The defense is already using AI.
They are going to be faster, more thorough, and better prepared than they were last year. This part is about what that looks like, and what you can do about it.
This CLE is going to be a bit of a tease.
You have access to so little. There are rules about which accounts you can use, and we’ll get to them in Part 5. Without an enterprise account through AOC or the Conference, you’re not permitted to use AI for anything confidential, which is most of what you touch. So why care?
Defense attorneys are using AI, and they are going to crush you.
Not every defense attorney. But the ones who are will search, analyze, and synthesize a case faster than any office that isn’t.
AI is coming, whether you like it or not.
Enterprise tools for prosecutors will arrive. The offices that already understand what the tools do, and where they fail, will be the ones that use them safely.
A chatbot over the case.
The first thing a defense attorney with any AI fluency will do is build a chatbot over their case: load the discovery, and ask it questions. Press play to see why that matters in a courtroom.
Every report, statement, and supplement, asked in plain English.
“Did anyone describe this differently?” gets an answer with a page number.
Chronologies, cross outlines, and impeachment lists in minutes, not weekends.
Probably not.
Not much legal ground to stand on.
- There is not a lot of legal ground to prevent them from using it.
- It’s their responsibility to make sure they’re securing the data appropriately.
- Most commercial contracts are sufficient to protect privilege and confidentiality.
Catch what they get wrong.
- Their bar card, their data-security obligation. Not yours.
- Read their authority the way you’d read a pro se motion: pull every cite.
- Expect it in requests, motions, and cross. And expect it to be good.
The question isn’t whether they can use it. It’s whether you’ll recognize it when they do.
Part 5 shows what AI-assisted writing looks like when it goes wrong, including the tells that give it away. Spot the Slop is a good place to practice.