Law Society of BC AI Guidance: Building a Generative AI Policy for Your Firm (2026)

The Law Society of British Columbia was the first Canadian law society to publish practical guidance on generative AI. Its 'Guidance on Professional Responsibility and Generative AI', released in November 2023, does not endorse or ban any tool. It walks through the professional obligations that apply when a lawyer uses one and leaves it to each firm to set rules. Those rules are your AI policy. This guide explains what the Law Society expects and what the policy needs to contain, with a note on the Law Society of Alberta's parallel guidance for firms that practise in both provinces.

What the Law Society of BC's guidance covers

• Competence: a lawyer who uses generative AI must be knowledgeable and skilled enough in the tool to use it well, understand its limits, keep up as the technology and the rules change, and consider whether it is the right option for the client's matter.
• Confidentiality: information entered into a generative AI tool leaves the lawyer's control. The guidance directs lawyers to be careful about what they provide to a tool and to understand the vendor's terms on retention, access, and use of inputs.
• Accuracy and verification: generative AI produces plausible errors and invented authorities. Output is reviewed and verified before it is relied on or delivered.
• Client communication: clients should understand how AI is used in their matter where it affects the service, the outcome, or the cost.
• Court disclosure: lawyers must check with the court, tribunal, or decision-maker whether AI use in a filing must be attributed, and to what degree. Several Canadian courts, including the Federal Court, have issued directions requiring a declaration.
• Supervision and delegation: professional judgment cannot be delegated to a tool, and lawyers remain responsible for work produced with AI by staff under their supervision.

Alberta and the rest of Canada

The Law Society of Alberta publishes 'Gen AI Rules of Engagement for Canadian Lawyers', a compact set of principles that covers the same ground, and the Law Society of Ontario issued a white paper and practice resource in April 2024. The Canadian Bar Association's 'Ethics of Artificial Intelligence for the Legal Practitioner' adds a national perspective. The obligations are consistent across provinces; the differences are in emphasis and in court-specific filing directions. A firm practising in more than one province needs one policy that meets the strictest reading and a court-directions check before every filing.

What a BC law firm AI policy must contain

• Scope: lawyers, articling students, paralegals, legal assistants, and administrative staff; every generative AI tool, including features embedded in research platforms, document management, and email.
• Approved tools by data category: tools cleared for client-identifiable information (enterprise terms, no training on inputs, Canadian or otherwise acceptable data residency), tools for public or anonymized material only, and tools prohibited outright. Personal accounts are prohibited for firm work.
• Confidentiality rule: no client information, privileged material, or file-identifying detail in any tool not approved for it.
• Verification: all AI-assisted research, drafting, and citations are verified by the responsible lawyer before use; no filing contains an unverified authority.
• Court compliance: the lawyer checks the AI directions of the court or tribunal before filing and complies with any attribution requirement.
• Client communication: when clients are told about AI use, how it is reflected in the retainer, and how consent is recorded where it matters.
• Fees: AI use does not inflate time entries, and AI-related disbursements are disclosed and reasonable.
• Supervision and training: who approves tools, how staff are trained, and how acknowledgments are collected.
• Incident reporting: what happens when confidential information reaches an unapproved tool or an AI error reaches a client or a court, with self-reporting encouraged.

Small firms and sole practitioners

The obligations do not scale down with firm size, but the document can. A sole practitioner's policy is one or two pages naming the tools in use, what may never go into them, the verification rule, what clients are told, and the court check. Written down, it is the evidence that AI was used with the competence and care the Law Society expects.

The fast path

Our generator produces a law firm AI policy with privilege and confidentiality clauses, mandatory verification of AI-generated authorities, Canadian privacy provisions, and Canadian spelling when you select Canada as your jurisdiction. Preview the full document free before paying. It is a self-help template rather than legal advice, and it does not replace your own reading of the Law Society's guidance.