June 30th, 2025
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM EDT
A live 90-minute CLE video webinar with interactive Q&A
This CLE webinar will guide counsel on navigating the challenges when using AI in the practice of law. The panel will address ethical issues and privacy and security considerations. The panel will also offer best practices for ensuring compliance with ethical obligations and protecting confidential information.
Description
The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 1.1 requires attorneys to "provide competent representation to a client." As such, attorneys have an ethical duty to be competent when using AI or other technology in their practice.
Client confidentiality is a core duty of the attorney. Under Rule 1.6 "a lawyer shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent" and, when using AI, attorneys must be aware and take action to mitigate the risk of exposing client information. Further, because AI relies on the information input to train its models, platforms need to have data privacy and security safeguards in place. Failure to do so could mean exposure of sensitive information.
While generative AI is opening new doors with time-saving tools, the technology has limitations that could be problematic if left unchecked. The limitations typically center around the accuracy of its output and the data used to train its systems. Proper oversight is critical when using AI in the practice of law. To meet the duty of professional competence, an attorney needs to provide oversight of any work product generated from AI.
Relying on AI-generated or informed work product does not meet the ethical duty of professional competence if a lawyer does not understand how the AI operates and does not play an active role in the oversight of any work product it generates.
Listen as our expert panel discusses the challenges facing attorneys when using AI in the practice of law. The panel will address ethical issues and privacy and security considerations and will offer best practices for ensuring compliance with the attorney's ethical obligations and protecting confidential information.
Outline
- Ethical challenges
- Duty of competence
- Duty of confidentiality
- Duty of supervision
- Privacy and security considerations
- Best practices for ethical compliance and protection of confidential information
Benefits
The panel will review these and other critical issues:
- What hurdles confront counsel in ensuring confidentiality of client information when using AI?
- What steps should counsel take to comply with the ethical obligations?
- What procedures should be in place to ensure supervision when using AI?
Faculty
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Professor Maura R. Grossman, JD, PhD
Research Professor
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo
Professor Grossman, J.D., Ph.D., is a Research Professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, an Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, and an affiliate faculty member at the Vector Institute of Artificial Intelligence, all in Ontario, Canada. She also is Principal at Maura Grossman Law, an eDiscovery law and consulting firm in Buffalo, New York. Professor Grossman is most well known for her scholarly work on technology-assisted review (“TAR”), which has been widely cited in the case law, both in the U.S. and abroad. She is also known for her appointments as a special master and/or as an expert in multiple, high-profile federal and state court cases. In addition to her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, Professor Grossman also holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Psychology from the Derner Institute of Adelphi University.
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Professor Gary Marchant
Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center for Law, Science and Innovation
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Ariz. State Univ.
Professor Marchant frequently lectures about the intersection of law and science at national and international conferences. He has authored more than 150 articles and book chapters on various issues relating to emerging technologies. Among other activities, he has served on six National Academy of Sciences committees, has been the principal investigator on several major grants, and has organized numerous academic conferences on law and science issues. He teaches courses in Law, Science and Technology, Genetics and the Law, Biotechnology: Science, Law and Policy, Health Technologies and Innovation, Privacy, Big Data and Emerging Technologies, and Artificial Intelligence: Law and Ethics.
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Christopher Suarez
Partner
Steptoe
As an intellectual property litigator, Mr. Suarez focuses his practice on patent, copyright, and trade secret trials and appeals before every level of the U.S. court system, including federal district courts, U.S. courts of appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and other administrative tribunals. Aside from litigation, Mr. Suarez provides counseling at the intersection of IP and emerging technology. He has written and spoken extensively on topics at the intersection of the Internet of Things and AI, and helps his clients navigate the challenges and opportunities with those technologies. To that end, Mr. Suarez assists clients with developing their IP policies and procedures—including their efforts to balance patent, trade secret, and copyright protections in the context of AI and IoT technology.
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