Law firms and professional services firms are adopting AI faster than any sector — and facing unique confidentiality risks that could expose attorney-client privilege, violate ethical rules, and destroy client trust.
Attorneys are using AI for research, drafting, discovery, and contract review, often with client materials that should never leave the firm's control. Without governance, every AI interaction is a potential privilege breach, a bar complaint, or a malpractice exposure.
Attorneys uploading client documents, case summaries, or deposition materials to AI tools may violate ABA Model Rule 1.6 and expose privilege. This often happens without the attorney realizing the risk until it is too late.
AI models prompted or fine-tuned with information from one matter could inadvertently surface it in response to queries from another client's work. This creates conflicts that cannot be undone.
When malpractice claims arise or bar inquiries are made, firms need to demonstrate how AI was used and what data it accessed. Without an audit trail, mounting that defense is impossible.
Associates and partners are adopting AI tools independently using personal accounts, consumer products, and unvetted services. There is no visibility, no policy enforcement, and no data governance in place.
Perpetual enforces matter-specific AI policies, ensuring client information stays isolated and that attorneys can use AI productively within ethical boundaries without IT becoming a bottleneck.
Perpetual sits between your attorneys and every AI tool they use, applying consistent governance without requiring them to change their workflow or learn new systems.
Define AI access rules by matter, client, practice group, or attorney role. Control which data can be used with AI, which models are permitted, and what outputs can be shared.
Client information is classified and isolated at the matter level. Cross-matter contamination is prevented before it can occur rather than investigated after the fact.
Privileged client materials, confidential case strategies, and sensitive litigation documents are automatically detected and blocked from reaching any unauthorized AI system.
Every prompt, response, model, and data access is logged with full attribution, creating an immutable audit trail for malpractice defense, ethics reviews, and client reporting.
Generate audit-ready reports for bar compliance, ethics reviews, and client requests. Reports cover every AI interaction across the firm with full context and attribution.
Give attorneys powerful AI research tools with matter-level access controls so they can work faster without exposing client information to unauthorized systems.
Enable AI-assisted drafting and contract review with policies that ensure client-specific data stays within the appropriate matter context and never leaks across engagements.
Give risk and general counsel the visibility and reporting they need to demonstrate responsible AI adoption to bar associations, clients, and firm leadership.
Give IT and operations the governance layer they need to support firm-wide AI adoption without requiring every practice group to align on a single policy before getting started.
Law firms are structured around matters, clients, and practice groups rather than departments. Perpetual is built to match that structure, applying the right policy to the right context automatically.
Client data is governed at the matter level rather than at the firm level. Each engagement gets its own AI policy, ensuring information never crosses between clients or matters.
Attorney-client privilege is protected by design. Privileged materials are classified and controlled before they reach any AI model rather than flagged after the fact.
Every AI interaction is logged with full attribution including model, attorney, matter, and data accessed. This creates an immutable record that supports malpractice defense and ethics reviews.
Governs AI tools across Harvey, Casetext, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and any other AI service attorneys may use through a single governance layer.
No infrastructure changes and no lengthy implementation. Perpetual sits in the path of AI usage and begins enforcing governance from day one across the tools already in use.
See AI usage, costs, and risk signals by practice group, matter, and attorney, giving firm leadership the operational clarity they need to manage AI as a firm-wide asset.
Request a personalized demo tailored to your firm's practice structure, AI tools, and compliance requirements.