always supplement and never replace a lawyer’s preparation and professional judgment, as attorneys are responsible for reviewing, verifying, and independently evaluating any AI-generated work product.
John’s article can be read in full here.
