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Artificial intelligence is now firmly part of the conversation in legal practice. From drafting assistance to document review, AI tools can help firms work faster and more efficiently. However, the real issue in England and Wales is how solicitors use AI and what safeguards they put in place rather than simply the question of whether they can use AI.
The current position from regulators is broadly supportive but cautious. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has made it clear that firms may use technology, including AI, if they do so in a way that remains consistent with the SRA Principles and Codes of Conduct. The Law Society has also recognised that generative AI can bring real opportunities, but it stresses that human oversight, confidentiality, accuracy and responsible governance remain essential. That cautious optimism is reflected in market data too. A LexisNexis survey of more than 1,000 UK legal professionals found that 95% believed generative AI would affect the practice of law, with 38% expecting a significant impact and 11% describing it as transformative. At the same time, around two-thirds said they felt conflicted, recognising both the benefits and the risks.
What solicitors can use AI for
When used carefully, AI can assist with a range of tasks, mainly administrative and lower risk. For example, solicitors can use AI to help organise large volumes of documents, extract key themes of important information from bundles, summarise meeting notes, produce drafts of internal documents or suggest possible structure for client updates. In a way, it may also support legal research by helping lawyers identify issues to investigate further, provided any authorities, propositions or citations are independently checked against reliable legal sources.
AI may also help firms improve efficiency behind the scenes. It can be used for workflow support, document classification, knowledge management and administrative triage, particularly where systems are secure and the firm understands what data is being processed. The ICO’s guidance on AI and data protection is especially important here. If personal data is involved, it is important that firms think about fairness, transparency, security and whether a data protection impact assessment is required. Confidential client information should never be treated casually simply because a tool is convenient.
What solicitors cannot, or should not, use AI for
Solicitors cannot rely on AI to give legal advice without proper human review. An AI-generated answer may sound confident and well written while still being incomplete, outdated or simply wrong. This matters because solicitors remain responsible for the quality of the advice given in their name. They cannot shift liability to a software provider or argue that the system produced the error. If legal advice is given to a client, a qualified professional must still assess the facts and apply the law correctly.
The same is true for court work. AI should not be used to generate authorities of quotations that are then filed or relies on without checking. Use of AI in producing court papers is increasing, and the judiciary has issued guidance for judicial office holders on responsible use. This makes verification even more important. Recent guidance has highlighted the danger of AI ‘hallucinations’, including fabricated case citations and misleading statements of law. A solicitor’s duties to the administration of justice, honestly and competence still apply in full, regardless of how the first draft was produced.
Solicitors also should not paste confidential or privileged information into public AI tools, unless they are certain that doing so is permitted, secure and compliant with their professional and data protection obligations. This is one of the clearest red lines. If client data is uploaded into an external system without proper controls, the risks may include loss of confidentiality, unclear data retention, and unauthorised reuse of sensitive material. For many firms, that means using only approved systems with clear contractual protections and internal policies.
For solicitors, then, the answer is not that AI is forbidden. It is that AI must be used responsibly and with strict professional control. The firms that benefit most will not be the ones that hand legal thinking over to technology, but instead the ones that use it as a careful assistant while keeping human expertise, ethics and accountability at the centre of legal advice.
