For your ethics file
AI and your professional duties
In Formal Opinion 512 the ABA sets out what its Model Rules ask of lawyers who use generative AI. For each duty it discusses: what the opinion says, what Corro does, and what stays with you.
Information, not legal advice. ABA formal opinions interpret the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and bind no one. Your state's rules, its ethics opinions and your courts' orders govern, and some differ. Read the opinion itself before you rely on this page.
ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Formal Opinion 512, “Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools” (July 29, 2024). Quotes are from the opinion; page numbers are the opinion's own.
Competence Model Rule 1.1
The opinion
Lawyers need “a reasonable understanding of the capabilities and limitations” of the tools they use (pp. 2–3). Relying on output “without an appropriate degree of independent verification or review” could breach the duty of competence (pp. 3–4); how much review is enough depends on the tool and the task, and testing a tool on documents you have checked yourself can justify relying on it more (p. 4). Whatever the level of review, “the lawyer is fully responsible for the work on behalf of the client” (p. 4).
What Corro does
- Each date, amount and statement on a case links to where it came from: the Clio record, or the document page with the quote. One click opens it.
- Code checks each quote against the page's text. A quote it cannot find there is marked for you to check; a quote from a scanned page, which code cannot check, is labelled as such.
- Totals, balances and date arithmetic are done by code, never by the model.
- The sample case lets your team learn what Corro gets right and wrong before it reads anything of yours; you can then open a matter you know well and compare.
What stays with you
Deciding how much to check before you rely on what Corro shows, and the judgment the opinion reserves to lawyers: advice to clients, negotiation, and anything that leaves the firm.
Confidentiality Model Rule 1.6
The opinion
Before putting information relating to a representation into a tool, lawyers “must evaluate the risks that the information will be disclosed to or accessed by others outside the firm,” and inside it (p. 6). For self-learning tools, which may reuse what one client's matter put in, the client's informed consent is required first, and “boiler-plate provisions to engagement letters” are not enough (pp. 6–7). As a baseline, lawyers should read and understand a tool's terms of use and privacy policy (p. 7).
What Corro does
- Corro trains no model on your files. Within your firm, what Corro reads from one matter is used only for that matter: its dashboard, Cory's answers and the checker's verdicts are built from that matter's file alone, and nothing learned from one matter is applied to another. Each firm's data is kept in its own store, apart from every other firm's.
- Material is sent to OpenAI's API with response storage off. OpenAI states that API data is not used for training unless the customer opts in, and we have not; it keeps requests in abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days.
- Inside your firm, every member can open every case your firm has brought into Corro. If a matter needs an ethical screen, keep that matter out of Corro.
- The security page sets out where data lives, who can reach it, which services receive what, and how long it is kept.
What stays with you
The risk assessment for each client and matter, and whether the client's informed consent is needed before a matter is read.
Communication Model Rule 1.4
The opinion
“The facts of each case will determine” whether a client must be told (p. 8). Lawyers must tell a client who asks, or whose engagement terms require it; must consult the client when a tool's output “will influence a significant decision in the representation” or bears on the fee (p. 8); and may find the engagement agreement “a logical place” for such disclosures (p. 9).
What Corro does
- This page and the security page state in plain words what Corro reads, which services receive it, and how each statement is tied to its source, so that what you tell a client can be accurate.
- Corro does not contact your clients.
What stays with you
Whether and what to tell each client, and how to word it.
Meritorious claims and candor toward the tribunal Model Rules 3.1, 3.3 and 8.4(c)
The opinion
“[O]utput from a GAI tool must be carefully reviewed to ensure that the assertions made to the court are not false,” including its analysis and any citations to authority (p. 10).
What Corro does
- Corro works from your case file. It does not search for case law, and Cory's answers cite records and pages in the file; a sentence it cannot tie to the file is shown as not in the file.
- The checker compares a draft with the file and shows the record behind each verdict. It reports what the file says, not whether it is true.
What stays with you
Reviewing everything you file or serve, including anything drafted with Corro's help.
Supervision Model Rules 5.1 and 5.3
The opinion
Managerial lawyers “must establish clear policies regarding the law firm's permissible use of GAI” and see that lawyers and staff are trained (p. 10). For outside providers of AI tools, lawyers should check, among other things, that the tool is configured to keep information confidential, “that the obligation is enforceable, and that the lawyer will be notified in the event of a breach or service of process,” and whether the provider retains information “before and after the discontinuation of services” (p. 11).
What Corro does
- Roles: an owner, admins and members. Only the owner can delete the firm; owners and admins manage people and billing.
- What is kept, and for how long after you leave, is on the security page under Retention and deletion; which services receive what is under Subprocessors.
- Our commitments on notice of a breach, and on legal demands for your firm's data, will be in our terms of service, which are under legal review. Until then, ask us and we will answer in writing.
What stays with you
Your firm's policy on using AI, training your lawyers and staff, and your own review of Corro as a vendor.
Fees Model Rule 1.5
The opinion
Lawyers who bill by the hour “must bill for their actual time” (p. 12). A tool that works like equipping the practice is overhead, while a per-use charge for one client's work can ordinarily be billed to that client as an expense at its actual cost (p. 13). A lawyer “may not charge a client to learn about how to use a GAI tool” used regularly for clients (p. 14).
What Corro does
- Corro bills your firm per user per month, with pages included and optional prepaid page packs. It never bills your clients.
- Your cases list shows how many of each case's document pages have been read.
What stays with you
How you treat Corro's cost under your engagement terms, and what you bill for time saved.
See for yourself before you decide.
Start on the sample case and open the source behind every figure. Nothing of yours is read until you connect Clio or upload a case.