California Lawyers Association
California Lawyers Association Launches Task Force on Artificial Intelligence
February 2024
By Jeremy M. Evans
California Lawyers Association (CLA) has launched a Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will conclude in the Fall of 2024 with a white paper on suggestions for how the legal profession in California should be regulated and how attorneys should respond, adapt, and learn. The task force also aims to offer insight into where companies can assist the legal industry in the 21st century.
The CLA Task Force on AI will meet quarterly as a group. Throughout the year, individuals and smaller subcommittees will focus on these three areas:
1. Benchmark and Compare Subcommittee (exploring what other bar associations and locales are doing);
2. Practice Area AI Subcommittee (exploring how certain practice areas are using AI); and
3. Governance in AI Subcommittee (exploring bill of rights, use of AI, ethics, and corporate).
The task force includes the following members: Jeremy M. Evans, Chair of the Task Force, President of the California Lawyers Foundation and Immediate Past President of the California Lawyers Association, and in private practice, the Founder & Managing Attorney of California Sports Lawyer®; Dr. Chris Mattmann, Vice Chair of the Task Force, and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer (CTIO) in his career; Nicole Bautista, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the California Judges Association; Diane Cafferata, Partner and author at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP; John Pavolotsky, Chair of CLA Intellectual Property Law Section and Of Counsel at Stoel Rives, LLP; Josh de Larios-Heiman, CLA Board of Representatives, Privacy Law Section, and Owner and Managing Attorney at Data Law; and Christopher Passarelli, Past Chair of the CLA Business Law Section, and Partner at Dickenson, Peatman & Fogarty, LLP.
CLA’s Task Force Advisory Committee, which includes 20 legal and tech professionals, will offer insight and feedback to the AI task force with the goal of producing a white paper for industry and regulatory consumption to improve and guide the practice of law in California and potentially beyond as the state looks to lead in the space. The task force will also be guided by The State Bar of California’s Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct through the published “Practical Guide for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law,” which highlights attorney responsibility with regard to confidentiality and the Rules of Professional Conduct.
The task force will participate in events surrounding AI to educate and get informed on updates in the law and technology, including presenting at the CLA Annual Meeting in the Fall of 2024.
Task force members are also organizing AI programming to keep CLA members on the cutting edge. Examples include:
- Task force member Josh de Larios-Heiman serves on the Privacy Law Section Executive Committee organizing the Annual Privacy Summit on February 8–9, 2024, at the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center in Los Angeles, California.
- Task force member John Pavolotsky participated in and helped organize the 47th Annual IP Institute with a focus on AI and Rule of Professional Conduct 8.3 (Duty of Reporting; Reporting Professional Misconduct).
- Pavolotsky is also leading CLA’s Intellectual Property Section to host the virtual IP and Emerging Technologies Conference on March 22, 2024, which will discuss user-generated content (UGC) and AI content moderation, privacy-enhancing technologies for lawyers, AI policy and legislation updates, and more.
We hope you will join the discussion to shape our future in the law. In the meantime, if you are interested in donating to or serving with the California Lawyers Foundation, please read here and here. The Founding Fifty and California Law Pathways Collaborative are great places to start!
Sincerely Yours in Service,
Jeremy M. Evans
President, California Lawyers Foundation
Immediate Past President, California Lawyers Association