From Innovation To Negligence: The Promise And Peril Of Generative Artificial Intelligence In Legal Practice
- IJLLR Journal
- Mar 28
- 1 min read
Drishti Rao, B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), NLSIU, Bangalore
ABSTRACT
Generative Artificial Intelligence (Generative AI) is transforming legal practice, with its increasing integration across legal research, drafting, case analysis, strategy formulation, and client interaction reshaping how legal services are delivered. However, existing regulatory frameworks governing this integration remain largely suggestive in nature, creating a significant regulatory vacuum. This gap has given rise to serious ethical and professional concerns including fabricated citations, hallucinated legal references, lack of transparency, and the transfer of systemic AI biases into legal proceedings collectively undermining the integrity of legal institutions and public faith in the administration of justice. While several jurisdictions, including India, have begun developing guidelines, a comprehensive and enforceable regulatory framework remains largely absent. Through a comparative examination of international responses — including judicial standing orders and professional body guidelines from the United States and United Kingdom, and judicial guidelines from New Zealand, alongside an analysis of the Indian regulatory landscape, comprising Supreme Court directives and Bar Council Rules, this article identifies the collective inadequacy of existing frameworks. It further proposes mitigation measures spanning role delimitation, prompt engineering, human oversight, and client confidentiality safeguards — operable at both the individual and institutional level. The article ultimately argues that the responsible integration of Generative AI into legal practice demands clear, binding, and profession- specific regulatory standards.
Keywords: Generative Artificial Intelligence, Legal Practice, Regulatory Vacuum, Regulatory Framework, Hallucinated Legal References, Mitigation Measures
