Texas attorneys now have official ethical guardrails for using generative artificial intelligence in legal practice. The State Bar's Professional Ethics Committee released Professional Ethics Opinion 703, its first formal guidance on AI, after a year of deliberation following several high-profile incidents where attorneys submitted AI-hallucinated citations to federal courts.
Core Requirements
- Attorneys must verify all AI-generated legal citations before filing
- Client confidentiality rules apply to any data submitted to third-party AI tools
- Use of AI does not reduce the billing standard for work that must still be independently verified
- Attorneys must disclose AI use to clients upon request
What Changes in Practice
The opinion does not ban AI use — it sets a supervision standard. Lawyers who treat AI output as a first draft that requires careful review will generally be in compliance.