NYC Bar AI Policy Paper Calls for National Framework Across 21 Jurisdictions

The New York City Bar Association published an AI policy paper on August 12, 2026, calling for a national AI framework for legal professionals, accompanied by a 21-jurisdiction appendix and a six-principle governance framework covering competence, confidentiality, supervision, billing, disclosure, and independence. The NYC Bar's call for federal coordination is notable given the US's current deregulatory federal posture under EO 14179 and the absence of any comprehensive federal AI statute. With 34-38 state bars having issued some form of AI guidance and 15 formal ethics opinions in circulation, the patchwork character of US legal AI governance is increasingly the dominant compliance risk for multi-state law firms. The NYC Bar paper is the most systematic attempt to date to establish a unifying framework that could be adopted by multiple jurisdictions simultaneously.