Can lawyers use ChatGPT?
Yes — but not with client-identifying information in a consumer tool. ABA Formal Opinion 512 warns that self-learning cloud AI risks improper disclosure by its very nature, and Florida Bar Opinion 24-1 permits generative AI only with real confidentiality safeguards. Competence, supervision and reasonable fees apply to the output either way.
What Opinion 512 actually says
It does not prohibit AI. It requires that a lawyer understand the tool's data handling, obtain informed consent before disclosing client information to it, supervise the output, and bill only for time actually spent. It also notes that general engagement-letter language is not informed consent.
Where firms get caught
Rarely at the strategy level — usually a paralegal pasting a deposition excerpt, or an associate uploading a client contract for a “quick summary”. The disclosure is complete at that moment, and nothing in the firm's records shows it happened.
The on-premise answer
Keep inference inside the firm. Open-weight models run on a single GPU server in your server room; staff use a chat window that behaves like the one they already know. There is no third-party recipient, so the Rule 1.6 analysis is short.
Three ways to deploy, side by side
| The question | Consumer cloud AI | BAA / enterprise cloud | Handistack on-prem |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where client data goes | Bad: The vendor's cloud | Qualified: The vendor's cloud, contract-bound | Good: Stays on hardware you own |
| Trained on your content | Bad: Yes, unless you opt out | Qualified: No — by contract | Good: Never. No upstream to train |
| Retention of prompts & files | Bad: Vendor policy, human review possible | Qualified: Configurable, vendor-controlled | Good: Your policy, your disks |
| BAA / DPA in place | Bad: Not available | Good: Available | Good: Not needed — no third party |
| Audit trail you control | Bad: None | Qualified: Vendor console | Good: Your log store and SIEM |
| Cost shape | Qualified: $20–30 per seat / mo | Bad: $60+ per seat / mo | Good: One-time build, one flat retainer |
| Works with the internet down | Bad: No | Bad: No | Good: Yes |
You’re the firm where privilege is the product — and ABA 512 is on your desk.
We build, install and maintain the private system that makes this a non-question — inside your building, owned by you, with the control documentation for your file.