{"id":108694,"date":"2025-02-19T17:42:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T01:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/19\/ai-delivers-fresh-nightmares-for-in-house-counsel\/"},"modified":"2025-02-19T17:42:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T01:42:43","slug":"ai-delivers-fresh-nightmares-for-in-house-counsel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/19\/ai-delivers-fresh-nightmares-for-in-house-counsel\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Delivers Fresh Nightmares For In-House Counsel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019re now two years into the generative AI era and so far this supposedly revolutionary technology has mostly delivered bad middle school term papers and embarrassing lawyer stories<\/a>. Which isn\u2019t to say the technology can\u2019t perform useful, time-saving tasks, it\u2019s just that \u2014 barring a fundamental breakthrough<\/a> like fusion energy or quantum computing \u2014 AI\u2019s potential upper bound isn\u2019t \u201creplacing lawyers\u201d as much as \u201cprocessing transcripts faster<\/a>.\u201d It\u2019s time to rejoice in AI\u2019s amazing but mundane capabilities rather than pine for free intellectual labor that won\u2019t hallucinate like it\u2019s on the brown acid.<\/p>\n

And this goes double for the non-lawyers that in-house legal teams have to keep in line. <\/p>\n

The latest General Counsel Report 2025<\/a><\/em> from FTI Consulting<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Relativity<\/a>\u00a0confirms that two years into this, in-house lawyers remain largely unprepared for the risks posed by generative AI.<\/p>\n

Part of this isn\u2019t their fault. AI is moving rapidly and users are working just as fast creating headaches. The volume of queries people make of consumer-facing AI toys have skyrocketed with one firm reporting 32,000 hits in a week<\/a>. And that\u2019s a law firm! Multiply that usage rate out across a multibillion dollar corporation. No matter how hard lawyers try to direct users to products with real security and guardrails, a new product will arrive with the security integrity of a wet paper bag<\/a> to upset that guidance. <\/p>\n

\n

In interviews, 85 percent indicated they are minimally or not at all prepared, a slight improvement from the prior year\u2019s total of 93 percent. Additionally, generative AI was the only topic where not one of the participants assigned a four or five out of five for their AI readiness (on a one-to-five scale of not at all prepared to very prepared). At that rate, in-house lawyers won\u2019t be prepared until just before Trump\u2019s fifth term.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another obstacle to preparedness is the lack of consensus over exactly presents the biggest problem:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Loss of jobs at the bottom. Never change corporate America!<\/p>\n

\u201cSecurity\u201d and \u201cData Privacy\u201d are separate but overlapping issues when it comes to AI. But worse, these challenges aren\u2019t limited to AI usage. A staggering 65 percent of GCs say they\u2019re not prepared to deal with securing all the emerging data sources under their roofs like collaboration apps, cloud storage, and linked content. <\/p>\n

\n

Some respondents also reported increases in data breaches (21%) and privacy violations or notifications (18%). These figures varied somewhat from the 2024 report, when 38% and 21% noted increases in breaches and privacy violations, respectively. Data privacy and DSARs were also ranked as the second and third highest issues causing disputes and investigations, listed as a primary driver by 33% and 29%, respectively.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While employees are probably exposing data or avenues into the company systems in a variety of ways, feeding confidential client data to an AI model headquartered somewhere between Shanghai and \u201cGee, Wouldn\u2019t You Like To Know\u201d adds a whole new level of risk.<\/p>\n

Put more bluntly, one respondent said, \u201cI am scared $h!+less that if we are audited, we will be found non-compliant because of how employees or patients transmit data.\u201d <\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: New GC Report Details All The In-House Concerns That Ceased To Matter Around, Say, Inauguration Day<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post AI Delivers Fresh Nightmares For In-House Counsel<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019re now two years into the generative AI era and so far this supposedly revolutionary technology has mostly delivered bad middle school term papers and embarrassing lawyer stories<\/a>. Which isn\u2019t to say the technology can\u2019t perform useful, time-saving tasks, it\u2019s just that \u2014 barring a fundamental breakthrough<\/a> like fusion energy or quantum computing \u2014 AI\u2019s potential upper bound isn\u2019t \u201creplacing lawyers\u201d as much as \u201cprocessing transcripts faster<\/a>.\u201d It\u2019s time to rejoice in AI\u2019s amazing but mundane capabilities rather than pine for free intellectual labor that won\u2019t hallucinate like it\u2019s on the brown acid.<\/p>\n

And this goes double for the non-lawyers that in-house legal teams have to keep in line. <\/p>\n

The latest General Counsel Report 2025<\/a><\/em> from FTI Consulting<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Relativity<\/a>\u00a0confirms that two years into this, in-house lawyers remain largely unprepared for the risks posed by generative AI.<\/p>\n

Part of this isn\u2019t their fault. AI is moving rapidly and users are working just as fast creating headaches. The volume of queries people make of consumer-facing AI toys have skyrocketed with one firm reporting 32,000 hits in a week<\/a>. And that\u2019s a law firm! Multiply that usage rate out across a multibillion dollar corporation. No matter how hard lawyers try to direct users to products with real security and guardrails, a new product will arrive with the security integrity of a wet paper bag<\/a> to upset that guidance. <\/p>\n

\n

In interviews, 85 percent indicated they are minimally or not at all prepared, a slight improvement from the prior year\u2019s total of 93 percent. Additionally, generative AI was the only topic where not one of the participants assigned a four or five out of five for their AI readiness (on a one-to-five scale of not at all prepared to very prepared). At that rate, in-house lawyers won\u2019t be prepared until just before Trump\u2019s fifth term.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another obstacle to preparedness is the lack of consensus over exactly presents the biggest problem:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Loss of jobs at the bottom. Never change corporate America!<\/p>\n

\u201cSecurity\u201d and \u201cData Privacy\u201d are separate but overlapping issues when it comes to AI. But worse, these challenges aren\u2019t limited to AI usage. A staggering 65 percent of GCs say they\u2019re not prepared to deal with securing all the emerging data sources under their roofs like collaboration apps, cloud storage, and linked content. <\/p>\n

\n

Some respondents also reported increases in data breaches (21%) and privacy violations or notifications (18%). These figures varied somewhat from the 2024 report, when 38% and 21% noted increases in breaches and privacy violations, respectively. Data privacy and DSARs were also ranked as the second and third highest issues causing disputes and investigations, listed as a primary driver by 33% and 29%, respectively.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While employees are probably exposing data or avenues into the company systems in a variety of ways, feeding confidential client data to an AI model headquartered somewhere between Shanghai and \u201cGee, Wouldn\u2019t You Like To Know\u201d adds a whole new level of risk.<\/p>\n

Put more bluntly, one respondent said, \u201cI am scared $h!+less that if we are audited, we will be found non-compliant because of how employees or patients transmit data.\u201d <\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: New GC Report Details All The In-House Concerns That Ceased To Matter Around, Say, Inauguration Day<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re now two years into the generative AI era and so far this supposedly revolutionary technology has mostly delivered bad middle school term papers and embarrassing lawyer stories. Which isn\u2019t to say the technology can\u2019t perform useful, time-saving tasks, it\u2019s just that \u2014 barring a fundamental breakthrough like fusion energy or quantum computing \u2014 AI\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Headshot-9kqO1k.jpeg?fit=500%2C333&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}