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Generative AI has revolutionized the legal industry, transforming how lawyers perform research, litigation, and transactional work. Whether your firm is an early adopter or taking a more cautious approach, establishing a comprehensive GenAI policy is essential to consistent, secure, and ethical use across your organization.

No matter how your firm decides to approach GenAI, your employees already have access to these powerful tools outside of the workplace. A well-crafted policy provides clear guidance on permissible use, security protocols, and best practices to protect your firm and clients while maximizing the benefits of this transformative technology.

For law firm leaders who are still familiarizing themselves with GenAI, creating a comprehensive policy may seem daunting. To simplify the process, we've identified ten essential questions your firm's GenAI policy should address:

Define Key Terms

Before diving into specific policy questions, establish clear definitions of technical terminology to prevent misunderstandings. Consider providing definitions for AI-specific terms, like:

• Artificial Intelligence (“AI”)
• Generative AI
• Hallucination
• Prompt
• AI Work Product
• Large Language Model (“LLM”)
• AI Parameters
• Zero Retention Agreement
• Confidential Information
• Permitted Use Cases
• Prohibited Use Cases

Clear definitions ensure all employees interpret the policy’s requirements consistently. These definitions will serve as a foundation for understanding the policy's requirements and should be referenced when questions about technology implementation arise.

Question #1: What AI platforms does your firm provide?

Beyond functionality, key considerations when selecting GenAI software are the platform’s security, accuracy, and depth of customer support.

When selecting GenAI solutions for your firm, security should be your top priority. Look for platforms that:

• Do not save, share, or train on uploaded user documents or prompts
• Maintain SOC2 certification and ISO 27001 compliance
• Offer robust protection against data breaches

Accuracy is equally important. Seek out AI software specifically engineered for legal work and pay close attention to a platform’s successful response rate and its rate of hallucinations. Selecting a platform that sources responses from a specialized legal database–as opposed to the open web–significantly reduces the hallucination issues that plague general-purpose AI tools.

Also consider platforms that provide comprehensive training and technical support. The best legal AI providers offer customer success teams that serve as partners in your firm's adoption and effective use of AI. For example, vLex takes a collaborative approach to firms’ adoption of Vincent AI, and our Customer Success team works alongside firms to foster maximum value and minimal disruption.

Question #2: What AI platforms can employees use independently?

If you choose to allow employees to utilize AI tools that have not been provided by the firm, make sure to establish clear guidelines and security requirements. Clearly list pre-approved platforms for which the firm has verified compliance with security standards and establish a verification process for tools not on the list.

Separately, list restricted or prohibited platforms with known security or accuracy issues. This prevents employees from using potentially insecure AI services with client information.

Documenting specific prohibited platforms creates a demonstrable record that the firm took reasonable precautions to prevent misuse, which may help shield it from liability if an employee circumvents these restrictions and later faces ethical or legal challenges.

Question #3: Which employees can use AI?

You may want to consider whether your policy should grant different access levels or usage rights to employees based on seniority, specialization, or department. Determine which types of employees are permitted to use specific AI tools:

• Partners
• Associates
• Paralegals
• Legal assistants
• Legal marketing professionals
• Summer associates and interns

A tiered access approach ensures GenAI is used appropriately based on each employee's role and responsibilities within your firm.

Question #4: What training do employees receive?

As a threshold matter, determine whether your firm will either require or recommend AI training. Then, help your employees maintain AI literacy through comprehensive education initiatives. This could include:

• Initial onboarding and specialized role-based training tailored to different positions within the firm
• Ongoing educational opportunities as tools evolve and capabilities expand
• Implement certification processes before employees can access certain platforms and resources for self-guided learning
• Firm-funded or firm-encouraged GenAI CLE programs

Consider selecting GenAI platforms that provide comprehensive training and technical support, particularly if your firm does not employ an in-house IT department. A robust training program allows employees to leverage GenAI tools effectively while maintaining compliance with ethical standards and security protocols.

Question #5: Which tasks can employees use AI to complete?

Clearly defining permissible uses helps prevent potential misapplications while maximizing AI's benefits in appropriate contexts. Your firm’s GenAI policy should specify which legal tasks employees are permitted to use AI to complete and which are prohibited. Examples of legal tasks GenAI can assist with are:

• Research questions
• Document review and analysis
• Contract drafting and analysis
• Deposition and complaint analysis
• Brief and argument development
• Client updates and emails

Your policy should also clarify whether employees need to disclose when they've used GenAI for specific tasks, particularly for client-facing work products.

