AI Governance for Lawyers: Protecting Your Clients, Your Team and Your Firm
Wednesday 7th October, 2026
12pm - 1pm AEDT
1 x CPD point
Your team is already using AI. The question is whether your clients, your staff and your firm are protected while they do it.
Most firms arrived here the same way. One person tried a tool, it saved them an afternoon, and word spread. There was never a decision, so there was never a policy. That is fine right up until a client asks what you did with their information, a staff member pastes something they should not have, or your insurer asks what controls you had in place.
This session is about putting the sensible structure around AI use that you would put around anything else in the firm. Not a lecture on risk, and not a compliance exercise for its own sake. What good looks like for a firm your size, and how to get there in an afternoon rather than a quarter.
What's covered
- What AI governance actually means for a small firm, and the handful of things that genuinely matter
- Protecting client information: what should never go into a public AI tool, and how to make that a rule rather than a hope
- Protecting your team: giving staff clear permission and clear limits, so they are not guessing or hiding what they use
- Your existing obligations: what your professional conduct rules, confidentiality duties and supervision requirements already expect, with or without AI
- Industry guidelines and law society requirements, and how to check you are meeting them
- The paperwork that proves it: an AI use policy, a tool register, client disclosure wording and an incident log
- What is changing, including the 10 December 2026 privacy transparency obligation, and where it fits in the wider picture
- What to do when AI gets something wrong, and why the record you kept matters more than the mistake
Where this sits for lawyers: courts have set expectations about disclosing AI use, and the Australian matters involving AI fabricated citations have made clear what happens when nobody was checking. Your existing duties already cover most of this. The gap is usually that none of it is written down.
Who it is for: Partners, principals and practice managers who are responsible for what the firm does, not only for what they do themselves.
A note on scope: This session shows you what good governance looks like and gives you the structure to build it. Applying it to your own circumstances is a conversation with your own adviser.
When: Wednesday 7 October 2026, 12.00pm to 1.00pm AEDT, live online via Zoom.
Investment: $99 including GST. A recording is shared with everyone who registers, so you can still book if you cannot make it live.
This session may count towards your continuing professional development, please ensure it meets the requirements of your law society.
Disclaimer: This webinar is general in nature and does not constitute professional, legal, financial or technical advice. It is your responsibility to determine whether the content is safe and suitable for your own practice, including your privacy, confidentiality and data security obligations, and we recommend you seek professional IT or cybersecurity advice before adopting anything covered in this session.
