How to Responsibly Integrate AI Into Your Law Firm

Best Practices from Nazareth Bonifacino Law

Artificial Intelligence has quickly become woven into the fabric of our personal and professional lives. In the legal profession, AI offers tremendous potential. Yet with great potential comes great responsibility. The integrity of our legal work and the trust of our clients depend on how thoughtfully, ethically, and transparently we choose to use AI.

When Nazareth Bonifacino Law decided to incorporate AI into our practice, we intentionally took a proactive approach and developed a set of best practices that allow us to harness the efficiency and innovation AI offers, while staying accountable to our clients and true to our values and ethical responsibilities.

Start by deciding where you are going to use AI. Remember that AI is already embedded in commonly used office software.
Disclose the use of AI in your practice with your clients and secure informed consent when appropriate.
Ensure that any AI products you use protect the confidentiality of your client’s information. ChatGPT, Gemini, and many other free AI products DO NOT protect confidential information because they use the data to train the AI tools. We have paid subscriptions to Lexis AI+ and Microsoft Copilot because they are a closed universe and do not train the AI tools with our clients’ information.
If you plan to purchase AI tools, be sure to choose those that smoothly integrate with your firm’s tech stack.
When AI tools save a lawyer time, you must pass along those savings in a client’s invoice if you bill work hourly. You can pass along the costs of some of the AI tools to clients if they are not considered general overhead of a practice.
Train your AI tools to reflect your firm’s standards, work product, and writing style, making the output more accurate, efficient, and representative of your firm’s mission, vision, values, and tone.
Create a prompt library that everyone can learn from and get comfortable with AI.
Update business processes to enhance consistency and repeatable success.
Always verify AI-generated content with primary sources to avoid referencing citations to nonexistent opinions, other hallicinations, or unsupported inferences, all of which can ultimately produce inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading attorney work product.
Use AI to enhance, not replace, judgment. AI cannot replace the insight, context, and ethical discernment that come with legal training and experience.
Continuously stay up to date and evaluate the benefits and the risks associated with AI, and train your entire team on both the best practices and the limitations of AI.

When thoughtfully integrated, AI can unlock significant value for law firms by making better use of existing work product, increasing responsiveness, and reducing the time spent on repetitive tasks. But the key is to use it ethically and responsibly: with transparency, oversight, and a clear commitment to maintaining the highest standards of the legal profession.

At Nazareth Bonifacino Law, we’re all about innovation within the legal profession guided by our commitment to using AI responsibly and with intention. If you’re thinking about bringing AI into your professional services firm or business without losing sight of ethics or client trust, we are happy to help guide you.