New guidance
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has published new guidance on the use of artificial intelligence (AI), warning barristers that free tools like ChatGPT will generally be unsuitable for legal work and that any inaccuracies produced by the tech remain their personal responsibility.
The guidance, rolled out this week, was prompted in part by a string of cases highlighting the risks of AI misuse at the bar, including the Ayinde v London Borough of Haringey judgment last year. A separate tribunal decision earlier this year found that uploading confidential client documents into tools such as ChatGPT amounts to placing information “in the public domain” and waives legal professional privilege.
The BSB is keen to stress it isn’t telling barristers to ditch AI entirely, explicitly backing adoption of the tech where it genuinely improves practice management or client service. Barristers will, however, need to think carefully about which tools they use and how. The regulator has set out a risk framework spanning three areas: the application, the use, and the technology itself.
Court submissions, work with vulnerable clients, and areas of law linked to protected characteristics sit at the high-risk end of the scale. So does text generation, drafting, and the use of ‘agentic AI’ — systems capable of taking automated actions — which the BSB says should be approached with “absolute caution.” Spelling and grammar checks on non-sensitive documents are about as safe as it gets.
Free generative AI tools are singled out for particular criticism. The BSB notes that their terms of use typically allow providers to claim rights over input data, store prompts indefinitely, and use them for model training, all of which makes them unsuitable for client work. It is unlikely, the guidance continues, that such tools fulfil the conditions required under the rules governing the outsourcing of legal work.
On the question of disclosure, barristers are not automatically required to tell clients or courts they have used AI, in line with the Judicial Guidance published last October. But they must be transparent where AI materially affects the nature or scope of the legal service, and must respond honestly to any BSB or court enquiries on the matter.
Ewen MacLeod, the BSB’s director of strategy, policy and insights, said:
“AI is already shifting how legal services work. We want to ensure that the bar recognises its ethical duties in the use of AI. This guidance is designed to support barristers in adopting new technologies in a way that strengthens, rather than compromises their professional obligations. It provides clarity on how existing standards apply in practice, while recognising the real opportunities these technologies present.”
The guidance also addresses situations where it is others — clients, instructing solicitors, or opposing litigants-in-person — who are using AI, reminding barristers to consider the accuracy, confidentiality and privilege implications of that use.
The full guidance is available on the BSB website.
