Build an escalation matrix for a client-facing legal tool
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- Turn the firm's tool description into a draft matrix of who is told, and within what time, when the tool gives advice, takes a step, or mishandles client information.
- What the lawyer must review
- You set the thresholds. ABA Formal Opinion 512: the tool cannot offer legal advice, negotiate or file without your judgment. Model Rule 5.5(a) forbids assisting unauthorised practice. California's 2026 guidance: an agentic system must not make substantive legal determinations without meaningful lawyer supervision. Model Rules 5.1 and 5.3 require a real supervision policy, not a chart the tool wrote.
- Written for / version
- United States versionUS
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | Potential support includes preparing preliminary structure or wording. Confirm the tool’s capability and permitted scope. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Confirm the output against the client’s instructions and the complete relevant source material, including omissions or contradictions.
- Resolve exceptions and record the responsible lawyer’s approval of the exact output and intended use.
Forms and precedents for this task
| Form or precedent | Kind | AI use | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Client consent to input information into a generative AI tool (United States) | Letter | AI use Yellow | A tool-specific consent for putting information relating to a representation into a named generative AI tool, with the risk particulars Formal Opinion 512 says a boilerplate engagement sentence does not supply. |
| No-advice notice for a client-facing tool (United States) | Notice | AI use Yellow | A fixed notice that a client-facing tool is not a lawyer, does not give legal advice, and does not create a client-lawyer relationship. |
| Note escalating a client-facing tool transcript to a lawyer (United States) | Memo | AI use Yellow | An internal note that lifts a transcript out of a client-facing tool and records why a lawyer must take the next step. |
Signed-in accounts can read the full text of each one. All precedents.