Top 50 US law firm K&L Gates has been certified to an international standard for the responsible use of artificial intelligence.
The certification – ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification for an artificial intelligence management system – is a sign of the growing importance of AI within the legal sector as firms automate routine legal tasks such as research and drafting contracts, and advise clients on how to use the technology and its legal implications.
After an independent audit, the certification confirms that K&L Gates’ AI use includes robust controls around accountability, risk management, ethics, transparency, data protection and regulatory compliance, the firm added.
“We pursued ISO 42001 because AI is becoming part of everyday legal work, and we believe it’s important to manage that responsibly, rather than reactively,” said K&L chief technology officer, Harpreet Suri, in an interview.
She added: “It’s actually about governance, accountability and trust… Clients, regulators and courts are all asking… similar questions, what AI are you using? How [is] risk managed, who is accountable if something goes wrong? And ISO 42001 gives us a clear, independent way to answer those questions.”
The firm, which describes itself as an “early adopter” of generative AI, said it began work on the AI certification around May last year. It uses AI from suppliers including Legora, Vincent, Westlaw Precision AI and Microsoft 365 Copilot for legal research, drafting, contract review, due diligence and discovery.
In 2023, K&L Gates set up a cross-disciplinary “AI solutions” group to guide its AI strategy and to advise clients on AI.
The firm says its AI policy mandates approved platforms, transparency with clients, verification of AI outputs and mandatory training. It uses ltaClaro and Hotshot Legal for training its employees on AI, including in “AI literacy” and “prompt engineering” − instructions given to AI with the aim of producing high-quality outputs.
“Before we give any AI tools into the hands of our lawyers or allied professionals, there’s mandatory training requirements, and only then the tool is given to them,” said Harpreet. “Then on a regular basis, we have… what we call our continued learning programme, where we talk about new aspects of AI.”
When it comes to measuring payback from AI, global managing partner Stacy Ackermann said that although its use of AI was not “something we could put a dollar number on”, the technology helped the firm work more efficiently and win and retain new business. She declined to reveal how much the firm has spent on AI.
AI is part of “every single strategic priority” and work stream planned for the next two years, including internal processes, business development and legal work, she added.
Josh Kubicki, who advises law firms on AI and is also a visiting lecturer at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, said that although he “applauded” any law firm that achieves AI certification, “getting certified is a one-time exercise and is about management processes, not technical assurances”.
“The AI certification does not audit, for example, whether the specific [AI] tools you’ve deployed are fit for purpose,” he said.
Still, many other law firms will likely also attempt to achieve AI certification because “K&L Gates just made it a competitive checkbox”, Kubicki said.
“Once one major [law] firm has it, procurement departments and RFP processes will start asking ‘do you have [AI] ISO 42001?’”
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