Yes, as long as it remains an assistance tool and every result is checked by a professional.
In Switzerland, two points are essential: protecting professional secrecy and avoiding handing over to AI a legal decision that belongs to the lawyer.
How AI can help a law firm
Law firms have to process more and more documents: contracts, procedural documents, emails, case law and legal doctrine.
AI can speed up reading and organising this information. In an M&A matter, for example, it can find certain clauses across many contracts. In a criminal case, it can help build a chronology from the documents on file. For a legal opinion, it can carry out initial legal research.
The aim is not to replace the lawyer’s expertise, but to reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks and leave more room for analysis, strategy and advice.
Tasks that can be entrusted to AI
AI is most useful in the early stages of legal work.
It can summarise a large file, compare several versions of a contract, find specific clauses or organise the facts of a case.
It can also suggest an outline for a memo or a brief, rephrase a text or adapt its level of detail to the recipient.
These outputs remain working documents. The lawyer must always check and adapt the final version.
For contract analysis, see also our article on how to compare clauses with AI.
Legal research and case law
AI can also speed up legal research by making it possible to ask a question in natural language.
It can bring out relevant decisions, compare several lines of case law and help identify the arguments for or against a position.
Lawyers can thus spend more time interpreting sources than searching for them.
This method is only reliable if the references can be opened and verified. Our article on AI-assisted legal analysis presents this approach in more detail.
The Swiss Bar Association’s recommendations
In June 2024, the Swiss Bar Association adopted guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence.
It recognises the value of these tools for tasks such as translation, analysing large volumes of documents or drafting assistance.
It points out, however, that AI does not change lawyers’ professional obligations. Professional secrecy, data confidentiality and the verification of results remain essential.
Law firms would therefore do well to set clear internal rules on which tools are authorised, which data may be passed to them and which checks must be carried out before a result is used.
For companies, our guide to enterprise AI strategy sets out a step-by-step deployment method.
Checking sources to avoid hallucinations
A legal answer is only useful if it can be verified.
General-purpose tools can sometimes invent a decision, cite an outdated rule or confuse several legal systems. Convincing wording is therefore no guarantee that the information is correct.
For Swiss law, lawyers must be able to find the official source: Fedlex for federal law, cantonal sources for cantonal law, or the official case law databases.
Every important citation must be opened and checked before it is used in a case.
Protecting the firm’s data
Lawyers’ files often contain highly sensitive information: procedural documents, trade secrets, personal data or litigation strategies.
Before using an AI tool, firms therefore need to know where the data is stored, who can access it and whether it is reused to train models.
The Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) applies to data processing carried out with AI. Where processing presents a high risk for the data subjects, a data protection impact assessment may be required under Article 22 FADP.
The hosting location and any transfers abroad must also be checked.
The legal framework is set out in detail in our article on AI and data protection.
AI assists, the lawyer decides
AI does not know all of the client’s objectives, their acceptable level of risk or the human stakes of the case.
It can prepare a summary, suggest a structure or find a source. It must not decide the strategy on its own, make a definitive legal characterisation of the facts or choose between several legal options.
These decisions remain the lawyer’s responsibility.
The right division of labour is simple: AI prepares and organises the work; the lawyer analyses, decides and validates.
This limit also applies to individuals, as explained in our article on legal AI for individuals.
Choosing a tool suited to Swiss law
The choice of an AI solution can have a direct impact on the quality of the work and on the firm’s reputation.
A good tool must offer verifiable sources, clear guarantees on data and a way of working that is compatible with Swiss law.
The contractual terms, the hosting location and the rules on client files must also be examined.
Silex presents its solutions by practice, in particular for lawyers and law firms. The private bank Bordier & Cie also uses Silex for its legal research.
The various plans are presented on the Silex pricing page.
How Silex protects data
According to Silex, data is hosted in Switzerland by Infomaniak and client files are not used to train the models.
Data is also encrypted in transit and at rest, and access is limited to authorised users.
The measures stated by Silex are detailed on the security and professional secrecy page.
How Silex helps structure research
Silex is designed to help lawyers search for and structure information without replacing their reasoning.
The tool can bring out the key points of a file, suggest legal sources and help formulate a more precise question.
The lawyer retains control over the final answer and decides which arguments to use.
The tool’s features are presented on the Silex product page.
Integrating AI into the firm’s tools
A solution is easier to adopt when it integrates with the software the firm already uses.
The integration of Silex into WinLex and SkyLex, for example, makes it possible to start a search without leaving the electronic file.
The partnership between Silex and MCR Solutions pursues the same goal by integrating AI-powered legal research into existing work processes.
The partnership between Silex and EXPERTsuisse, for its part, concerns audit, tax and fiduciary professionals.
Before deploying AI in a law firm
Before using a solution on real cases, the firm must check a few essential points: data security, the quality of the sources, compliance with professional secrecy and the existence of systematic human review.
Teams must also be trained to check answers and to understand the tool’s limits.
For students and future lawyers, our article on AI for law students presents a learning method that keeps human reasoning at the centre. Students at a Swiss university can also visit Silex Campus.
To test these criteria on your own files, you can book a demo.
In short
AI can save lawyers time on research, summarising, comparing documents and drafting.
However, it must be used in a secure environment, with verifiable sources and human validation.
Strategy, advice and final responsibility always remain with the lawyer.
