The Human Advantage

Why AI Still Needs Will Always Need a Supervisor

Artificial Intelligence is fast becoming a fixture in legal drafting—from contract clauses to court filings. But as the tools evolve, a hard truth remains:

AI doesn’t know what it’s saying.

And it certainly doesn’t know what it means.

Which is why lawyers—real lawyers—must stay firmly in the loop

When AI Fails Loudly

We’ve all seen the headlines: AI-generated court briefs citing non-existent cases; legal assistants drafting with tools that “hallucinate” clauses or invent facts.

Fortunately, litigators discover these errors quickly. Filings are public. Opposing counsel reads them. Judges push back. There’s a built-in correction mechanism—even if it’s embarrassing.

But what about the legal work that’s invisible until it’s too late?

• • Wills and trusts that sit in a drawer for a decade
  • Health care directives that emerge only in crisis
  • Commercial contracts with buried errors
  • Real estate documents with quietly missing protections

When AI creates those, and no one checks the work?

That’s not a correction mechanism — it’s a time bomb.

⚖️ HITL Isn’t Good Enough

In tech circles, the phrase “Human in the Loop” (HITL) is offered as a safety valve: a person, somewhere, monitors the machine.

But in legal practice, not just any human will do.

And passive oversight isn’t enough.

Confidentiality. Judgment. Responsibility. These aren’t tasks that can be outsourced to an untrained user or anonymous reviewer.

The law demands more than HITL.

It requires something better:

Introducing LITL™ – Lawyer in the Loop

Lawyer in the Loop™ (LITL™) is a professional standard for the ethical use of AI in legal work.

It means no AI-generated content enters the legal record—or reaches the client—without being directly reviewed, supervised, and signed off by a licensed attorney.

It’s not an obstacle to progress. It’s the only path forward that protects:

• • Attorney-client privilege
  • Ethical accountability
  • Human judgment
  • Legal integrity

Why This Matters Now

Some in the legal tech world are quietly promoting HITL as the way forward: hire non-lawyers to review AI output, let junior staff handle the oversight, or worst of all—let clients verify their own documents.

That’s not scalable.
It’s not ethical.
And it’s not professional.

Clients rely on lawyers to apply training, experience, and judgment. If we’re not in the loop—really in the loop—we’ve outsourced more than work.
We’ve outsourced responsibility.

✅ LITL™ Sets the Standard

LITL™ ensures that:

• • A real lawyer makes the call
  • The client’s data stays protected
  • Privilege and ethics are preserved
  • Errors are caught before they explode

It’s a standard for professionals.
A defense against carelessness.
And a stake in the ground for legal ethics in the AI era.

No LITL, No Trust.

We don’t let AI argue in court.
We shouldn’t let it sign off on a will, either.

If you’re a legal professional using—or thinking about using—AI for drafting, document automation, or legal intake:

• • Stay in the loop.
  • Be the loop.

LITL™ is how we build trust in the tools we choose to use.

Formal Definition for LITL™:

Lawyer in the Loop™ (LITL™) is a professional standard for the responsible use of AI in legal work. It requires that a licensed attorney—not a machine, not a paralegal, not a non-lawyer reviewer—directly supervises, reviews, and accepts responsibility for any AI-generated or AI-assisted legal output before it is relied upon or delivered to a client.

To review the white papers we’ve published on this subject, please click here.