Professional Duties When AI Is Involved

AI doesn’t change professional obligations—it changes how you satisfy them.

Key ethics anchors (plain‑English)

• Competence: understand the tool enough to use it safely.
• Confidentiality: protect client information and privilege.
• Communication: don’t mislead clients or the court about work.
• Supervision: lawyers supervise non‑lawyers and vendors; non‑lawyers escalate.
• Fees: bill fairly; don’t charge for time you didn’t spend.

Current guidance to be aware of

The American Bar Association issued Formal Opinion 512 (July 29, 2024) addressing lawyers’ use of generative AI tools and emphasizing duties like competence, confidentiality, communication, and reasonable fees. Many state bars have also issued guidance. Use your jurisdiction’s rules and your firm policy as the primary authority.

Practice tip: When policies and rules are unclear, default to: minimize inputs, verify outputs, document decisions, and escalate.

Governance: how teams keep AI use under control

Even small firms benefit from a lightweight governance loop:

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• Govern: approved tools, training, and a clear escalation path.
• Map: what tasks you use AI for (and what you never use it for).
• Measure: accuracy checks, bias checks, and incident tracking.
• Manage: update prompts, templates, and controls when you see failure patterns.

Mini‑template: “AI Use Disclosure” for internal work

You can paste this into an internal draft to make review easier:

AI use: Draft assisted with [Tool Name] on [Date]. Inputs were sanitized. Output was reviewed for accuracy, citations verified, and final judgment remains with the supervising attorney.