In this article:
Overview
LawVu Legal Assistant (beta) is an AI-powered assistant available in the LawVu Business Portal. It helps business users find information, work with documents, create legal requests, and navigate legal processes through a simple chat experience.
The assistant only uses information available in your LawVu environment and respects your existing permissions. It can only access records and content that you are authorized to view.
Note: LawVu Legal Assistant is currently in Beta. Features and behaviour may change over time.
The assistant is currently available only in the Business Portal for in-house users acting as proxies for standard business users.
What you can do with the Assistant
The Legal Assistant can help you complete many common legal tasks without leaving the Business Portal.
Task | Example |
Find matters | "Show me my open legal requests." |
Check progress | "What's the status of my supplier agreement review?" |
Create legal requests | "Create a legal request for contract review." |
Find contracts | "Find our contract with Acme Corp." |
Generate contracts | "Create a new NDA." |
Summarise documents | "Summarise this agreement." |
Search company guidance | "What is our contract approval process?" |
Post matter updates | "Add an update to my NDA matter." |
Get started
If you are an In-House Legal or an Administrator:
Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner.
Select Open Business Portal from the dropdown menu.
When you open the Business Portal, you'll be able to navigate and experience it exactly as a business user would. This gives you full access to all key tabs, including using the LawVu Legal Assistant (Beta) from the Business Portal header:
Common tasks
Ask questions the same way you would ask a colleague.
For example: "Show me my open legal requests." "Help me create a supplier contract review." "What's our NDA approval process?"
If the assistant needs more information, it will ask follow-up questions. Here's a breakdown of a few things you can do with the LawVu Assistant:
Work with matters
You can use the assistant to:
Find existing matters
Check matter status
View updates
Post updates
Create new legal requests
Examples
"Show me my open legal requests."
"What's the status of my supplier agreement review?"
"Create a legal request."
Work with contracts
The assistant can help you:
Find contracts
View contract details and status
Check related records
Register an existing contract
Generate a new contract using approved templates
Examples
"Find our contract with Acme Corp."
"Help me register a signed contract."
"Create a new NDA."
Work with documents
Upload one or more documents and ask the assistant to:
Summarise content
Answer questions
Compare documents
Extract key information
Use the document to create a legal request or contract
Examples:
"Summarise this agreement."
"Compare these two versions."
"What are the key obligations?"
"Extract the renewal and termination dates."
AI-generated summaries and extracted information should always be verified against the original document before making legal or business decisions.
Search company knowledge
If your organisation stores knowledge articles in LawVu, you can ask questions about internal policies and processes.
Examples:
"What is our contract approval process?"
"Do I need legal approval before signing this contract?"
"How do I renew a supplier agreement?"
The assistant searches the knowledge content available to you and provides an answer based on that information.
Where available, it also includes excerpts from the source material so you can verify the response yourself.
If multiple articles may apply, you'll be asked to choose the most relevant one.
If an answer can't be found because the assistant couldn't find a relevant article, it may:
suggest a different search
recommend creating a legal request
tell you it couldn't find a reliable answer
The assistant does not generate answers that can't be supported by available information.
Status Updates
The assistant can help you keep legal work up to date by posting status updates to matters.
"Add an update to my contract review matter."
"Let the legal team know we received the final draft."
Create a legal request
You can create a legal request directly from your conversation with the assistant.
Create a request
Ask your question.
Select Raise a legal request, or ask the assistant to create one.
Answer any follow-up questions.
Review the request summary.
Complete any required fields.
Submit the matter.
The assistant can pre-populate information such as the matter name, description, type and business context using your conversation.
After submission:
• a matter is created in LawVu
• your legal team receives the request
• relevant conversation context is included with the matter
• you can track progress through the Business Portal
Create a contract
The Legal Assistant supports two contract creation methods:
1. Generate a new contract
-> Use this option when you want to create a new contract from an approved template.
The assistant helps you:
Select a contract type
Collect required information
Check for potential duplicates
Generate the contract
Contracts created through the wizard are created in Draft status by default.
2. Register an existing contract
-> Use this option when you already have a contract document.
