As AI tools become more common, many clients are using them to draft emails, summarize issues, or prepare materials for their legal matters. These tools can be helpful, but they often miss legal nuance, which can lead to confusion, extra work, or misunderstandings about what is legally relevant. This article offers guidance as to how you can use AI in a way that protects your interests, supports your lawyer’s work, and helps you get the most value from your time and resources.

The Golden Rule: Assume Everything is Confidential

Before you input any information related to your case into a public AI (like ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.), you must understand that you could be waiving your attorney-client privilege and exposing sensitive data. When you input data into a chatbot or AI tool, you are technically sending that information to a third party (the AI company, such as OpenAI, Google or Anthropic). Courts may view this voluntary disclosure as a waiver of confidentiality and/or privilege, much like if you had forwarded an email to a random individual. When in doubt, ask your lawyer before sharing information with an AI.

To be perfectly clear, you should avoid uploading or inputting the following types of information into a public AI:

• Any Communication with Our Firm: This includes emails, letters, attachments, summaries of our phone calls, or notes from our meetings. This information is protected by attorney-client privilege, and sharing it could destroy that protection.
• Any Internal Documents Provided by a Lawyer: Do not input draft legal briefs, internal research memos, or any other non-public document prepared by your legal team.
• Settlement Negotiations and Offers: Any communication related to settling your case is highly sensitive and you should consult your lawyer before sharing it with an AI.
• Highly Confidential Business Information: This includes trade secrets, proprietary data, non-public financial records, customer lists, and strategic plans.
• Personal and Sensitive Information: This includes medical records, private financial details, or any other personal information you would not want to be made public.
• Anything Covered by a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA): If you have signed an NDA, you may be legally bound not to share the covered information.

With this general rule in mind, here are 9 things to consider when using AI to help you think about your case and assist your lawyer in your representation.

1. Use AI to Enhance, Not Replace, Communication with Your Lawyer. A great way to use AI is to prepare for a meeting with your lawyer. You can ask it to help you formulate a list of questions you want to ask or to organize your non-confidential notes into a clearer format.
2. Use AI as an Organizer for Your Own Thoughts, Not as a Legal Analyst. AI can help you structure your own recollection of events. For example, you can use it to create a timeline based on your personal memory of public events. Good prompt: “Help me organize the following events into a chronological list…” Bad prompt: “What should my legal strategy be based on the following list of events…”
3. Focus on Public Facts, Not Private Evidence. Stick to the “who, what, where, and when” of your case, using only information that is either from your own mind or publicly available. Avoid asking the AI for legal conclusions or strategy.
4. Draft Communications. Do Not “Finalize.” AI is great for creating first-draft emails, summaries, or declarations that your attorney can refine. Never rely on AI to produce final versions of anything substantive and you should always review any AI draft to confirm that it is substantively accurate.
5. Understand AI’s Limitations: “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” An AI’s output is only as good as the prompt you provide. Even with a perfect prompt about non-confidential facts, the AI is not a lawyer and its output should be treated as a rough draft of your own thoughts, not as a source of truth about the best strategy for, or likely result of, your case.
6. Do Not Rely on AI for Legal Research. AI models are known to “hallucinate” and can invent fake legal cases, statutes, and precedents. All legal research must be performed by a qualified legal professional.
7. AI Lacks Human Intuition and Strategic Insight. Good legal strategy requires understanding people, including how judges and opposing counsel will receive certain arguments based on the procedural history of the case. This human element is something AI cannot replicate and is a core part of your lawyer’s value.
8. Your Lawyer Is Your Advocate; An AI Is a Machine. Your lawyer has a professional and ethical duty to act in your best interests. An AI has no duties, no loyalties, and no understanding of your specific situation.
9. When in Doubt, Ask Your Lawyer. If you are ever unsure whether it is safe to use an AI for a specific task related to your case, please ask us first. We are here to guide you and protect you.

Litigation is time-consuming and costly, and we welcome any tool that helps streamline communication and make the process more efficient. Using AI thoughtfully can absolutely support that goal, but only when it is applied in the right ways. By understanding the best use cases and the limitations of AI, you can help ensure that your efforts genuinely move your matter forward, rather than creating confusion or additional work.