Professors Denitsa Mavrova Heinrich and Jennifer Cook presented at the 2022 Western Regional Legal Writing Conference
The University of Oregon School of Law hosted the two-day conference where law faculty and scholars from across the nation gathered to share innovative legal writing teaching strategies and scholarship.
Their presentation, Legal Research and Writing: Ethics and Privacy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, is the subject of their law review article in progress and provided conference attendees with a look at how recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics technology have significantly transformed the nature of legal research and writing.
Professors Mavrova Heinrich and Cook addressed why the duty of competence encompasses understanding and utilizing AI-based legal research and writing technology where practical and how AI technology impacts the duties of confidentiality and communications. They also discussed the privacy concerns arising from the use of AI-based technology in the practice of law and its impacts on a lawyer’s ethical obligation to provide competent and confidential representation to clients. Professors Mavrova Heinrich and Cook proposed the duties of competence and confidentiality require lawyers to demand more transparency from AI-assisted legal research and writing platforms about the potential data sharing and privacy risks to client information.
