OpenAI In-House Lawyer Uses Company’s ChatGPT to Automate Compliance Work

Nicole Diaz, associate general counsel at OpenAI, built a ChatGPT skill called "simplify" that shortens sentences, removes legalese, and formats policies to match company templates. She reviews each draft herself before sending it to outside counsel for approval. m.

For emails about conflicts of interest. The agent sorts messages by risk level, drafts replies using her pre-written guidance, and logs the type of disclosure, her response, and the time taken. Diaz said the tools absorb repetitive work without replacing her judgment.

She is now creating an "about me" file that describes her writing style so future outputs match her voice more closely. Before joining OpenAI, Diaz earned her law degree at Harvard, worked as a litigation associate at Skadden, and served as a compliance lawyer at Snap. She had never written code until she joined OpenAI's legal team one year ago.

Diaz works in corporate compliance, the function that ensures employees follow the law and ethical standards as the company prepares for potential IPO scrutiny. She said her sense of what is possible with the tools has expanded rapidly in the last six months.

Colleague Bright Kellogg helped the legal team adopt the new workflow by sharing small weekly lessons and examples of tools other lawyers had built.

Diaz compared the sharing to trading Pokémon cards, where one person's useful skill prompts others to try it.