COMPLIANCE · STAFF AI USE

Staff AI use, governed and on the record.

Your people are already using AI tools, with or without a policy. We find out which ones, put a policy and controls around them, and keep the record that shows AI use in your firm is supervised.

No new law, but the duties are already clear.

There's no single AI statute for law firms. The duties that apply to AI use are the ones you already have:

  • Confidentiality. Client information typed into a public AI tool can leave the firm. The duty of confidentiality in the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules (rule 9) doesn't change because the tool is new.
  • Supervision. The solicitor responsible for a matter must reasonably supervise everyone working on it (rule 37), and principals are responsible for the legal services their practice provides. That doesn't change when an AI tool helped produce the work.
  • Court rules. Courts now set their own limits. The NSW Supreme Court's Practice Note SC Gen 23, for example, restricts generative AI in affidavits, witness statements and character references, and requires the court's leave before it is used in expert reports.
  • Privacy. Where personal information goes into an AI tool, your privacy obligations go with it.

What you'll be able to prove

  • An inventory of the AI tools in use across the firm, approved or not.
  • A staff AI use policy adopted by the principals: which tools are approved, what information can go into them, and when output must be reviewed.
  • Tenant controls that limit what approved tools can reach, and keep client information within your Microsoft 365 wherever the tool allows.
  • A supervision record: who reviewed AI-assisted work on a matter, and when.
  • Staff acknowledgement of the policy, collected again whenever it changes.

How the evidence is captured

Where your Microsoft 365 plan supports it, the AI tools your people use are reported from your tenant, rather than from a staff survey once a year. Policy acknowledgements are collected and stored automatically. Where an AI-assisted step is part of a matter workflow, the review and sign-off are recorded on the matter.

Start with the free AI Audit.

Ten minutes, free. It scores your firm across six areas, from technology and data governance to policy and people, and gives you a readiness band straight away. From there we scope the work that closes the gaps, at a fixed fee confirmed before anything starts.

What can be included:

  • AI tool inventory and risk review
  • Staff AI use policy, drafted for your principals to adopt
  • Microsoft 365 configuration for approved AI tools, including Copilot
  • Supervision and sign-off records on AI-assisted work
  • Policy acknowledgement tracking

Take the free AI Audit

AI-assisted steps in matter workflows run under the same policy. See AI and automation for law firms.

Frequently asked questions

  • No. Most firms are better off approving the tools that are safe for their work, setting what information can go into them, and recording how output is reviewed. A ban that people work around leaves you with no record at all.

  • Yes, along with any other AI tool your people use. Copilot works with what it can reach in your tenant, so the access settings matter as much as the policy.

  • No. We set the policy, the controls and the records, and hand them to the person in your firm who owns them.

  • It depends on what the AI Audit finds. Your fixed-fee scope sets out the timeline before anything starts.

Find out what AI your firm is already using.

Free, ten minutes, and a readiness band straight away.