New Florida Bar guide helps lawyers incorporate AI responsibly in their work
Jan 08, 2025 By Jim Ash Senior Editor (Originally published on The Florida Bar News)
Florida Bar members now have a comprehensive guide for incorporating generative AI into a legal practice while being mindful of the ethical implications.
The Florida Bar Guide to Getting Started with AI is free and available on LegalFuel.
Miami attorney Karl Klein, vice chair of the Board Technology Committee, led a special subcommittee that developed the guidelines, the first of their kind.
Klein said the guide is designed to appeal to beginners as well as early adopters, and was prompted by surveys that showed many Florida lawyers remain unfamiliar with the technology.
“We realized we needed to kind of go to the very beginning because a third of our membership had never used AI at all,” he said.
The Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence Tools and Resources hopes the guide will “help Florida lawyers understand how generative AI can responsibly assist them with tasks like drafting, research, and client communication, all the while complying with their ethical and professional obligations,” said Co-Chair Gordon Glover, an Ocala attorney and another veteran Florida Bar board member.
And the project will be ongoing, says Co-Chair E. Duffy Myrtetus, a veteran out-of-state representative on the Board of Governors.
“This was a starting point; and we plan to revisit this effort periodically for additions and updates,” Myrtetus said.
The guide begins on a cautionary note.
“Each lawyer should explore and make the decision whether to use AI or not based on their individual practices and circumstances, being mindful of applicable ethical rules as well as any unique risks from using particular AI models.”
A “Where to Get Started” section recommends practicing with general AI tools that are available for free, such as ChatGPT, before experimenting with a free trial of law-specific tools, such as CoCounsel by Westlaw and Lexis+AI.
The guide invites readers to “Run Your First Prompt,” and offers a link to Google’s Gemini, and a suggested sample: “I’m a Florida lawyer and want to write a LinkedIn post about Usury under Florida law. Please write the post for me.”
A “What About Ethics” section refers to Florida Bar Ethics Opinion 24-1, and recommends that lawyers read it before entering client information into an AI prompt.
“To ensure client confidentiality, you should confirm that you maintain ownership of any uploaded data, learn how to delete your data, and review the AI provider’s license terms or representations regarding confidentiality,” the guide states.
Klein said the committee wants to encourage newcomers to become familiar with the technology, while avoiding risk.
“We want people to practice with AI, but you don’t need client data to do it,” he said.
Under “Examples to Get Started,” the guide refers to common legal uses for generative AI tools, including drafting documents, conducting legal research, managing client intake, or creating presentations.
The guide explains how the technology works, and defines common terms, including “generative AI,” “neural network,” “large-language model,” and “multi-modal AI.”
A chart compares features of general AI models with law-specific models Co-Counsel by Westlaw, Lexis+AI, and Vincent AI by vLex. The guide also offers an “optional, sample” disclaimer regarding the use of generative AI.
A definition section refers to the term, “hallucination.”
“The generation of incorrect or nonsensical information by an AI model, occurring when the AI produces outputs not based on input data or context, leading to factual inaccuracies.”
A general explanation of how the technology works describes how generative AI uses “neural networks trained on massive amounts of data to recognize patterns,” and reiterates that the results are not always dependable.
“Because AI predictions are just highly customizable guesses, they can be wrong.”
When it comes to the ethical implications, Klein says lawyers should double check any work created by AI, and treat the technology like the tool that it is.
“It’s like having an assistant, you as a lawyer, are responsible for your work,” he said.
LegalFuel: The Florida Bar’s Practice Resource Center, offers multiple free CLEs on AI.
The guide also links to ABA Formal Opinion 512, which was released in August 2024, and the first annual report of the 2024 ABA Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence Report.