For Independent Law Firms
Be Ready When a Client Asks How Your Firm Governs AI
See whether your firm has clear, current decisions governing AI tools, confidential information, legal work, human review, and attorney responsibility.
No sensitive client or firm information is needed for the call. No purchase or commitment is required from it.
- Approved AI tools
- 9 in use
- Confidential information
- Conditions set
- Human review required
- Before client use
- Responsible attorney
- Named and recorded
When the Question Comes Up
AI Questions Arrive Before Anyone Has Decided the Answer
AI is often already part of the work. What is usually missing is a clear, current decision about how it may be used — and one answer everyone in the firm can give.
- A client's questionnaire or guidelines ask how the firm uses AI.
- An attorney wants to use AI for research or a first draft.
- Research, document or practice-management software adds an AI feature.
- Staff need to know what confidential information may never be entered.
- Someone asks who reviews AI-assisted work before it reaches a client.
Your Leadership Decides
The Decisions Your Firm Makes and Keeps
We prepare the questions, recommend options and record what is approved. Your leadership makes each decision, and nothing reaches your people until it has been approved.
Which AI Tools the Firm Has Approved
The tools attorneys and staff may use, the ones that are conditional, and the ones that are not for client work.
What Confidential Information Stays Out
Which categories of client and matter information may never be entered into an AI tool, and the conditions for the rest.
When Human Review Is Required
When AI-assisted research or drafting must be reviewed by an attorney before it is relied on or reaches a client.
Who Is Responsible
The attorney accountable for AI governance decisions, named and recorded, with a path for exceptions and concerns.
What You Tell a Client Who Asks
A consistent answer the firm can give, drawn from the decisions it has actually made.
The Recommended Start
The 90-Day Governance Launch
Governance Launch is an implementation engagement rather than another document purchase. Priority Governance works alongside your leadership to identify the AI tools already in use, establish practical rules, prepare staff guidance, document acknowledgments, and organize recurring reviews. We prepare and coordinate the work. Your leadership approves the decisions.
- Days 1–30
Establish
Known AI use becomes a practical baseline.
- Initial AI inventory and known material uses
- Named owner and escalation path
- Days 31–60
Enable
Staff receive usable guidance rather than a long policy.
- Leadership-approved baseline rules
- Conditional and prohibited-use records
- Staff guidance and training
- Version-bound acknowledgments
- Days 61–90
Operate
The first requests, reviews and follow up move through a repeatable process.
- Initial Governance Record
- Review schedule
- First operating cycle
First 90 days of Control Center are included throughout, so decisions, owners and reviews have a place to live from the first week.
What It Looks Like in Your Firm
- Establish
The AI tools already in use for research, drafting and practice management are listed, including AI features added to existing software, with a responsible attorney named.
- Enable
Leadership approves the confidential-information and human-review rules, and attorneys and staff receive short guidance and acknowledge the version they were given.
- Operate
The first requests and exceptions go through the process, and the firm has a Governance Record it can refer to when a client asks.
At day ninety the first operating cycle is complete, your Governance Record is delivered, and your leadership chooses the ongoing model. Continuation is never selected for you: Priority Governance prepares one recommendation with the reason behind it, and your leadership decides.
See the full 90-day planClear Boundaries
Governance Without Handing Over Client Files
High-Level Information Only
Priority Governance prepares and coordinates the governance process using high-level information about your firm. Your leadership approves the decisions.
- Not needed: client files or matter content
- Not needed: privileged or confidential communications
- Not needed: the prompts or outputs of anyone's AI use
Your Professionals Keep Their Responsibilities
Priority Governance does not provide legal advice and does not interpret rules of professional conduct or ethics opinions for your firm. Your attorneys remain responsible for professional judgment, and your own counsel and specialists remain responsible for work in their disciplines.
Governance Launch is practical governance-readiness support. It is not legal advice, a security assessment, an audit opinion, or a compliance certification, and Control Center records the decisions your firm makes — it does not monitor, detect or block AI use.
See Whether Governance Launch Fits Your Firm
Twenty minutes on how AI is used in your firm today, who owns the decisions, and what clients are asking. If another path fits better, we will say so. No purchase or commitment is required from the call.
Prefer to look first? Take the free QuickScan — practical results, no obligation. Priority Governance is not legal advice, a security assessment, or a compliance certification. Data Handling