Public interest attorneys are seeking ways to ethically harness the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help better serve clients and to reduce the justice gap. Experts in AI design, legal ethics, professional regulation, and legal aid practice will explore AI's ethical and practical issues about which staff attorneys and managers in legal aid and pro bono organizations should be aware.

For better or worse, artificial intelligence (AI) is here to stay. Those in the access-to-justice community are looking for ways to ethically harness its potential to help better serve clients and to reduce justice gaps by expanding access to legal services. The development and use of these tools go beyond the headlines relating to ChatGPT and other generative AI, as their use in a legal practice raise a number of significant ethical questions and concerns for lawyers engaged in the delivery of legal services to those of limited means.

Experts in AI design, legal ethics, professional regulation, and legal aid practice will explore with attendees the ethical and practical issues around the development and use of AI about which staff attorneys, supervisors, and managers in legal aid and pro bono organizations should be aware. Attendees will hear about the AI tools that hold promise for efforts to address access to justice and learn how one legal aid organization is already using these tools to supplement the services it provides its clients. Discussion scenarios will illustrate how attendees can identify and address related legal ethics issues so they can achieve outcomes for clients that are for the better and not for the worse. Among the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct to be addressed are Model Rule 1.1 (Competence); Model Rule 1.4 (Communication); Model Rule 1.6 (Confidentiality of Information); and Model Rule 5.3 (Responsibilities Regarding Nonlawyer Assistance), as well as new ABA Formal Opinion 512 on generative artificial intelligence tools.