Write Better Prompts for Your Legal AI: A Guide for Corporate and Real Estate Transactional Lawyers

By Dorna Moini, CEO of Gavel

I'm a former attorney at Sidley Austin and now CEO of Gavel, where we build legal automation and AI tools used by lawyers every day. Over the past several years, I've had a front row seat to how lawyers can use AI to review, redline, and draft transactional documents. I've also worked with teams who've built AI at places like Microsoft, and one thing is clear: the results you get from AI depend heavily on the instructions you give it. 

This article is about making AI actually useful in your transactional practice. Whether you're negotiating a commercial lease or drafting a stock purchase agreement, the way you prompt determines whether AI gives you a helpful redline or a mess you need to clean up.

If You Read Nothing Else, Read This: Top 10 Prompts That Work

Here are ten tested prompts you can try today in Gavel Exec when reviewing or drafting real estate and corporate contracts. Think of these as shortcuts to better results.

1. "Be 100x more specific." Add this to your prompt when the AI gives you vague or generic edits. It forces clarity.
2. "Redline only the indemnification and insurance provisions." Keeps AI from wandering into parts of the agreement you don't care about.
3. "Identify landlord-friendly provisions in this office lease and propose tenant-favorable alternatives." Real estate lawyers: this is gold for spotting imbalance.
4. "Suggest revisions to the rep and warranty section that limit buyer exposure in a stock purchase agreement." Corporate deal lawyers will recognize the pain point immediately.
5. "Draft a market-standard non-compete clause for a Delaware merger agreement, limited to 2 years and direct competitors only." Context + jurisdiction + term = useful output.
6. "Summarize all provisions that could trigger acceleration of rent or obligations on default, and explain in plain English." Great for client communication.
7. "Insert a clause giving the tenant a right of first refusal on adjacent space, but do not alter any existing rent provisions." Explicit instructions prevent unintended edits.
8. "Compare the indemnification clause in this draft to market-standard language for Series A financings." Use this when benchmarking is key.
9. "Propose revisions to the renewal option that shift control to the tenant without changing base rent." This forces the AI to solve within your parameters.
10. "List five negotiation risks for the buyer in this asset purchase agreement and suggest specific redline edits to mitigate them." This turns the AI into a second set of eyes.

If you do nothing else, copy-paste one of these into your next review session. I know you'll see the difference.

The Anatomy of a Useful Prompt in Transactional Law

Most lawyers are trained to write with precision. Think of prompting AI like giving instructions to a first-year associate, but an associate who doesn't know the business deal unless you spell it out. See my video on how AI is not a mind-reader here.

A good prompt usually includes three parts:

1. The Scope. Define which section or issue you want addressed.
   
   • For example: "Focus only on the assignment clause."
2. The Direction. State the business or client goal.
   
   • For example: "Make this more favorable to a tenant."
3. The Constraints. Tell the AI what not to touch or how to format.
   
   • For example: "Propose language, but do not redline financial terms."

Here's a side-by-side:

• Weak: "Check this agreement for issues."
• Better: "Identify and redline provisions in this commercial lease that increase tenant exposure to CAM charges, but leave base rent untouched."

That extra specificity is the difference between busywork and a real time-saver.

A Step-by-Step Workflow You Can Follow Right Now

One mistake I see lawyers make is asking AI to do everything in one pass. That's like telling a junior associate, "Fix this entire agreement." You'd never do that. Instead, you'd break it down.

Here's an exercise you can follow with Gavel Exec's chat:

Step 1: Issue Spotting
Prompt: "List all seller-friendly provisions in this asset purchase agreement that increase post-closing liability for the buyer."

• Output: AI identifies the sections.
• Your job: Decide which are material.

Step 2: First Redline
Prompt: "Redline the indemnification and escrow provisions to reduce the survival period to 12 months and cap liability at 10% of purchase price."

• Output: Targeted redline.
• Your job: Review and refine.

Step 3: Clause Drafting
Prompt: "Draft a Delaware law-governed earn-out clause that ties payments to revenue, payable quarterly, with buyer audit rights."

• Output: Clause draft.
• Your job: Integrate and adjust tone.

Step 4: Clean Up
Prompt: "Reformat the redlines so that all changes appear in Microsoft Word track changes format, with explanatory comments."

• Output: Ready-to-review document.
• Your job: Final review and judgment.

Each pass narrows the focus and keeps the AI aligned with your objectives.

Where Lawyers Have the Edge in Prompting

Unlike other professions, lawyers already know how to give precise, structured instructions. That's the muscle prompting draws on. You don't need to learn how to "talk to AI" the way tech folks do. You actually already have the skill set. The difference is remembering to give AI the same clarity and context you'd give a junior associate.

AI won't replace your judgment on what's acceptable to your client. But it will take the mechanical part of redlining, spotting, and drafting off your plate. That is, if you prompt it the right way.

Try Gavel Exec - The Most Accurate Legal AI for Transactional Attorneys

At Gavel, we've built Exec inside Microsoft Word with one goal: to make transactional work faster without compromising accuracy. Prompts are the bridge between your expertise and the AI's ability to execute. The lawyers who get the most out of Exec aren't the ones asking it to "make this better." They're the ones giving it structured instructions like the examples in this article: specific, scoped, and tied to business goals.

I've seen firsthand how much time this saves in real estate leases and corporate deals. It doesn't replace your judgment; it clears the noise so you can focus on negotiation strategy and client counseling.

If you try nothing else, test one of the ten prompts above in your next review. The results speak for themselves.

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