AI, Chinese Wall and Dragons
Bit of a departure this week. I thought I'd do a post on something that has had me pondering over the last few months.
Over the years I have done a fair amount of work using SharePoint. Some of them involving the management of millions of documents. The most interesting SharePoint job I did though was for a law firm just over a decade ago.
When I first started the job, I'll be honest I thought it was a no-brainer, law firms have lots of documents and SharePoint can handle lots of documents, marriage made in heaven. That was until I came across something called the Chinese Wall. It came up during the discovery and planning phase of the project and luckily I was in the room at the time, because I was the only one for the tech company that realised what it meant.
For those who don't know what a Chinese wall is, here is a definition of sorts;
A "Chinese Wall" in law refers to an ethical barrier implemented within a law firm or financial institution to prevent conflicts of interest and protect client confidential information. It involves segregating teams or departments to ensure that sensitive information from one client is not inadvertently shared or used inappropriately by another team representing an opposing or competing client. The term underscores the necessity of maintaining strict separation and confidentiality between different parts of the organization to preserve client trust and uphold ethical standards.
This can occur because a single law firm may represent both parties in a legal dispute. Before working on this project I never realised such a thing could happen. The problem though is that this means that certain documents can only be shown to certain parties at certain times.
The legal profession is witnessing a growing interest in the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve efficiency, and accuracy, and even predict legal outcomes. (We will ignore the case in America where a lawyer got busted for using chatGPT to help with the documentation only to find out that it hadn't quite worked as planned). While the benefits of AI for law firms are manifold, firms that need to maintain a "Chinese Wall" face unique challenges. Here are a couple of the more obvious ones.
The primary function of AI in law firms is to analyze vast amounts of data, from legal precedents to client specifics. In a firm with a "Chinese Wall," maintaining the confidentiality of this data is paramount. There's a risk that AI systems, designed to fetch and analyze data across multiple sources, might inadvertently breach these walls, accessing restricted information. Then surfacing this information to the wrong party thus breaching the "Chinese Wall".
Using AI to make decisions or predict outcomes in legal cases brings up ethical questions. If not correctly configured, the AI might make erroneous recommendations based on data it shouldn't have access to in firms with information barriers. This can lead to unintentional ethical breaches.
AI systems, especially Machine Learning models, require training to function effectively. In a law firm with a "Chinese Wall", ensuring that the AI is trained without crossing these barriers can be challenging. There's also the issue of oversight – who is responsible for ensuring the AI functions without breaching information barriers?
AI processes vast amounts of data, some of which might be proprietary or subject to attorney-client privilege. Firms need to ensure that the use of AI doesn't inadvertently violate data rights, especially when third-party AI solutions are employed.
They are the most obvious ones that occur to me while I am writing this. I am sure there are at least another dozen issues that need to be considered. The legal industry is currently grappling with the implications of AI, leading to evolving regulations and standards. Law firms, especially those with "Chinese Walls," must be vigilant to ensure that their use of AI remains compliant with these changing regulations. It is going to be challenging.
As with any technological advancement, law firms and software development firms implementing solutions for law firms, must approach AI with caution, understanding its implications fully, and ensuring that its adoption does not compromise the firm's integrity, client trust, or legal and ethical standards—the best of luck with that.
I signed a NDA on the SharePoint job I did so I am not even sure I can tell you who the law firm was or anything about the solution I came up with, but I think it was pretty good. They were happy. If anyone has implemented an AI solution within a law firm I would be very interested in hearing how it went, if you are allowed to talk about it.
Implementing SharePoint within a law firm was one of the more challenging SharePoint jobs I had because I had so little understanding of how law firms work. I had never heard of Transactional vs. Litigation Teams, Mergers and Acquisitions, Bankruptcy Matters, Employee Movement (a lawyer moves from one firm to another), Information Barriers for Insider Trading and of course, the "Chinese Wall", which is also known as Concurrent Representation, I think, it has been a while!
If you are tasked with implementing this type of AI solution within a law firm and you have not worked for a law firm before, get them to explain the "Chinese Wall" and how they implement it within their firm. I suspect that different law firms probably do it differently based on the nature of the work and the size of the firm. For those tasked with implementing an AI solution be warned: "Here be Dragons".
Bryan