Question #6: What kinds of documents can employees upload to different AI platforms?

Establishing guidelines for document handling is crucial to maintaining client confidentiality when using AI tools. Create parameters for what information can be shared with different AI platforms:

• Confidential client information can be safely uploaded to platforms with zero retention agreements, ensuring documents are processed without being stored
• For tools without zero retention agreements, require removal of client identifying information before uploading documents
• Consider implementing different precautionary tiers based on the sophistication of each GenAI platform’s internal security protocols

These document-handling protocols help employees leverage AI assistance confidently while maintaining appropriate security measures based on the platform’s privacy features and retention policies.

Question #7: How should GenAI work product be verified?

Despite dramatic advancements in GenAI technology, verification remains important for the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated legal content. Establish verification protocols for AI-generated content:

• Validate all legal citations to ensure they reference real cases
• Double-check factual assertions
• Assess AI-generated arguments to confirm sound legal reasoning and conclusions
• Conduct thorough spelling and grammar checks

Certain legal-specific AI platforms, like Vincent AI, are designed to provide proper citations hyperlinked to authoritative sources, significantly reducing verification time compared to general-purpose AI.

Question #8: How should GenAI work be billed?

Every jurisdiction has stringent ethical rules for attorney billing, and many have not yet been revised to accommodate GenAI. Addressing GenAI's impact on billing is imperative for maintaining ethical practices and client trust while adapting to new technological efficiencies. Consider alternatives to the typical billable hour for GenAI work product:

• Clarify that billing for the time a task would have taken without AI is unethical
• Consider flat-fee structures for certain AI-assisted tasks
• Determine whether and how to disclose AI use to clients, keeping in mind that disclosure may be required by your court’s specific rules
• Establish how efficiency gains should be shared between the firm and clients

Clear billing guidelines ensure your firm maintains ethical standards and is fairly compensated for the legal expertise that guides AI implementation and output review.

Question #9: Who should employees contact with GenAI issues?

With any newly implemented technology, users will inevitably need help troubleshooting. Designate specific points of contact not only for technical support, but also for ethics questions, security concerns or potential data breaches, and policy clarifications.

These points of contact can be external, like your AI platform’s customer support team, or internal, like your firm’s IT department or general counsel.

Having clear escalation paths promotes addressing issues promptly by the appropriate personnel and safeguards against critical issues being ignored due to employees’ lack of direction.

Question #10: What are the repercussions for GenAI policy violations?

Where there are rules, there will be rule breakers. Prepare your firm for violations of your GenAI policy by outlining and advertising the consequences for policy breaches within the policy itself.

Provide varying repercussions based on the severity of the violation, whether client confidentiality was compromised, or whether the violation was intentional or accidental.

A clear understanding of consequences by both employees and firm leadership encourages compliance and reduces the risk of potential sanctions for improper use of GenAI.

Don’t Forget to Update

As GenAI continues to rapidly evolve, your policy will need to be updated. Embedding a mandatory review timeline directly into the policy itself creates documented accountability that survives personnel changes.

Establishing a schedule for regular policy reviews and revisions will ensure it remains timely and practical. Create a process for your firm to evaluate and potentially adopt new AI technologies to stay up-to-date with the latest tech.

Your policy will also need to keep up with your AI platforms’ software updates, so consider implementing policy reviews as your firm’s GenAI tools evolve.

Developing GenAI Policies to Drive Your Competitive Advantage

Whether your firm embraces GenAI as a competitive advantage or approaches it cautiously, a well-crafted policy is essential. By addressing these ten questions, you'll provide clear boundaries for AI use while protecting your clients and firm from potential risks.

Remember that the landscape of legal AI is rapidly evolving. The most effective policies will be those that are regularly reviewed and updated as the technology, best practices, and regulatory guidance continue to develop.

Looking to implement secure, legal-specific AI at your firm? Vincent AI combines vLex's unparalleled global legal database with cutting-edge AI technology, delivering reliable, citation-backed research and document analysis engineered for lawyers.

Start your free trial today to experience how Vincent can transform your legal workflows while maintaining the highest ethical and security standards.

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Authored By

Sierra Van Allen