ISBA creates Standing Committee on Artificial Intelligence and the Practice of Law.

The Illinois State Bar Association has launched a standing committee on artificial intelligence (AI) that will keep members abreast of the rapidly evolving technology.

Members of the Standing Committee on Artificial Intelligence and the Practice of Law, approved by the ISBA’s Board of Governors in March, will be appointed this spring. ISBA president Shawn Kasserman says the standing committee will be charged with assessing legislation, rules, and policies, and educating members and the public. (Prior to the creation of the standing committee, an ISBA special committee on AI helped prepare the groundwork with recommendations for further discussion.)

“Artificial intelligence has the potential to wreak havoc on and/or provide fantastic advantages for the practice of law,” Kasserman says. “The attendant issues are so significant that the Board of Governors believes our members should have the brightest minds focusing on this quickly evolving area.”

The sprawling AI landscape includes technology dating back decades: e.g., computer programs that play grandmaster-level chess, apps that correct grammar as one types, and software that automatically improves photographs. For years, lawyers have relied on AI-powered software that processes large amounts of discovery documents. But the newest iteration of AI, supported by sophisticated coding, specialized computer chips, and fed with massive internet databases of information, is a leap forward. These “generative AI” platforms can pass bar exams; analyze caselaw; write briefs and motions; and mediate between parties. Other AI tools can create life-like images and videos.

Some AI tools available to the public are known to make up information, and a few attorneys have been sanctioned by courts for submitting AI-assisted briefs containing completely made up caselaw. Other issues with AI platforms concern confidentiality, copyright infringement, and lack of transparency.

Risks versus rewards

Despite these risks, some attorneys are optimistic about AI’s potential.

“I remain both excited and optimistic about how generative AI can transform the legal profession,” says ISBA Board of Governor’s member Mark Palmer, who sits on the Illinois Judicial Conference’s (IJC) new AI Task Force. “Just as other technologies have entered our space over the years—like computers, the internet, email, and cloud computing—we’re going to have to start with education. The ISBA and other bar associations are well-positioned to foster awareness and education of responsible and ethical adoption of AI technologies in the legal profession. Bar associations can and should be an intermediary between legal tech companies developing novel tools and applications and the legal professionals using them.”

“I’m hopeful the new ISBA committee can foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among the bench and bar so practical rules, policies, and best practices are developed to properly serve clients and deliver justice,” says Palmer, chief counsel for the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism.

Daniel Linna, senior lecturer and director of law and technology initiatives at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law and McCormick School of Engineering, begins with the premise that generative AI tools can help people. How to use them becomes a matter of human design and strategy.

“Attorneys need to know enough about how this technology works so we can understand the benefits and risks—so that we can oversee the information that comes back, review it, and use that information responsibly and effectively,” says Linna, who also is a member of the IJC’s AI Task Force.

Linna distinguishes free and subscription-based AI tools like ChatGPT from legal platforms like CaseText, Lexis+ AI, and vLex’s Vincent AI (vLex also owns Fastcase). The latter platforms are more trustworthy and reliable because lawyers and engineers designed systems to solve specific problems, drawing on vetted databases of legal information. But even generative AI tools available to the public can provide in seconds a starting point of information that would take hours for a human to gather, Linna says. Some AI platforms are trying to bridge the gap by connecting consumers to correct legal information. One example is the Chicago-based Law Center for Better Housing’s Rentervention app, which helps Chicago tenants find answers to legal questions. (Linna and his students have helped with improvements to the app, available at rentervention.com.)

“One big problem is that technology is driving the whole conversation. Capable technologies present opportunities to rethink how we do things and what adds value. We need a people-process-data-technology approach,” Linna says. “There are huge opportunities for lawyers here, including a huge latent market that’s not being served.

“For attorneys, now is the time to do this right. People worry about what the future is going to look like. The decisions we make now will have a big impact on the future. Let’s not be protectionist. Let’s think about the opportunities. Let’s think about why we became lawyers. And let’s really embrace technology and innovation so we can improve legal services and access to justice for everyone.”

Pete Sherman is managing editor of the Illinois Bar Journal.
psherman@isba.org