On January 22, 2024, General Counsel for the Louisiana Supreme Court sent a letter to the President of the Louisiana State Bar Association re The Emergence of Artificial Intelligence, communicating the following:
Although many applications of AI technology in the legal profession are new, the rules governing the bench and the Bar are not new and have been in place for decades. At the present time, the ethical and professional rules governing the bench and the Bar are robust and broad enough to cover the landscape of issues presented by AI in its current forms.
Regardless of the use of AI, attorneys practicing in Louisiana have always been ultimately responsible for their work-product and the pleadings they file in court, maintaining competence in technology, and protecting confidential client information and have a duty to avoid making misrepresentations of fact or law. See, e.g., Rules of Professional Conduct 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 1.15, 3.1, 3.3, and 5.3; Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure articles 371 and 863. These obligations remain unchanged or unaffected by the availability of AI. Likewise, judges have always been ultimately responsible for their opinions and decisions, for maintaining professional competence in judicial administration (which includes maintaining competence in technology), and for protecting confidential information. See, e.g., Canons 1, 2A, 2B, 3A(1), 3A(4), 3A(7), and 3B(1) of the Code of Judicial Conduct.
Many applications of AI technology in the legal profession are in their nascent stages but are rapidly developing, and the applications and software currently being used (and the attendant ethical and professional issues) may look very different with the passage of even a short amount of time. The Louisiana Supreme Court Justices and staff will continue to monitor the development of this technology and its impact on the legal profession to determine what future action or rule changes may be necessary or appropriate.
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