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AI AgentWorkforce Operations

Legal Research Agent

Researches case law and the firm's own work product with citations, drafts research memos, and runs air-gapped so privileged matter stays in the firm.

The Legal Research Agent is an autonomous AI agent that researches a legal question across case law and the firm's own briefs and memos, returning answers grounded in cited authority.

It reasons over the issue, retrieves on-point authority, checks citations, and drafts a research memo — with links back to the source so an attorney can verify everything.

This is not a chatbot that invents citations. It is an active agent that retrieves, verifies, and synthesizes, deployed air-gapped or on-premise so privileged work product never leaves the firm.

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AI Agent vs. Chatbot

A research chatbot returns prose that may cite cases that do not exist. The Legal Research Agent retrieves real authority and the firm's own work product, verifies citations, and drafts a memo grounded in sources — autonomously.

Dimension
Chatbot
AI Agent
Execution
Summarizes a legal topic from memory
Retrieves on-point authority, verifies citations, and drafts a sourced research memo
Grounding
Can hallucinate cases and quotes
Grounds every assertion in retrieved authority with links back to the source
Memory
No recall of the firm's prior work
Searches the firm's briefs, memos, and prior arguments alongside published authority
Tools & APIs
Cannot reach research databases or the DMS
Queries Westlaw, LexisNexis, and the firm's iManage/NetDocuments corpus
Data Control
Queries and matter context leave the firm
Runs air-gapped or on-premise; privileged matter never leaves the firm
Model Flexibility
Locked to one vendor's model
Model-agnostic — Claude, GPT, Gemini, Llama, Mistral, or a fine-tuned model
Confidentiality
Vendor assurances, not architecture
Privilege protected by design, with a complete audit trail
Autonomy
An attorney drives every query
Runs a continuous research-verify-synthesize cycle and follows leads on its own

The Legal Research Agent is a true AI agent that goes beyond simple Q&A. It reasons, plans, and executes multi-step workflows autonomously while you retain full code ownership and infrastructure control.

Capabilities

Issue-Driven Case Research

Takes a legal question and retrieves on-point statutes, regulations, and case law from connected research sources.

Expands the query into sub-issues, retrieves authority for each, and assembles the relevant set without an attorney searching manually.

Firm Work-Product Search

Searches the firm's own briefs, memos, and prior arguments so a first-year can find what the firm has argued before.

Surfaces the firm's most relevant prior work alongside published authority, with links to the source documents.

Citation Verification

Checks that cited authority exists, is quoted accurately, and remains good law.

Flags any unverifiable or superseded citation before it reaches a draft, eliminating hallucinated-citation risk.

Research Memo Drafting

Synthesizes findings into a structured research memo with a clear answer, supporting authority, and counterarguments.

Drafts the memo with pinpoint citations for the attorney to verify and refine.

Argument & Counterargument Mapping

Identifies authority on both sides of an issue and the strongest opposing positions.

Builds a balanced view so attorneys see the contrary authority before opposing counsel raises it.

How It Works

Step 1

Receive — Frame the Question

The agent takes the legal issue and jurisdiction, pulling matter context and the firm's relevant prior work.

Step 2

Reason — Decompose and Retrieve

It breaks the question into sub-issues and retrieves on-point authority from research databases and the firm corpus.

Step 3

Act — Verify and Synthesize

The agent verifies citations, synthesizes the answer with supporting and contrary authority, and drafts the memo.

Step 4

Evaluate — Check Currency

It confirms authority is still good law and notes anything recently distinguished, reversed, or superseded.

Step 5

Report — Deliver the Memo

The agent writes the cited memo back to the matter workspace and logs the research to an audit trail.

Use Cases

A litigation team needs fast, jurisdiction-specific research under deadline. The agent retrieves authority and drafts the memo with verified citations.

Litigation

Cut research time on routine motions and reduced citation errors, with matter context staying in the firm.

Appellate briefs require deep authority and airtight citations. The agent maps supporting and contrary authority and verifies every cite.

Appellate Practice

Strengthened briefs with comprehensive authority and eliminated bad-citation risk.

A legal department fields recurring regulatory questions. The agent answers from authority and the company's prior guidance.

In-House Legal

Faster, consistent answers grounded in both law and the company's own positions.

A small firm lacks a large research staff. The agent gives associates leverage to research at the level of a larger firm.

Boutique & Small Firms

Expanded research capacity without adding headcount, on an owned flat-fee platform.

A firm wants its institutional knowledge searchable across matters. The agent indexes briefs and memos for grounded retrieval.

Knowledge Management

Turned scattered work product into a searchable, citeable knowledge base.

Integrations

Westlaw

Retrieves and verifies published authority from Westlaw for grounded research and citation checking.

LexisNexis

Searches LexisNexis for on-point authority and validates citations against current status.

iManage

Searches the firm's briefs, memos, and prior work product stored in iManage with links to source documents.

NetDocuments

Indexes and retrieves firm work product from NetDocuments for grounded, citeable answers.

Microsoft Word

Delivers research memos with pinpoint citations in native Word format.

Clio

Associates research with the correct matter for billing and knowledge capture.

Deployment & Ownership

Full Source Code Ownership

You receive the complete codebase. The firm's research infrastructure is yours to audit, modify, and operate permanently.

Air-Gapped & On-Premise Deployment

Deploy entirely within the firm's infrastructure so matter context and work product never leave the firm.

Any Cloud, Any Infrastructure

Run on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or the firm's own servers. ibl.ai is a certified partner of all three hyperscalers.

Model-Agnostic Architecture

Choose and swap the underlying model without rebuilding the research workflow.

Zero Telemetry, Complete Audit Trail

No queries or documents are sent to ibl.ai. Every research session is logged to the firm's own immutable audit trail.

ROI & Impact

-60%
Research Time Reduction

Issue-driven retrieval and drafting cut time spent on routine legal research substantially.

near zero
Citation Error Elimination

Mandatory citation verification removes the risk of hallucinated or superseded authority reaching a draft.

high
Associate Leverage

Associates research at the level of a larger team by drawing on the firm's full body of prior work.

significant
Knowledge Reuse

Prior briefs and memos become reusable, citeable assets instead of forgotten files.

~10x cheaper
Licensing Cost vs. Per-Seat Tools

Enterprise-wide flat-fee licensing eliminates per-seat legal-AI pricing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to deploy the Legal Research Agent?

See how ibl.ai deploys autonomous AI agents you own and control — on your infrastructure, integrated with your systems.

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