Not while the document still identifies the client, unless you have a basis for that disclosure. The confidentiality duty covers all information about a client's business and affairs, whatever its source, and pasting into a service is a disclosure to whoever operates it. Regulators have said the duty reaches these tools rather than pausing for them.
The duty is broader than privilege
Privilege and confidentiality get conflated, and the difference matters here. The Federation of Law Societies of Canada's Model Code, at Rule 3.3-1, requires a lawyer to hold in strict confidence "all information concerning the business and affairs of a client acquired in the course of the professional relationship". That reaches far past privileged communications: it covers the client's identity, the existence of the retainer, and material you received from third parties.
The American analogue is Model Rule 1.6, which bars revealing information relating to the representation without informed consent, and separately requires reasonable efforts against inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure. Your own law society governs you, and the two are close enough that the analysis below travels.
Regulators have addressed these tools directly
This is not an area where the profession has stayed silent, and the guidance is consistent enough to plan around.
The American Bar Association's Formal Opinion 512 states that a lawyer using these tools must be "cognizant of the duty ... to keep confidential all information relating to the representation of a client, regardless of its source", and that before inputting such information a lawyer must evaluate the risk that it will be disclosed to or accessed by others outside the firm. The Law Society of British Columbia's guidance ties the same point back to the Code rule and asks lawyers to consider carefully what information needs to be supplied to the tool. The Law Society of Ontario's white paper puts it as a direction: licensees should not input confidential or privileged information without ensuring adequate security measures are in place.
None of them bans the category. All of them place the judgement, and the consequence, with the lawyer.
What actually needs the client in it?
Sorting the task before the paste is what turns an unanswerable question into a routine one. Most drafting work needs the shape of the problem rather than the identity of the party.
| Task | Needs the client identified? | Practical handling |
|---|---|---|
| Tightening prose in a draft you wrote | No | Cover names and identifiers; restore them in your own document. |
| Summarizing a long document you received | No | Cover parties and identifiers first; the structure survives. |
| Researching a legal question the file raises | No | Ask the question in the abstract, then verify the authority yourself. |
| Producing a clause or precedent skeleton | No | Write to the deal terms, not the parties. |
| Preparing correspondence to a named party | At the final step only | Draft it covered; add names in your own document. |
| Anything obtained on discovery | Treat as restricted | Undertakings on discovery material are their own analysis. |
Does client consent settle it?
Consent can make a disclosure permissible that otherwise would not be, and it does not do the rest of the work. It does not create an agreement with a vendor that has not signed one, it does not answer whether the amount you sent was necessary, and an informed consent means the client understood what was actually being sent and to whom.
The account you use matters as much as the permission you hold. Consumer plans are generally not covered by the kind of agreement an enterprise arrangement carries, and terms differ on whether inputs are retained or used to improve a model. Confirm the plan you are personally signed in to rather than the plan the vendor advertises.
When health records are in the file
Personal injury, employment, disability, and estates files routinely carry medical records, and that adds a second rulebook on top of the confidentiality duty. Under the American rules, a firm that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits protected health information for a covered entity meets the definition of a business associate in 45 CFR 160.103, which is a contractual relationship rather than something that attaches automatically. The practical effect is the same either way: a medical record pasted into an uncovered account is a disclosure you would have to justify twice.
A workable routine
- Decide what the task actually needs. Most need the content and not the parties.
- Cover names, addresses, identifiers, and file numbers before the prompt leaves your machine.
- Watch the detail that identifies without naming: a transaction date, a rare condition, an employer, a jurisdiction with few comparable matters.
- Verify every authority the tool gives you against the actual source before it reaches a filing.
- Keep the identified version in your own document management, not in the assistant.
Where PHI Mask fits
PHI Mask handles the covering step across the formats a file actually arrives in. Paste text, a screenshot, or a PDF, and it marks the names, dates, and identifiers it finds so you can take a covered copy to an assistant, a colleague, or an expert. One tool covers the pleading, the exhibit, and the screenshot of the portal.
The map between real values and their stand-ins stays in that browser tab, so the draft that comes back restores to the real parties in one step rather than being retyped into the file. Detection results by document type are published openly on the benchmark.
Review before sharing.
Start with text, a PDF, or a screenshot.
Sources and review notes
Reviewed against the Federation of Law Societies Model Code, the American Bar Association's opinion on generative AI tools, the Law Society of British Columbia's guidance, the Law Society of Ontario's white paper, and the current federal definitions. This page describes professional obligations in general terms and is not legal advice.
Common questions
- Is pasting a client document into ChatGPT a breach of confidentiality?
- It is a disclosure to whoever operates the service, so it needs a basis the way any other disclosure does. The duty covers all information about a client's business and affairs, not only privileged communications.
- Have law societies actually addressed generative AI?
- Yes. The American Bar Association, the Law Society of British Columbia, and the Law Society of Ontario have all published guidance, and each ties the existing confidentiality duty directly to these tools.
- Does client consent make it fine?
- Consent can make a disclosure permissible, but it does not create an agreement with a vendor, and it does not answer whether what you sent was necessary. Informed consent means the client understood what was sent and to whom.
- What if the file contains medical records?
- A second rulebook applies. A firm handling protected health information for a covered entity meets the business associate definition, so a medical record pasted into an uncovered account is a disclosure you would have to justify twice.
- Can I use an assistant for legal research?
- Yes, and verify every authority against the actual source before it reaches a filing. Asking the question in the abstract also avoids sending the file's identifying detail in the first place.