NYC Bar Policy Paper: 21-Jurisdiction Landscape, No Uniform Ethics Rule, Six-Part Framework

The New York City Bar Association's Emerging Companies & Venture Capital Committee published a policy paper on August 12-13 on the use of AI tools by legal professionals — the most comprehensive US bar association analysis of AI ethics to date, cataloging official guidance from 21 jurisdictions and proposing a six-part compliance framework: Understand, Verify, Protect, Supervise, Communicate, and Be Truthful. The paper confirms that there is no ethics rule specifically about AI anywhere in the United States; obligations arise from existing MRPC rules applied to AI, primarily Rules 1.1 (competence), 1.6 (confidentiality), 3.3 (candor to the tribunal), 5.1 and 5.3 (supervision), 1.5 (fees), and 7.1 (advertising). The paper's document-suitability framework — assessing AI appropriateness based on standardization, complexity, tailoring, organizational experience, and negotiation level — provides the clearest guidance to date on which legal tasks are appropriate for AI assistance (high-volume standardized NDAs, C-corp formation, board minutes) and which require maximum human judgment (M&A agreements, complex financing, highly negotiated bespoke work). The paper recommends that firms designate a technology ethics officer and calls for a national harmonization framework.