Thoughts About AI in an Estate Planning Practice

Artificial intelligence (AI) is here, and it’s here to stay. Prudent use of AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot, can help lawyers to draft, compare, organize, and summarize information, and can minimize attorney fees. But it doesn’t always make sense to use AI tools. Here’s why:

1. Attorney fees must be reasonable. In our office, year after year, we think carefully about and prepare Minnesota-specific template documents to use as a starting point in drafting client documents. Using our own template documents as the starting point in drafting client documents is the most efficient way for us to prepare client documents. This efficiency translates into the least amount of attorney fees. It would take the drafting attorney more time to utilize an AI review tool to summarize or to compare AI-generated provisions with the provisions in our template documents that we have painstakingly crafted.
   
2. An attorney’s license is on the line. The attorney cannot simply rely on AI because AI sometimes fabricates facts and is not always accurate or complete. In other words, using AI does not always create efficiencies. Further, the attorney is responsible for his or her work product. So, if the lawyer uses AI, he or she will also need to fact- and cite-check everything. Bottom line, attorneys are trained to be smart, independent thinkers. Trust the attorney to determine when it makes sense to use AI.
   
3. Client confidentiality is paramount. Clients expect that their personal information will not be shared without their permission, but it is important to remember that when an attorney uses AI, he or she is loading client information into a third-party tool, over which the attorney has no control. This means that private client information may be exposed to any number of other people or businesses and that it may be used or shared in unexpected ways. Attorneys must keep client confidences and obtain client permission to share client information, but it can be difficult to obtain a client’s informed consent to use AI when the attorney doesn’t really know who has access to the AI-shared information or how such information may be accessed and used.

The practice of law is always morphing as new law is made, and it’s changing because of AI, too. Attorneys are life-long learners, and we will keep doing what we have always done, including continuing to learn about AI’s capabilities and incorporating AI tools into our practice in an ethical and prudent manner. For all your estate planning, estate and trust administration, and elder law needs, please contact one of the Estate Planning Department attorneys at Henningson & Snoxell, Ltd. at 763-560-5700.