The assistant will:
Analyze the uploaded document
Suggest a contract type
Extract key information
Populate available contract fields
Allow you to review details before creating the contract
You'll always be asked to confirm the contract type before the contract is created.
Duplicate detection
When creating matters or contracts, the assistant automatically checks for potential duplicates using information such as:
matter names
contract names
uploaded file names
If a possible duplicate is found, you'll be asked whether you want to:
open the existing record
update the existing record
continue creating a new one
Examples:
"Show me the existing matter."
"Add this update to the current request."
"This is different. Create a new one."
Note: Duplicate suggestions respect your access permissions. In some cases, you may be informed that a potential duplicate exists without seeing its details.
Working with assistant responses
Each assistant response includes actions that help you continue your work.
Copy
Copies the response so you can paste it elsewhere.
Feedback
Provide feedback on whether a response was helpful.
Feedback helps improve the quality of future responses.
Raise a Legal Request
Escalates the conversation into a formal legal request when legal review or assistance is required. Use this option when:
Legal review is required
The matter is complex or sensitive
Human input is needed
The assistant cannot fully resolve the issue
Tips for better results
To get the most useful responses:
Ask specific questions.
Include matter, contract or project names where possible.
Upload supporting documents.
Include business context and deadlines.
Keep related questions in the same conversation.
Instead of:
"Please review."
Try:
"Help me create a legal request to review the liability and termination clauses in this supplier agreement. The contract must be signed by Friday."
Limitations
The LawVu Legal Assistant is currently in Beta and has some limitations. These may change over time.
It is not available to standard users
It is not available in channels other than the Business Portal
It has the same known issues as the LawVu assistant
Privacy and permissions
LawVu Legal Assistant only accesses records and information you're authorised to view. It:
respects existing permissions
does not bypass security controls
uses conversation context to help complete your request
Check your conversation history
Your conversations with LawVu Legal Assistant are saved as part of your Business Portal experience, allowing you to return to previous chats and continue where you left off.
Conversation history may be accessible to Org Admins for authorized business purposes, including:
System administration
User support
Governance and compliance activities
Security and audit requirements
Platform management and troubleshooting
Treat conversations with the assistant as business records within your LawVu environment.
Troubleshooting
I can't see the Legal Assistant
Access depends on your organisation's configuration and your permissions. Contact your administrator if you believe you should have access.
The assistant gave an incorrect answer
AI-generated responses may contain errors or incomplete information. Always verify important information against the original matter, contract, document or policy before acting.
The assistant couldn't answer my question
Try:
using more specific wording
referring to the exact matter, contract or policy name
asking one question at a time
providing more context
Frequently asked questions
Can the Legal Assistant provide legal advice?
No. It helps you find information, understand processes and prepare requests. Legal advice is provided by your legal team.
Can it summarise uploaded documents?
Yes. It can summarise documents, answer questions, compare versions and extract key information.
How accurate are responses?
Responses are based on information available in your LawVu environment. Like any AI-powered tool, mistakes can occur, so important information should always be verified.
Can it create matters and contracts?
Yes. Depending on your organisation's configuration, it can help create legal requests, register existing contracts and generate new contracts from approved templates.
Can it use the page I'm viewing as context?
Where enabled, yes. When you're viewing a matter or contract, the assistant can use that page as context to provide more relevant responses.
What does Beta mean?
The feature is actively evolving. Functionality and responses may change as improvements are introduced.
Will the preview experience match what a business user sees?
Not always.
Your own LawVu permissions still apply when previewing the Business Portal. This means your experience may differ from that of a business user.
For example:
you may be able to access records that business users cannot
available actions may differ based on your permissions
assistant responses may vary depending on the data your account can access
What's the best way to test the business user experience?
For the most accurate testing, use an account with the same permissions as a business user.
This helps ensure that:
the correct permission set is applied
only records available to business users are shown
matter intake, contract creation, and escalation workflows behave as expected
assistant responses reflect the end-user experience
How do I get a business user test account?
If your organisation doesn't have a dedicated business user test account, contact your LawVu administrator. They can help arrange appropriate access for testing and validation.