Buckle Up: Your Law Firm Needed AI Governance, Like Yesterday

Don’t get it twisted – everybody is using AI.  That includes the people who work in your law firm.  And, that’s true even if you don’t have an AI usage policy – in fact, that’s especially true, if you don’t have an AI usage policy. 

 

You see, if you don’t have an AI policy, the natural human inclination is for people to use a product that will allow them to complete their work faster.  And, in an environment in which there are no rules, you’re basically begging them to use it as often as possible, and to drop whatever information they need into those systems, to utilize them in the most effective way possible.  That likely means that they are going to be dumping as much information into the system as possible, probably including confidential information, which would potentially now reside in a freeware system, that will retain that data & train on it. 

 

That ain’t good. 

 

Not only is that a massive problem from the standpoint of lawyer ethics rules (supervision, data secruity), you’re also looking at potential issues with respect to state and federal laws around data protection.

If you haven’t issued an AI policy in your law firm, you’re inviting problems.  The horse is out of the barn, in terms of AI usage by employees – and, that means that you have to set up a corral. 

 

Your AI policy should elucidate the risks of AI, indicate which specific tools firm employees may utilize and identify a point person, who will administer the policy and take on any questions that arise. 

 

At the point at which you’re adopting an AI policy for your law firm, it’s also a good time to revise any existing policies, that would be affected by AI usage – including your written information security program/data management policy, and your policies & procedures manual. 

 

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If you want to get your policies right, in the age of AI – reach out to us today! 

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