Alabama’s New AI Ethical Guidance and Its Impact on Legal Departments

Short summary

The Alabama State Bar released guidance on ethical AI use in legal practice, clarifying that AI recontextualizes existing professional duties rather than creating new ones. Lawyers must verify AI-generated output, as demonstrated by recent sanctions cases including Ibach v. Stewart where an attorney was sanctioned $17,000 for submitting AI-generated fictitious citations. The guidance recommends written AI-use policies, vendor diligence, data governance, and documented human review checkpoints for legal departments.

• •Alabama State Bar guidance treats AI like a non-lawyer assistant; supervising lawyers remain fully responsible for AI-assisted work
• •Output verification is critical: an Alabama attorney was sanctioned $17,000 for submitting AI-generated nonexistent legal authority
• •Legal departments should implement written AI-use policies, vendor diligence, data governance, and documented human review of AI outputs

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.