IAALS has been at the forefront of efforts to rethink how the legal profession regulates the delivery of legal services. While the legal profession has been abuzz with questions about how lawyers should (or should not) use AI in their practice, how judges might use it in their courtrooms, and how it might outperform law students on the bar exam, how AI might deliver legal services directly to the public has received less fanfare—and is the subject of our recommendations.
AI is a powerful new technology that offers great potential for scaling desperately needed legal information, advice, and services to move the needle with respect to solving our access to justice problem. But what should the legal profession do with this technology? We cannot pretend it doesn’t exist and isn’t already affecting the legal marketplace. At the same time, it would be ill-advised to shut it down by over-regulating it. We must have serious conversations about how AI can be harnessed in a way that maximizes its potential positive impact while minimizing actual consumer harm.
To lead the path forward, in November 2024, IAALS hosted its fourth convening as part of its Unlocking Legal Regulation initiative, which brought leaders from cross sections of the AI and legal profession regulatory innovation spaces together to discuss ideas for regulating the use of AI in the delivery of consumer-facing legal products and services.
From these conversations, IAALS recommends a phased approach to regulating the use of AI.
Phase 1: Pursue “soft power” approaches as we learn more about AI. During the first phase, legal regulators should prioritize experimentation, collect data, and encourage responsible development, deployment, and use of AI legal tools.
Phase 2: Regulate AI, maybe. Information gathered in the first phase will then guide an exploration of potential regulatory changes.
AI presents a transformative opportunity to address our country’s deep-rooted access to justice crisis, but the legal profession must consider the implications for its current regulatory structure. Will the existing rules continue to cast a chill over the landscape of would-be innovations, or will new reforms “let a thousand flowers bloom?” If that field of flowers is indeed the best outcome for consumers, what steps does the profession need to take to help them grow? IAALS’ recommendations chart the path forward.
