A recent article published by Law.com on June 6, 2024, “‘This Is Your Time’: AI Gives In-House Counsel Unprecedented Leverage,” covered the keynote panel of corporate counsel at the Legal Innovators’ conference.  In the discussion, speakers listed several ways that in-house counsel are leveraging AI-tools for research, contract review, building chatbots for to respond to FAQs, and overall maximizing time spent by lawyers and paralegals on other important tasks.

They are also taking a hard look at how outside law firms are leveraging AI in compliance with new State Bar Opinions that remind attorneys of their ethical duties to learn about and use technology, i.e., generative AI, to perform client work in an efficient, secure, and confidential manner. Several panelists commented that they will be reducing the amount of work sent to outside counsel based on what they can do in-house with AI and how law firms are using AI tools.