Letting an AI assistant read your practice records, and nothing more
5 min read · Updated 17 October 2026
Lawyers already ask a general assistant to draft and summarise. The next question is always "can it see my files?", and the safe answer is "some of them, on purpose". This guide is a method for deciding what an assistant may read, connecting it so that it reads only that, and keeping the decision reviewable.
Decide what the assistant is for
Most of the value is in questions about the shape of the practice, not the substance of a file: which matters are open in a given court, what is due this month, which invoices are unpaid, who the client on a matter is and how to reach them. Those answers come from structured records (names, dates, statuses, totals) and need nothing privileged.
Write the purpose down in a sentence before connecting anything. "Answer questions about our calendar and our book of matters" is a purpose you can defend to a client. "Read everything in case it helps" is not.
Keep the privileged material out by design
Notes, correspondence with the client, the contents of documents and the client trust ledger are where privilege and the duty of confidentiality bite hardest. The safest arrangement is one in which the assistant cannot reach them at all, rather than one in which it is asked not to look.
That means the connection, not the prompt, sets the limit. A read-only connection that offers matters, deadlines, contacts and invoice totals, and nothing else, cannot be talked into reading a note.
The assistant becomes your firm’s vendor
When an assistant reads a record, that record goes to the company that runs the assistant, under your firm’s agreement with them. It is your firm’s processor, chosen by you, in the same position as your email provider or document storage. Review it as you would any vendor that sees client information: whether it keeps what it is given and for how long, whether it trains on it, where it is held, and who at the vendor can see it.
Many bars have issued guidance on generative AI and client confidentiality. Read your own bar’s before connecting anything, and keep a note on file of what you checked and when.
One key per assistant, and a way to stop it
Give each assistant its own credential, named for it, so that the record of use is readable and one connection can be withdrawn without touching the rest. Check the last-used date now and then; a key nobody remembers is a key to revoke.
Tell the team which assistant is connected and what it can read. The most common leak is not the connection; it is someone pasting a document into a chat because they did not know a narrower route existed.
This guide describes a way of working. It is not legal advice and states no jurisdiction's deadline or rule; the periods and standards that apply to your matter are set by your statute, your court and your bar or law society.