On Friday, November 1, Associate Dean and Professor of Law Natt Gantt participated in a panel on the Ethical Implications of the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Lawyering at the Christian Legal Society (CLS) National Conference in Washington, D.C. The panel was moderated by Rick Campanelli, Lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Virginia Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy; and fellow panelists were Kevin Lee, Professor at North Carolina Central University School of Law, and Jason Thacker, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at Boyce College and Senior Fellow at The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
The panel was one of the conference’s plenary sessions and was attended by several hundred of the many conference registrants. During the two-hour session, the panel explored a wide breadth of issues related AI – ranging from the ethical issues on individual lawyers as practitioners, to the systemic issues on how AI is impacting the legal profession, to the broader issues for how AI is shaping societal perception of reality.
In his remarks, Professor Gantt began by defining generative AI (Gen AI) and referenced some of the many ways Gen AI is affecting lawyering. As an expert in legal ethics, he then focused much of his remarks on how the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct relate to the use of Gen AI in practice, including its implications on lawyers’ duty of competence, confidentiality, communication, and supervision, and how gen AI impacts lawyers’ fees and obligation not to assist in the unauthorized practice of law.
Professor Gantt then concluded by discussing how the human aspects of lawyering are becoming more central to the lawyer’s role as technologies like AI overtake many of the technical aspects of lawyering. He mentioned three aspects of lawyers’ role as becoming paramount in this age of technology: lawyers’ duty to be advocates, not just makers of arguments; lawyers’ unique position to express empathy and to treat others in the legal system as created in God’s image; and lawyers’ ability to convey wisdom, not just knowledge.
In addition to his participation on the panel, Professor Gantt discusses his insights related to Gen AI and lawyering in his recent article “Moral Than Machines: The Ethical and Human Implications of Generative AI on Lawyering,” published in the latest edition of the Journal of Christian Legal Thought. Discussing issues like Gen AI and lawyering relates to HPU Law’s mission to prepare its graduates with the skills and mindset they need for professional success in a changing world.
In commenting on the panel, CLS Executive Director & CEO David Nammo, a member of HPU Law’s Board of Advisors, observed: “Over and over, conference attendees thanked me for the incredible Artificial Intelligence panel at the Christian Legal Society national conference. I am so grateful for panelist Professor Natt Gantt, who brought his leadership and expertise to this subject, explaining AI from a Biblical perspective to our entire conference that was applicable for the practicing Christian attorney and grounded in a Christian worldview.“