Most attorneys didn’t go to law school to retype the same motion or client letter dozens of times a month. Yet for many solo and small firm lawyers, that’s exactly where time disappears.
Drafting the same document again and again, sliding into routine, repetitive document drafting.
The good news is that legal drafting has changed.
Whether you want to delegate, automate, or augment your existing process, there are now reliable ways to generate legal documents faster without compromising quality.
In this guide, we’ll walk through three modern strategies law firms are using to automate document generation. Each one is viable on its own, but when combined, they can unlock major efficiency gains.
This is part of our larger Legal Tech Guide for Solo Attorneys in 2025.
What Is Legal Drafting Software?
Legal drafting software refers to any system, tool, or workflow that helps attorneys create routine legal documents more efficiently. This might be traditional document automation software, but it can also include AI-powered assistants or even well-managed off-shore teams working from proven templates.
The goal is simple: produce consistent, high-quality documents in a fraction of the time, with minimal manual work.
Why Automate Legal Document Drafting?
Before we get into the strategies, let’s look at the business case.
Firms that automate their drafting process often can see:
- Fewer errors in documents
- Faster turnaround time for clients
- Lower internal overhead
- Better consistency across attorneys or staff
- Easier delegation to paralegals or offshore teams
Whether you’re handling employment matters, immigration filings, or demand letters, drafting is one of the most “automatable” parts of a legal practice.
1. Off-Shore Talent Systems
One of the most cost-effective and scalable ways to automate your document generation is by building an offshore drafting system. Rather than relying solely on technology, this approach leverages trained legal assistants or paralegals in lower-cost regions to handle routine drafting work.
We recommend using a testing tool like TestGorilla to streamline your talent onboarding process. Setting up basic tests to gauge a candidate's English abilities can drastically reduce the number of applicants needing review.
How It Works:
After you've onboarded your offshore talent, we can begin setting up guidance for drafting your firm's documents:
- You create or standardize your firm’s drafting templates
- You hire offshore talent (freelancers or through a legal process outsourcing firm)
- You train them on how to use the templates properly
- You set up a task system (e.g., via Notion, ClickUp, or your CRM) to assign work
- Drafted documents are reviewed by you or a supervising attorney before being finalized
Benefits:
- Very cost-effective, especially for high-volume practices
- Human judgment helps with nuance and formatting
- Works well for document-heavy practice areas like immigration, PI, or estate planning
What to Watch Out For:
- You need to protect client data (NDA + access controls)
- Initial training takes time but pays off long-term
- Avoid asking offshore staff to draft from scratch without structured templates
For many firms, this approach becomes the backbone of operations once it's running smoothly.
2. General AI Tools (ChatGPT, Claude)
AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are changing how attorneys approach legal drafting. These general-purpose AI assistants can take a prompt or outline and quickly return a full draft of a letter, motion, clause, or summary.
Used thoughtfully, they can dramatically reduce drafting time.
Use Cases:
- First-draft demand letters
- Contract summaries
- Template creation
- Rewriting clauses in plain language
- Drafting client communications or fee agreements
Best Practices:
- Always review AI-generated content. These tools can hallucinate facts or generate outdated legal language.
- Don't include PII or sensitive details in public models unless you're using a secure enterprise account.
- Give context-rich prompts. The better your input, the better the output.
Why It Works:
These tools are incredibly fast, available 24/7, and require no hiring. For solo attorneys who don’t have a large team or paralegal staff, AI can serve as a rough-draft partner.
Limitations:
- No built-in legal compliance
- No structured workflows or template enforcement
- Not specific to your firm’s jurisdiction or practice style
General AI is a great “accelerator,” but it’s not a full solution—especially when consistency and compliance matter.
3. Specialized AI Tools (Casely.ai and Others)
For attorneys who want automation and control, specialized AI tools designed specifically for legal work are the next evolution.
Casely.ai is built for firms that need a reliable way to generate client-ready legal drafts without the setup complexity of legacy document automation platforms.
What Casely.ai Offers:
- Fast, accurate document generation trained on your firm’s templates and style
- Built-in workflows for common practice areas like employment, PI, and immigration
- Drafts that are editable in Word or PDF
- Secure storage and versioning
- Highlighted vs non-highlighted outputs for tracking what was changed
Best For:
- Firms that draft dozens of similar documents each month
- Attorneys who want a balance between speed and control
- Practices ready to move beyond cut-paste templates and static PDFs
With Casely, the goal is to take your firm’s best documents and turn them into an intelligent drafting engine so your team spends less time recreating what you’ve already written 100 times.
Final Thoughts
You don’t have to pick just one solution. In fact, many of the most efficient firms combine all three:
- Offshore teams to handle high-volume routine drafts
- General AI tools to explore ideas or get fast outlines
- Specialized AI platforms like Casely to systematize drafting at scale
Start with where the pain is greatest. If you're buried under routine work, delegate it. If you're losing time rewriting standard letters, automate them. If your team is growing, invest in a drafting system that grows with you.
Modern legal drafting isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about building a practice that works smarter for you, your team, and your clients.