Prompting
Part IV forms the technical core of the book, providing comprehensive instruction on how to engage with AI systems to achieve quality outputs. This section progresses from fundamental prompting principles through to advanced engineering techniques, with extensive focus on legal applications. You will learn how to structure prompts for clarity and precision, provide appropriate context and constraints, and utilise methods such as chain-of-thought reasoning to enhance AI performance on complex legal tasks. The section includes detailed examples and patterns (or templates) for common tasks, including document review, contract drafting, legal research, and client communication.
Learning Objectives
By the end of Part IV, you will be able to:
- Design effective prompts using fundamental prompting principles
- Apply advanced prompt engineering methods
- Evaluate and refine AI outputs using systematic assessment criteria
- Develop and maintain a personal library of effective prompts and patterns
- Adapt prompting techniques for different AI models and use cases
- Apply techniques for prompting ‘reasoning’ models
Self-Assessment Questions
- What are the essential components of an effective prompt, and how do they differ from general prompting approaches?
- How does chain-of-thought prompting improve AI performance on complex legal reasoning tasks?
- What systematic approach should you follow to evaluate and refine AI outputs for legal work?
