2026-01
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE USE: Best Practices Under Existing Professional Conduct Rules
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE USE: Best Practices Under Existing Professional Conduct Rules
The Alabama State Bar has always encouraged lawyers to learn the pros and cons associated with various technological innovations in the practice of law, including artificial intelligence. The use of artificial intelligence has tremendous potential to expand and improve the legal system in ways that are only now beginning to be understood. The implementation of artificial intelligence into the customs of law practice will be disruptive, but productively transformative. As more law schools adopt curricula that add, and require, artificial intelligence classes, this technology will become less of a trend and evolve into an actual standard of basic competence. The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct (as well as Alabama’s Rules of Professional Conduct) require lawyers to provide “competent” representation. The comments to the Model Rules specifically include the knowledge and use of technology as a basic tenet of competence.
Artificial intelligence, and in particular generative artificial intelligence and agentic artificial intelligence, has moved from novelty to daily utility in the practice of law. Lawyers now routinely encounter tools capable of drafting pleadings, summarizing depositions, generating legal research memoranda, predicting litigation outcomes, and responding to client inquiries. These tools promise efficiency, cost reduction, and expanded access to legal services. At the same time, they pose substantial ethical risks if misunderstood or misused.
Contrary to popular perception, artificial intelligence does not create new ethical duties for lawyers. Rather, it recontextualizes longstanding professional obligations—competence, confidentiality, supervision, candor, reasonableness of fees, and client communication—within a new technological environment. As the American Bar Association has emphasized, lawyers remain fully responsible for the work on behalf of the client, regardless of whether AI tools were used in its creation. ABA Formal Ethics Op. 512 (2024).
This guidance applies equally to solo practitioners, small firms, and large firms, although the resources and risk profiles of each may differ. Regardless of firm size, the obligations described herein apply to every Alabama lawyer who uses AI tools in connection with client matters. (continued)*
*Please download the PDF version for the full Formal Opinion.