Operating guides

Practical decisions before legal AI becomes an implementation project.

These guides turn broad AI questions into operating choices a partner, compliance lead and workflow owner can inspect together.

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Original Margo Legal material. Operational guidance, not legal advice or a product recommendation.

Guide 09

The one-page AI policy for a small law firm: a working template

A copy-ready one-page AI use policy for small UK law firms, mapped clause by clause to the SRA's August 2026 warning notice. Adopt it in a week.

Read the policy template

Guide 08

The SRA AI warning notice, three weeks on: an implementation kit for managing partners

The SRA AI warning notice is an operations problem, not a news story. A five-part implementation kit for managing partners of small firms: shadow AI audit, policy contents, verification rules and the questions to take to your insurer.

Read the implementation kit

Guide 01

The law-firm AI readiness maturity model

Five evidence-based stages, from informal experimentation to a managed operation, with the next practical move at each stage.

Read the maturity model

Guide 02

How to evaluate a legal AI tool

A six-step evaluation method that starts with a frozen task, representative inputs and an agreed failure condition.

Read the evaluation guide

Guide 03

Rules, extraction and reasoning are different jobs

A practical way to choose the least variable method for each step and make the human review path explicit.

Read the workflow architecture guide

Guide 04

What human review means for legal AI

A review standard with a named reviewer, source checks, budgeted time, corrections and a visible failure route.

Read the human review guide

Guide 05

Seven data and security questions for a legal AI vendor

A written first pass across data types, locations, access, model improvement, retention, controls and failure.

Read the vendor questions

Guide 06

The SRA's AI warning notice: what small firms in England and Wales actually need to do

The SRA's August 2026 warning notice on misuse of AI raises the bar for every firm. A practical checklist for small firms and sole practitioners in England and Wales.

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Guide 07

How to build a contract review playbook that AI can actually follow

Most contract playbooks fail the moment AI gets involved. How law firms and in-house legal teams in the UK and US can write playbooks that AI tools can follow - and lawyers can trust.

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Turn reading into evidence

Run the two checks in the right order.

Use the systems check for the operating environment, then score one workflow for recurrence, ownership and measurable value.