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35 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 1 (2021)
Lawyer Ethics for Innovation

handle is hein.journals/ndlep35 and id is 1 raw text is: ARTICLES LAWYER ETHICS FOR INNOVATION RENEE KNAKE JEFFERSON* ABSTRACT Law struggles to keep pace with innovation. Twenty-first century advancements like artificial intelligence, block chain, and data analytics are already in use by academic institutions, corporations, government entities, health care providers, and others but many questions remain about individual autonomy, identity, privacy, and security. Even as new laws address known threats, future technology developments and process improvements, fueled by consumer-demand and globalization, inevitably will present externalities that the legal community has yet to confront. How do we design laws and systems to ensure accountability, equality, and transparency in this environment of rapid change? A solution can be found in a surprising source the regulation ofprofessional ethics. Lawyers have the capacity to play a critical role both in assessing the risks and benefits of innovation generally and also in deploying innovative tools to enhance the delivery of legal services. This Article is the first to articulate a formal obligation of ethical innovation as a component of professional discipline and licensing rules. This proposal comes at a time when the legal profession is increasingly immersed in innovation whether measured by the number of NewLaw providers, exponentially increasing financial investment in legal tech, or by the American Bar Association's 2020 Resolution supporting innovation to address the access-to-justice crisis. Rather than taking a particular side in the debate over whether lawyers and judges should adopt innovations like artificial intelligence or machine learning, this Article acknowledges that technology advancements inevitably are part of modern society, including the practice of law, and advocates for reforms to professional conduct rules to protect individuals in the midst of innovation. This protection is especially warranted when Professor of Law & Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics, University of Houston Law Center. JD, University of Chicago Law School. Special thanks are owed to Catrina Denvir, John Flood, Bruce Green, Bill Henderson, Wallace B. Jefferson, Sung Kim, Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Russ Pearce, Deborah Rhode, Julian Webb, and Brad Wendel for their comments as well as the Australian-American Fulbright Commission for research support. Katy Badeaux and Brad Raymond provided excellent research assistance. From 2014-16, I served as a Reporter for the American Bar Association Presidential Commission on the Future of Legal Services. That work informed ideas here, which are my own and not expressed on behalf of any of my institutional affiliations.

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