AI ETHICS maintain sufficient control over AI-assisted processes to intervene when problems arise. The supervisory obligation also affects how defenders structure AI use within their offices. Senior defenders and supervisors bear responsibility for ensuring that junior defenders and staff use AI appropriately. This may require establishing office-wide AI policies, providing training on approved tools and practices, and creating review procedures for AI-assisted work product.
5.
Rule 1.3 – Diligence and Rule 1.4 – Communication
Model Rule 1.3 requires lawyers to “act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client.” Model Rule 1.4 requires lawyers to keep clients “reasonably informed about the status of the matter” and to “explain a matter to the extent reasonably necessary to permit the client to make informed decisions.”
AI can support diligence by enabling defenders to work more efficiently, process information more quickly, and respond to developments more promptly. When AI helps a defender review discovery faster or draft motions more quickly, the technology serves the diligence obligation by accelerating representation.
However, although zealous advocacy requires using available and appropriate AI tools as a supplement to human qualities, AI cannot wholly substitute for zealous advocacy. The human qualities that effective defense requires center on contextual judgment — spontaneity, empathy, creativity, and morality — and remain largely beyond AI’s current capabilities. 66 A defender who uses AI to generate a competent- looking brief but fails to identify the strongest arguments for the client based on known perceptions or biases of a particular judge, for example, or a defender who relies on AI efficiency to handle an excessive caseload without meaningful engagement, likely fails the diligence standard. The communication obligation may require defenders to inform clients about AI use in certain circumstances. When AI materially affects the representation — such as when AI tools will process sensitive client information or when AI assistance substantially shapes case strategy — clients may need this information to make informed decisions. The scope of required disclosure will vary based on the AI’s role, the sensitivity of the information involved, and the client’s expressed preferences.
31
Parity in Practice: The Defender’s Duty to Ethically Use AI
Made with FlippingBook Online document maker