Alabama Bar Issues AI Ethics Opinion — Cannot Bill Clients for AI Time Savings

Alabama Formal Opinion 2026-01 (August 4) establishes that lawyers cannot bill clients for time saved through AI use — recontextualizing existing billing ethics rules for the AI environment without creating a new framework. The opinion addresses the core tension in law firm AI economics: AI tools reduce hours on tasks that were previously billed, and without clear guidance, some firms had been exploring billing models that charged clients for the time AI "would have" taken a human, or for AI access as a disbursement. Alabama's position aligns with the emerging consensus across state bars — AI efficiency gains benefit clients through speed, not through the firm capturing the time savings as billable units. The opinion joins guidance from at least 35 state bar associations that have now issued some form of AI ethics guidance.