AI Use Policy Development
for Law Firms and Legal Organizations
A usable policy for the tools your attorneys and staff are already using.
VdVLaw helps law firms and legal organizations turn broad concerns about artificial intelligence into a clear operating policy. The finished policy identifies approved and prohibited tools, explains when client or matter information may be used, assigns decision-making responsibility, establishes staff rules, and creates a process for new tools, mistakes, departures, and vendor changes.
THE PROBLEM
“Use AI carefully” is not a policy.
A general warning does not tell an associate whether a browser extension is approved, whether a client name
may be entered into a commercial workspace, whether a meeting bot may join a client call,
or what to do after someone uses a personal account by mistake.
A useful policy must answer the operational questions:
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Which tools and account types are approved?
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What information may be entered?
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Who approves a new tool or matter use?
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What must never be uploaded?
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How are staff accounts created and removed?
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What happens when a mistake is discovered?
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Who checks whether the rules and vendor settings have changed?
The policy should match the firm's actual platforms, personnel, practice areas, data, and workflows. It should not be a generic document downloaded from somewhere that has never met the people expected to follow it.
CLEAR RULES FOR REAL LAW-FIRM USE
What the Policy Covers
1. Approved tools and accounts:
The policy identifies the commercial workspaces and legal-specific tools the firm has approved. It distinguishes firm-controlled commercial accounts from personal, free, trial, shared-login, and consumer accounts.
2. Client and matter information:
The policy establishes when names, documents, discovery, communications, medical information, protective-order material, and other matter information may be used. It also identifies categories requiring separate attorney review or authorization.
3. Staff responsibilities:
Attorneys, employees, contractors, investigators, experts, and other users receive practical rules covering account selection, source verification, sharing, public links, memory, connectors, browser extensions, mobile applications, and incident reporting.
4. Approved, restricted, and prohibited uses:
Some malpractice carriers are starting to ask. AI-use questions are beginning to appear on professional liability renewal applications. A dated configuration record and training log is something to hand over, not something to reconstruct from memory under a deadline.
5. New tools and features:
The policy establishes who may approve new AI tools, extensions, agents, meeting bots, connectors, and embedded features. Staff receive a legitimate request process rather than being left to create personal workarounds.
6. Mistakes and incident response:
The policy tells staff what to do after wrong-account use, an accidental upload, an unexpected permission grant, a public share link, an auto-joining meeting bot, or another suspected disclosure. The first instruction is to report the event promptly, not hide it or begin deleting evidence without direction.
7. Onboarding and offboarding:
The policy addresses individual accounts, least-privilege roles, multifactor authentication, training, acknowledgment, matter access, user departures, session revocation, file preservation, and license reassignment.
8. Review and recurring assurance:
The policy assigns a review schedule for user lists, settings, extensions, connected applications, meeting tools, vendor terms, and other new data paths.
MORE THAN A POLICY PARAGRAPH
What the Firm Receives
Depending on the agreed scope, the engagement may include:
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Firm-specific AI use policy
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Approved, restricted, and prohibited tool list
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Staff AI safety protocol
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Attorney and administrator responsibility chart
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Client-data and matter-authorization rules
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New-tool request and approval procedure
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Staff acknowledgment language
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Wrong-account and accidental-upload procedure
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Incident reporting form
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New-user and departing-user checklist
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Meeting transcription and browser-extension rules
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Periodic staff attestation language
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Monthly or quarterly policy-review schedule
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Attorney-review draft in editable Word format
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Final operational version after attorney approval
REVIEW. DECIDE. DRAFT. TEST. TRAIN. RE-CHECK.
How the Engagement Works
Step 1, Review the current environment:
VdVLaw inventories the tools, accounts, browser extensions, meeting bots, connected applications, devices, and existing written rules the firm currently uses.
Step 2, Identify the firm's decisions:
The responsible attorney determines the firm's legal, ethical, client-communication, protective-order, records-management, and matter-use positions.
Step 3, Build the operating rules:
VdVLaw converts those decisions into clear procedures addressing approved tools, staff conduct, client information, authorization, verification, sharing, retention, incidents, and new-tool review.
Step 4, Review with the attorney and administrator:
The draft is reviewed with the people responsible for legal supervision and day-to-day administration. Ambiguous rules are corrected before they reach staff.
Step 5, Train the users:
The firm may add staff training, demonstrations, acknowledgments, or new-hire orientation so the policy becomes an operating practice rather than another unread attachment.
Step 6, Review it regularly:
The firm can retain VdVLaw for AI Compliance Monitoring, the recurring platform-review service described on the AI Setup for Law Firms and Legal Organizations page. It checks for settings drift, new users, unapproved tools, browser extensions, connected applications, meeting bots, vendor changes, and needed policy updates.
