Artificial Intelligence for Legal Clients

I prompted an AI tool to draft a piece about the value of AI for a small firm, and it provided an eerily useful outline.  As AI aptly put it,

“AI can help us review large document sets faster. It can identify key issues and patterns more efficiently. It can draft initial work product with greater speed. It can reduce repetitive administrative tasks.”

For a small firm, the value of AI is to help us make better use of limited resources.  Our goal is to provide the best possible product as economically as we can for our client.  This requires constant decisions on the use of resources.  AI-powered legal tools can help us spend less time on preliminary tasks and more on strategy, communication, analysis, and judgment. 

But applying AI is not just about learning a new tool, because the tool is constantly evolving.  Like many others across varied industries, I read the piece about AI by Matt Shumer, “Something Big Is Happening,” with fascination and awe.  There is a growing sense that those who ignore the wave of technological advancements do so at their own peril. Even for those fearful or uncurious about what the more distant future brings, today demands conscious innovation, nimbleness and intentionality. 

For lawyers, that intentionality matters. Courts are already recognizing the need for responsible and ethical AI use.  In Idaho’s Fourth District, Judge Joseph Borton cautions that “Each attorney in this matter remains steadfast in his/her adherence to the Idaho Rules of Professional Conduct . . ..”  As technology becomes increasingly capable, our duty to oversee it is bound to our oaths as lawyers.  Ultimately, with the rise of AI, our ethical obligations intensify rather than diminish.

That is where lawyers continue to add value: not by avoiding AI or relying on it blindly, but by using it with judgment and oversight. We question it, verify it, and apply it where it serves the client — maintaining awareness of where it may fall short.

Going forward, effective advocacy will require both technological fluency and sound judgment. AI may help us work faster, but it cannot and should not replace the core of our work — trust, accountability, and careful counsel.  By staying attuned to AI developments, we are better poised to ensure it works for our clients and for us, rather than the other way around.