Key concepts: AI in lawyers
Know these before you put a bot to work in lawyers. They are why the techniques and prompts are built the way they are.
Competence (Model Rule 1.1)
Comment 8 says lawyers should keep up with the benefits and risks of relevant technology. Understanding how a bot fails is part of competence.
Confidentiality (Model Rule 1.6)
Rule 1.6(c) requires reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorized disclosure. Know whether a tool trains on or retains your inputs before you paste anything.
ABA Formal Opinion 512 (2024)
The ABA's first formal opinion on generative AI: competence, confidentiality, client communication, candor, supervision and reasonable fees all apply to AI use.
Hallucinated citations
Chatbots can invent cases, quotes and pin cites that look real. Courts have sanctioned lawyers who filed them. Every authority must be pulled and read.
Supervision (Rules 5.1 and 5.3)
Partners and supervising lawyers must set policies for how staff and non-lawyer tools are used.
Fees for AI-assisted work
Opinion 512 says you may not bill hourly for time you did not spend; learning a general tool is usually overhead, not a client charge.
How chatbots fail
Language models predict likely text. They can produce fluent, confident answers that are wrong, out of date, or that cite sources that do not exist. They also repeat errors in what you paste in. Ask for sources, ask the bot to mark uncertainty, and check everything that matters.
Accuracy and ethics, every time
- Confidentiality: never paste client, patient, student, employee or customer personal data (PII/PHI) into a public bot. Use tools your organization has approved, with contract terms that cover data use, or remove identifiers first.
- Verify everything: bots can invent citations, case law, statistics, doses, code sections and quotes that look real. Check each one against the original source before you rely on it.
- Not professional advice: these tutorials teach you how to use AI tools. They are not legal, medical, tax, financial or engineering advice.
- A human professional is responsible: the licensed or accountable person reviews, decides and signs. The bot drafts; you own the result.
- Prices change: we don't list product prices. Check each vendor's official pricing page.
Official sources for this section
- ABA Model Rule 1.1: Competence: including Comment 8 on technology
- ABA Model Rule 1.6: Confidentiality of Information: reasonable efforts to prevent disclosure
- ABA Formal Opinion 512: Generative AI Tools (PDF): July 2024
- ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct: full table of contents
- ABA news: first ethics guidance on AI tools: summary of Opinion 512
- Free Law Project / CourtListener: free case law search to check citations
Links checked Oct 30, 2026. Rules differ by state and country; follow your licensing body and employer policy.
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