How to use AI for knowledge management and precedents in Australia

Steps

1. Index precedents in a tool the firm controls

   Use the approved tenancy. Do not point a consumer chatbot at the precedent folder. The joint checklist is the question list for that tenancy: hosting, training, access and exit. Queensland Guidance Statement No. 37 is the confidentiality reading of a folder that still contains live client names.

2. Limit who can ask and what they can see

   Access follows the matter and the team, not the whole firm by default, and not the vendor’s staff by silence. Take client names and unrelated matters out of a precedent before it is indexed. The Law Society of New South Wales guide expects the solicitor to understand that boundary.

3. Keep a human-approved version

   The precedent people reuse is the one a partner approved, with a date. A chat answer is not a new precedent. If the tool drafts a clause, it goes through the same approval as any other clause before it is saved. The Uniform Law statement leaves that approval with the firm.

Record the checks on a task checklist · Open the court note for the forum

Sources

• Uniform Law regulators: Statement on AI use
• LSNSW: Solicitor's guide to responsible AI use
• QLS Guidance Statement No 37
• Joint law societies AI selection and use checklist (2026)