Artificial intelligence has moved from experiment to infrastructure in legal practice. In this timely presentation, two leading voices in legal innovation — Bridget McCormack, CEO of the American Arbitration Association and former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and Jennifer Leonard, Founder of Creative Lawyers — provide practitioners with a comprehensive framework for navigating AI’s transformation of the legal profession.
The program begins with the ethical foundation every lawyer needs: ABA Formal Opinion 512 and state bar guidance on competence, confidentiality, supervision, and billing when using generative AI tools. Attendees will learn how the conversation around AI is changing from a focus on risk alone to a focus on the possibilities AI creates for improved service and client outcomes.
The presenters will examine the current state of AI technology, including recent benchmarking data showing AI tools now matching or exceeding lawyer performance on legal research tasks. They will explore the widening adoption gap between corporate legal departments and law firms, the market pressures driving unprecedented merger activity, and the emergence of private equity investment in legal services attributed in part to AI.
Rather than viewing AI as a threat, this program reframes the conversation around the irreplaceable human advantage: emotional intelligence, professional judgment, client counseling, and the relationship-building that defines excellent lawyering. Attendees will learn practical governance frameworks for responsible AI adoption, including a five-step process for defining use cases, identifying risks, and implementing appropriate guardrails.
The session concludes with a case study of the American Arbitration Association’s groundbreaking AI Arbitrator, demonstrating how “informed, not automated” approaches can enhance access to justice while maintaining human oversight.
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