Overview
When you open Harvey, you'll be directed to the Assistant tab. Assistant is suitable for most tasks that do not require specialized knowledge bases and can be personalized to your specific practice area. With Assistant, you can revise or create text, analyze opinions and arguments, or summarize lengthy documents.
In Assistant, you can query Harvey with or without uploading documents. When one or more documents are uploaded, Harvey will generate a response to your query based on your document(s) and include linked references to the document(s). Note that Assistant is not intended for legal research.
Assistant has two modes, Assist and Draft. These modes feature different ways of interacting with Assistant and different styles of output. We'll explore both in this article.
Key Features:
Iterative Workflow: Submit a query in Assist or Draft mode to generate a first response. In Assist, users refine results with follow-up questions, while in Draft, they iteratively revise content using selected sources or uploaded documents.
Document Processing: Upload accepted file types (PDF, Word, Excel, Email, or ZIP formats) to generate tables, memos, and other outputs with citations.
Export Options: Export Harvey's responses to Word, with or without citations. Users can export individual responses, or a whole set of response iterations and followups.
Language Support: Summarize documents in different languages. (For word-by-word translations, it is best to use Harvey's Translation tool.)
Citations: When users upload documents, the response that Harvey generates will include direct links to text from those documents that supports the response's statements.
Assist
Assist mode is built for quick Q&A-style iteration, as if you were asking a co-worker for a request. It's helpful for quickly learning about something, getting a high-level overview, or finding specific information within a document. After the initial response, you can ask follow-up questions to explore further.
Key Features of Assist Mode:
Contextual Q&A: Users can ask up to 50 follow-up questions, with each follow-up leveraging the context of the entire conversation. This ensures that responses are consistently relevant and accurate.
Speed and Interactivity: Designed with a chat-like functionality, Assist provides quick and responsive interactions, allowing for seamless back-and-forth dialogue with the AI.
Customizable Follow-Ups: Harvey automatically provides AI-generated follow-up questions to guide the conversation. Users also have the flexibility to create their own follow-up questions, tailoring the discussion to their specific needs.
Knowledge Cutoff: The knowledge cutoff for Assist is October 2023.
To Run a Query
Ensure that 'Assist' is chosen at the top left of the text box.
Enter your prompt into the text field.
Upload any related files if necessary in the Sources field.
Click on 'Ask Harvey'.
Once the output is generated, you can also ask Harvey a Follow-Up question to iterate on further content.
Draft
Draft mode is best for generating content like emails, contract clauses, and sections of briefs. It's helpful for gaining in-depth understanding, drafting professional communication, or subjective tasks such as suggesting counterarguments. After the initial draft, you can request revisions and view the changes.
Key Features of Draft Mode:
Natural Language Editing: Easily revise your content by inputting natural language commands. You can either type a revision request or highlight specific areas of text that need attention.
Flexible Revisions: Draft Mode allows users to make up to 50 revisions on a single document, ensuring you can fine-tune the content until it meets your exact requirements.
Clear Markups: Easily see the changes Harvey made between revisions with Draft Mode's "Show Edits" toggle. Deletions will show up with a red strikethrough, while additions will show up in blue.
Knowledge Cutoff: The knowledge cutoff for Draft is October 2021.
To Run a Query
Ensure that 'Draft' is chosen at the top left of the text box.
Enter your prompt into the text field.
Upload any related files if necessary in the Sources field.
Utilize the Revisions pane on the right to chat with Harvey and make edits by clicking 'Add Revision'.
See Harvey's changes in red and blue by clicking 'Show Edits'.
Highlight parts of the draft for more targeted revisions. Ask a question, and click on 'Ask Harvey' to see iterations.
Query Writing Tips
Consider specifying the format you need—such as a table, email, memo, outline, or bullet points.
Indicate the desired tone, whether informal, professional, firm, or otherwise.
Clearly identify the intended audience (e.g., ‘a client with little acquisition experience’ or ‘a senior in-house attorney’).
Make your queries explicit, descriptive, and specific. Providing clear direction can greatly improve accuracy (e.g., use ‘holders of Company Common Stock’ instead of ‘common holders,’ or ‘written legal opinion’ instead of just ‘legal opinion’).
Simplify complex queries by breaking them into smaller components, especially when analytical or subjective tasks are involved.
Include background information and context (e.g., legal jurisdiction) to ensure a more accurate response.
Save or load prompts from your library to streamline access to relevant information, enhance team collaboration, and tailor your workspace to your needs
Best Practices for Assist and Draft
Double-check outputs for accuracy and completeness, as responses may contain inaccuracies. Be especially cautious when referencing specific cases, statutes, company filings, or other detailed sources, as these may highlight gaps in Harvey’s training data.
When documents are uploaded, text is processed left to right across the page making multi-column layouts, vertical text or images hard to process.
References and citations are generated automatically when you upload documents, there’s no need to request them separately.
Assistant is not designed to function as a proofreading tool at this time.
FAQ
Q: When should I use Assist vs Draft mode?
A: Assist mode is less verbose, offering concise, sentence level overviews and better formatting. It is more accurate at pulling verbatim text which is ideal for quick, Q&A-style interactions and high-level tasks like analysis, search, or overviews. It’s best for asking quick questions to gain insight or perform surface-level assessments. Use Assist mode when you want a quick answer for yourself.
Draft mode is more verbose and suitable for generating and revising sophisticated content such as summaries, emails, and contracts. It’s better at conducting detailed analysis, noting subtle nuances in documents, and outlining arguments. Use Draft mode when preparing content that will be shared with others.
Q: What are some examples of well-crafted prompts for Assist mode?
A: Good example prompts that users can run in Assist mode are:
“What are the elements of [claim x] and how would they apply to [fact pattern y]?”
“What does [witness x] say about [fact pattern y] in the attached transcript?”
"What are the top [x] arguments discussed in the attached [document type y]?"
Q: What are some examples of well-crafted prompts for Draft mode?
A: Good example prompts that users can run in Draft mode are:
"Write a summary of how [claim x] and [claim z] relate to one another, and an argument for how they are different"
“Write a detailed summary of all claims in the attached brief and how the appeals court might rule on each.”
“How do the three attached opinions intersect on the issues of [element x], [element y], and [element z]?”
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