Written by: Haim Ravia and Dotan Hammer
On May 7, 2024, the National Ethics Committee of the Israeli Bar Association published guidelines on lawyers’ use of artificial intelligence (AI). The opinion outlines the risks and provides recommendations for ethical AI use in legal practice, considering the growing interest in AI tools like ChatGPT by OpenAI, Copilot by Microsoft, and Gemini by Google. The opinion highlights that despite potential risks, AI offers significant advantages, such as automating tasks, boosting productivity, providing data-driven insights, and making legal information more accessible.
The opinion offers the following principles to maximize AI benefits and minimize ethical risks:
- AI-generated outputs can be misleading, biased, or outdated. To avoid breaching the duty of loyalty and diligence to clients, lawyers should critically review and verify AI content before use. Lawyers should confirm facts with external references and inform the court and opposing parties if the information cannot be verified.
- Avoid inputting personal or sensitive client information into AI systems. Ensure that AI inputs do not include identifying details such as names, addresses, trademarks, business partners, or family history. Use AI systems only for general and theoretical queries to prevent breach of confidentiality.
- Obtain explicit, written consent from clients before using their personal information in open AI systems. Specify the types of documents, security measures, and conditions of use.
- Adopt designated AI systems for internal, closed-system use, to reduce exposure to unauthorized access. Even with closed systems, exercise caution to prevent internal leaks and ensure information is accessible only to authorized personnel.
Click here to read the opinion of the National Ethics Committee of the Israeli Bar Association on lawyers’ use of AI (in Hebrew).
