Since 2019, IAALS has been at the forefront of efforts to rethink how we regulate the delivery of legal services and how we can create a consumer-centered regulatory system to ensure a more robust market for high-quality legal services—one that is competitive, broadly accessible, and better meets the needs of the people. In April 2019, IAALS hosted its inaugural convening where attendees discussed a policy outline for an independent regulator of legal services. Leaders in Utah were inspired by the idea of this new model and used it as a framework for the Utah sandbox, which the Utah Supreme Court Office for Legal Services Innovation subsequently launched in August 2020. As of November 2024, the sandbox has 43 authorized entities operating within it, some of which are incorporating AI into the delivery of their legal services to consumers.
While regulating the use of technology and AI in the delivery of legal services has been a topic of great interest in the regulatory reform space for many years, the debut of ChatGPT elevated the importance of this discussion. Task forces focused on how to regulate the use of AI by lawyers and legal consumers are sprouting up across the country. The use of AI has great potential for getting desperately needed legal information, advice, and services into the hands of underserved Americans, but legitimate safety concerns exist and require examination.
How do we create a regulatory structure that allows us to take advantage of the opportunities that AI presents while also minimizing potential consumer harm? Utah and other jurisdictions using a sandbox approach appear to be well-positioned to do this, but other approaches could also prove as, or even more, effective and are worth consideration. It is a critical time now to discuss how regulators within the legal profession should think about regulating the use of AI in the delivery of consumer-facing legal services.
To this end, IAALS invited a group of leaders from across the country, profession, and beyond to participate in two days of thought leadership sessions to generate and discuss ideas for regulators and leaders in the legal profession to consider as they work through these issues. The convening was also an opportunity for cross-pollination across efforts and to develop new relationships and collaborations within the regulatory innovation space. Discussion topics included:
- The opportunities and risks associated with AI
- The shortcomings of our current regulatory system when it comes to the use of AI in the delivery of consumer-facing legal services
- Challenges creators face as they build technology-based consumer-facing legal products and services that include AI
- The public’s perspective of AI and legal regulation
- Regulatory objectives and why the legal profession should or should not regulate the use of AI in the delivery of consumer-facing legal services
- How we can benchmark for accuracy and build trust in AI consumer-facing legal services
- Potential approaches to regulating the use of AI in consumer-facing legal services and pros and cons associated with each
- How future task forces can experiment and determine what the best approach is for each jurisdiction