Regulating AI in Legal Services
Project Status: Toolkit & Resources Released; Additional Guidance Underway
Unlocking the potential of technology to expand access to legal help
Millions of people cannot afford a lawyer or access traditional legal assistance when they need it, and many do not even recognize that the problems they face have legal dimensions. Artificial intelligence and other technology-powered legal tools offer enormous potential to help people identify legal problems, understand their options, complete legal tasks, and connect with meaningful help.
But our regulatory system has not kept pace.
Rules governing the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) serve an important role in protecting consumers, yet they are often vague, inconsistently enforced, and applied differently across states. This uncertainty can discourage courts, legal aid organizations, entrepreneurs, and other responsible innovators from developing and deploying tools that could expand access to legal help.
IAALS is working to create a regulatory environment where responsible innovation can thrive—protecting consumers while unlocking the potential of AI and technology to help close the justice gap.
A smarter regulatory path forward
Lawyers and legal aid remain essential, but traditional approaches alone cannot meet the enormous scale of unmet legal need. Technology gives us an opportunity to reach people in fundamentally new ways.
And people are already turning to general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT for help with legal problems, but most of those tools were not built with legal expertise, safeguards, or oversight. The question is not whether AI should provide legal services, because it already is; rather, we must ask how our regulatory system can respond by fostering more trustworthy, high-quality tools that can actually serve people responsibly.
IAALS is bringing together leaders from across the legal, regulatory, technology, access-to-justice, and innovation communities to build and launch this response. Our work is grounded in a fundamental principle: consumer protection and innovation are not competing goals. Smart regulation can protect people from meaningful harm while giving responsible innovators clear pathways to develop, test, and offer tools that improve access to legal services.
We’re facing both a crisis and a breakthrough. Responsible AI can help close the justice gap, but only if we reimagine our regulatory systems.
— Jeff Ward
Director, Duke Center on Law & Tech
For people who cannot afford a lawyer, the alternative to a well-designed legal technology tool is often not traditional legal representation. It is no help at all. Innovators need the freedom to build solutions that work and clear standards for doing so responsibly.
— Sonja Ebron
CEO & Co-Founder, Courtroom5
Read and download our new toolkit for regulators and leaders exploring approaches to AI in consumer-facing legal services.
Creating the conditions for responsible innovation
Through research, convenings, practical guidance, and collaboration with regulators and other leaders nationwide, IAALS is working to:
- Create clearer regulatory pathways for responsible consumer-facing AI and technology-powered legal services.
- Encourage innovation while protecting consumers, focusing regulatory responses on actual risks and harms while allowing promising tools to be developed, tested, and improved.
- Build regulation around evidence, giving policymakers the information they need to understand how people use these tools, where risks arise, and where innovation delivers meaningful benefits.
AI alone will not solve the access to justice crisis. But with the right regulatory environment, it can become a powerful part of the solution—giving people more options for understanding and resolving their legal problems and expanding access to high-quality legal help at a scale our current system cannot.
Project Team
Connect & Get Involved
Our work is only possible through purposeful listening and collaboration with people across the country. Everyone, from legal system stakeholders to members of the public, plays a critical role in our innovations. Together, we jumpstart the groundbreaking and achievable solutions that will clear a path to justice for everyone.