The Private AI Readiness Checklist for Law Firms

You cannot manage tools you don't know about. In United States v. Heppner (S.D.N.Y. 2026), use of a consumer AI tool destroyed work-product protection — the risk isn't hypothetical anymore.

• List every AI tool anyone at the firm has used on matter material in the last 90 days — including personal ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini accounts, and AI features inside tools you already pay for.Ask, don't assume. Surveys consistently show staff use AI before firms approve it. The tool you don't know about is the one that waives privilege.
• For each tool: consumer or enterprise?Consumer tiers may retain input and use it for training by default. Enterprise tiers usually don't — but verify in writing, not from a sales page.
• Find every place recordings and transcripts are made today — dictation apps, meeting notetakers, court-reporter portals, phone voicemail transcription.Recording and transcription tools are the leakiest category: NYC Bar Op. 2025-6 addresses them specifically.NYC Bar Formal Op. 2025-6
• Re-read two documents: your engagement letter and any active protective orders.Many prohibit disclosure of client material to third parties. A cloud AI vendor is a third party.
• Ask your malpractice carrier how AI-tool use affects coverage.Carriers are starting to ask first. Better to have your answer ready.
• Read your state's AI ethics opinion — there almost certainly is one now.ABA Formal Op. 512 · Oregon 2025-205 · Texas 705 · Alaska 2025-1 · and counting

Ask these before any demo. A vendor who can't answer plainly is answering.

• Where does processing physically happen — on our hardware or your servers?"Secure cloud" still means your client's deposition leaves your building.
• Is our data retained, for how long, and is it ever used for training?Get it in the contract, not the FAQ. "We don't train on your data" says nothing about retention or subprocessors.
• Who else can see it — subprocessors, support staff, "trust and safety" review?Every additional set of eyes is a fact you may someday have to explain to a court.
• What happens to our data if we cancel, you're acquired, or you shut down?2023–2026 saw a wave of legal-tech acquisitions and sunsets. Your matter files shouldn't be an asset in someone's data room.
• Can you prove any of this?The strongest answer available today: software that runs entirely on machines you own — and demonstrates it by working with the network cable unplugged.

None of these cost money. All of them shrink the risk immediately.

• Adopt a one-page AI policy: an approved-tools list, and a bright-line rule — no client names, no privileged documents, no matter facts into unapproved tools.One page gets read. Ten pages get filed.
• Turn off chat history / training on every approved consumer tool — today, on every machine.
• Route all deposition and client-call transcription through one vetted path.One sanctioned door beats five unsanctioned ones. Local, on-device transcription is the cleanest version of that door.
• Name one partner as the AI decision-owner."Everyone's responsible" means no one is.
• Tell the Heppner story at your next firm lunch.Ten minutes of storytelling does more than any memo. A litigant used a consumer AI tool; a federal court held protection waived. That's the whole training.