Guides
Every guide leads with the answer, cites primary sources only, and shows its last-updated date. Start with the ChatGPT question if you are new to this; start with the policy requirements guide if you are writing your firm's rules.
| Guide | What it answers | Updated |
|---|---|---|
| Court AI Disclosure Orders: Who Actually Requires Disclosure (2025-2026) | Which courts require disclosing or verifying generative AI use in filings: New York's Part 161, the Illinois policy, adopted court rules in Florida, Colorado, Arkansas, Montana, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island, and the hundreds of individual judge standing orders. Plus how to check your judge before filing. | July 22, 2026 |
| ABA Formal Opinion 512, Explained in Plain English | What ABA Formal Opinion 512 actually requires of lawyers using generative AI: the six duties, what changed, and a compliance checklist. | June 10, 2026 |
| AI Billing Ethics: Can Lawyers Bill for AI Time? | The Rule 1.5 rules for billing in the AI era: what you can bill, what you cannot, who keeps the efficiency gains, and Virginia LEO 1901's answer for flat and value-based fees. | June 10, 2026 |
| Client Confidentiality and AI: What You Can and Cannot Put Into ChatGPT | The Rule 1.6 analysis for generative AI: how every ethics authority treats client data in AI tools, the open-versus-closed model distinction, anonymization standards, and the state-by-state consent spectrum. | June 10, 2026 |
| Telling Clients About AI Use: A Decision Guide | When lawyers must disclose AI use to clients, when consent is required, and how to handle it in engagement letters: the full spectrum from no per se duty to West Virginia's written consent. | June 10, 2026 |
| AI Hallucination Sanctions: Mata v. Avianca and the Candor Duty | Why courts sanction lawyers for AI-fabricated citations, what Rule 3.3 requires, the caselaw from Mata v. Avianca forward, and the verification workflow that prevents it. | June 10, 2026 |
| Supervising AI Use in a Law Firm: Rules 5.1 and 5.3 Applied | How the supervision duties work when the 'assistant' is an AI tool or a staff member using one: who is responsible, what measures bars expect, and how firms evidence them. | June 10, 2026 |
| AI Tool Risk Tiers: Consumer vs. Enterprise vs. Legal-Specific | A risk-tier framework for classifying AI tools before client work touches them: what separates consumer chatbots, enterprise deployments, embedded research-platform AI, and legal-specific tools. | June 10, 2026 |
| Can Lawyers Use ChatGPT? The 2026 Answer | Yes, with conditions. What every U.S. ethics authority says about lawyers using ChatGPT and other generative AI: confidentiality, verification, billing, and when you must tell the client. | June 10, 2026 |
| Law Firm AI Policy: What Bars Actually Require (2026) | No bar flatly mandates a written AI policy, but the supervision duties in ABA Opinion 512 and a dozen state instruments make one practically unavoidable. Here is what it must contain. | June 10, 2026 |
| Solo and Small Firm AI Compliance: The One-Afternoon Starter | The minimum defensible AI compliance setup for solos and small firms: five artifacts you can build in an afternoon, mapped to the duties bars actually enforce. | June 10, 2026 |
| Which States Require AI Disclosure? The Comparison Table | A side-by-side comparison of client-consent and court-disclosure positions across every jurisdiction with an official AI instrument, honestly labeled by authority type. | June 10, 2026 |
For licensed attorneys and firm operators. This site is legal information, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is formed by using it. Rules change; verify against the primary sources linked on every page and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction before acting.