Recurring Assurance
Ongoing policy enforcement runs through AI Compliance Monitoring, the same recurring service described on the AI Setup for Law Firms and Legal Organizations page, starting at $150 a month or $275 a quarter for the first platform. See that page for full current pricing, including additional-platform and additional-user rates.→
PRICING
Core Policy Services
Service
Price
Scope
Attorney-review AI policy templates
Included with platform setup
Business workspace, privacy controls, admin roles, closeout
AI Use Policy Decision Workshop
$600
A 90-minute attorney and administrator working session, current-use review, policy decision map, and written recommendations.
Customized AI Use Policy Development
Custom quote
Firm-specific drafting and revisions covering approved tools, client-data boundaries, staff rules, new-tool approval, incident response, onboarding, offboarding, training, and recurring review.
The pricing below is synchronized with VdVLaw's complete AI Setup Services Pricing Schedule. Every engagement begins with a written scope and quote.
Policy Pricing Boundary
The $600 workshop is a planning and decision-making engagement. It does not include a completed customized policy unless the written quote expressly includes drafting. Employment-policy integration, cybersecurity-policy revision, and implementation beyond the standard templates are separately scoped and quoted.
New-hire AI safety orientation
$125 per person
30 minutes.
Remote staff safety training
$350
Up to 10 people, 60 minutes.
On-site staff training
$650
Up to 20 people, 90 minutes. Travel included within El Dorado County and the greater Sacramento area, billed at cost outside that.
Expanded remote training with demonstrations and Q&A
$500
Up to 20 people, 90 minutes.
Training Service
Price
Scope
Optional Training
Justice Access pricing
Eligible court-appointed counsel, public defender and alternate defender offices, conflict-defense organizations, nonprofit legal-aid organizations, and qualifying public-interest practices receive a 25% reduction on policy workshops, customized policy development, ordinary training, platform setup, and AI Compliance Monitoring.
Vendor subscriptions, State Bar filing fees, mileage, lodging, third-party charges, and incident response are not discounted.
MCLE presentations follow the CLE Training page's own indigent defense rate, honorarium plus travel and materials only, rather than this 25% structure, since that rate is already more generous for that specific service.
WORKSHOPS
Workshop Topics
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Current AI use and known tools
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Approved and prohibited account types
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Client and matter-data boundaries
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Staff responsibilities
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New-tool approval
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Browser extensions and connected applications
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Meeting transcription
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Incident reporting
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Training and acknowledgment needs
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Recurring review responsibilities
"A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision."
– IBM training manual, 1979
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this included with AI workspace setup?
The setup includes attorney-review office-policy and staff-safety templates. A fully customized firmwide policy, policy workshop, or drafting process beyond those standard materials is a separate engagement.
Will VdVLaw decide what the firm's legal policy should be?
No. The responsible attorney makes the legal, ethical, professional-responsibility, client-consent, protective-order, privilege, employment, and records-management decisions. VdVLaw helps organize those decisions and translate them into a usable operational policy.
Can the policy allow client information in AI?
Potentially, when the firm has approved the exact commercial workspace, matter, purpose, users, information categories, and retention plan. The policy should not treat every AI tool or every matter as interchangeable.
Does the policy cover free AI tools?
Yes. It should clearly distinguish generic uses that may be permitted without client information from client or firm work that must occur only through approved firm-controlled systems.
Can you update an existing policy?
Yes. VdVLaw can review an existing technology, confidentiality, acceptable-use, employment, or information-security policy and prepare attorney-review revisions addressing current AI workflows.
How often should the policy be reviewed?
At least when the firm adds a platform, feature, connector, meeting tool, administrator, data source, or materially different use. AI Compliance Monitoring, described on the AI Setup page, provides that check on a monthly or quarterly schedule.
What does the recurring review actually include?
That's AI Compliance Monitoring, the same recurring service described on the AI Setup for Law Firms and Legal Organizations page, not a separate policy-specific check. See that page for full scope and current pricing.
VdVLaw is an attorney-directed legal support and technology-configuration service operated by Robert van der Vijver. VdVLaw is not a law firm, Robert van der Vijver is not an attorney, and neither provides legal advice. Services are performed for attorneys, law firms, legal departments, public agencies, and organizations under the direction of the responsible attorney. The responsible attorney retains all legal and professional-responsibility decisions, including client communication, informed consent, privilege, protective orders, regulated information, and whether particular information may be processed through an AI platform. Contacting VdVLaw does not create an attorney-client relationship. Platform names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. VdVLaw is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any AI vendor. Vendor plans, pricing, terms, features, and controls may change. The live vendor terms and the signed engagement documents control.