Attorneys and AI: How Lawyers Use Artificial Intelligence and Analyze Its Impacts

AI systems are testing lawyers' professional ethics obligations of competence, confidentiality, and candor. In the legal profession, the widespread availability of AI systems presents opportunities, like improving the review of documents during the discovery stage of a lawsuit, and challenges, illustrated by the handful of high-profile incidents where lawyers submitted legal briefs in court citing and describing fictitious cases based on AI-generated output. We conducted interviews with 44 legal professionals in the U.S. to understand how attorneys are making sense of AI technology and the impacts these technologies are having on their profession, legal ethics, and legal institutions. We describe participants' experiences with AI in legal work; opportunities and barriers for AI adoption; as well as beliefs, hopes, and concerns lawyers have about potential AI-induced social change. This work extends our understanding of AI's impact on knowledge work.