The Florida Bar recently just realized an advisory ethics opinion that focused mainly on lawyer's use of AI in practice. One of the biggest concerns raised was that of confidentiality. The Florida Bar emphasized the importance of receiving advised consent from your clients when using AI. Because of this, attorneys are tasked with meeting the minimum duties of competence by having an understanding of the benefits and risks of using a new technology such as AI.
Specifically, this advisory opinion stated that attorneys should have an understanding of whether or not the AI program is "self-learning". The use of this type of technology could potentially lead to your client's information being stored in the program and revealed in future inquiries by some third party. The Florida Bar suggests that attorneys who are looking to use AI use an "in house" system as opposed to a third-party AI system that could store confidential information.
I think it is extremely beneficial for Florida attorneys that the Bar has begun to advise on emerging technology and that guidelines are being suggested to help benefit clients. Other states such as the New York Bar have also begun advising their attorneys on such matters.
Georgia,
ReplyDeleteThis is an insightful post. I have been concerned with confidentiality and AI since my PR class last semester. The in-house idea seems perfect for law firms, and i am hopeful to be able to use something like that in my employment sooner rather than later to avoid falling behind the times.
The problem with the FL Bar's focus on "in house" systems is representative of what Bar associations do all the time - because Bar leadership often comes from large firms with huge tech budgets or from judges or house counsel not in private practice as we usually think of it, there is the faulty assumption that the 2/3 of all Florida lawyers who practice in solo and small firms can afford to pay for and implement "in house" AI systems. With current technology, that is not possible.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that AI companies like Microsoft will be bringing AI to OneDrive. That will allow lawyers to direct AI prompts solely to the firm's "in house" database of documents stored on OneDrive. Initially, as often happens, this capability may be reserved for Microsoft's larger customers such as big law firms. But it will eventually trickle down to solo and small firm lawyers. Until then, the preference expressed by the FL Bar for "in house" systems is like telling 2/3 of its membership that they can't use email unless they are able to host their own private Exchange server.
Georgia,
ReplyDeleteI have looked into the use of AI for some of my posts too but I have not explored it in regard to confidentiality that much so I really enjoyed reading your post and learning more about this ethics opinion from the Florida Bar. I think that although AI can be used in certain ways that are beneficial for the field of law and those working in it, it has not been used in law for long enough to know the risks that can come along with it. This point being made about confidential information being stored is a major issue that needs to be addressed and taken into account when lawyers are considering utilizing AI while working.