ABA Model Rule 1.6(c) — adopted into Florida Bar Rule 4-1.6 — requires lawyers to make “reasonable efforts” to prevent unauthorized disclosure of client information. The default consumer ChatGPT account does not meet a reasonable-efforts standard. Bar disciplinary boards across the country have already heard cases involving attorneys who fed privileged client communications into public AI tools. Here is the practical path that lets your Florida law firm capture the AI productivity gain without ending up in front of the Bar.
What “Reasonable Efforts” Actually Means
The Comment to Rule 1.6(c) lays out a reasonableness analysis that includes: the sensitivity of the information, the likelihood of disclosure absent additional safeguards, the cost of additional safeguards relative to the value of the information, the difficulty of implementing the safeguards, and the extent to which the safeguards adversely affect the lawyer’s ability to represent clients. ABA Formal Opinion 477R (2017) and 498 (2021) provide further specificity for digital communications and virtual practice.
Translating that to AI in 2026: pasting a privileged settlement draft, deposition summary, or client intake into a free consumer AI service that retains prompts and may use them for training is not a reasonable effort. It is the opposite. The safeguards exist (enterprise tiers, BAAs and Confidentiality Agreements, audit logging, PII redaction) and the cost is modest. Skipping them when they are available is a hard argument to make in front of a disciplinary panel.
The Use Cases Florida Firms Are Winning With
- Brief and motion drafting: first-draft argumentative writing in Claude or ChatGPT, then attorney revision. Documented 50–60% time savings on routine motions.
- Discovery review and summarization: Claude’s long-context capability handles large document sets for first-pass relevance review. Attorney still makes final calls.
- Cited legal research: Perplexity for case-law research with verifiable citations — not a replacement for Westlaw, but a strong first-pass research tool.
- Client communication drafting: intake follow-ups, status updates, fee-agreement explanations drafted in attorney voice.
- Deposition summaries and timeline reconstruction: structured summaries of long transcripts that attorneys then verify and cite.
The Documentation You Need For Bar Defense
If a Bar inquiry ever lands on your firm, your defense is the documentation you can produce. Audit logs covering every AI prompt during the relevant period. Vendor agreements showing training opt-out and confidentiality terms. A written firm AI policy covering acceptable-use, prohibited-use, and review responsibilities. Annual technology-competence training records (ABA Model Rule 1.1 Comment 8). The audit trail is the defense.
Steve Condit founded Simply IT to bring enterprise-grade IT management to small and mid-sized businesses across North Central Florida. With over 30 years of IT experience and a background in the US Marine Corps, Steve built Simply IT around the principle that local businesses deserve the same quality of technology partnership that large companies take for granted — without long-term contracts or national call center support.
